try deficient in examples of this kind: The belief attached to the doctrine of witchcraft, led our ancestors, little more than a century ago, to condemn and to burn at the stake hundreds of unhappy women, accused of crimes of which they could not possibly have been guilty.* In New England, about the year 1692, a witchcraft phrensy rose to such excess as to produce commotions and calamities more dreadful than the scourge of war or the destroying pestilence. There lived in the town of Salem, in that country, two young women, who were subject to convulsions, accompanied with extraordinary symptoms. Their father, a minister of the church, supposing they were bewitched, cast his suspicions upon an Indian girl, who lived in the house, whom he compelled, by harsh treatment, to confess that she was a witch. Other women, on hearing this, immediately believed that the convulsions, which proceeded only from the nature of their sex, were owing to the same cause. Three citizens, casually named, were immediately thrown into prison, accused of witchcraft, hanged, and their bodies left exposed to wild beasts and birds of prey. A few days after, sixteen other persons, together with a counsellor, who, because he refused to plead against them, was supposed to share in their guilt, suffered in the same manner. From this instant, the imagination of the multitude was inflamed with these horrid and gloomy scenes. Children of ten years of age were put to death, young girls were stripped naked, and the marks of witchcraft searched for upon their bodies with the most indecent curiosity; and those spots of the scurvy which age impresses upon the bodies of old men, were taken for evident signs of infernal power. In default of these, torments were employed to extort confessions, dictated by the executioners themselves. For such fancied crimes, the offspring of superstition alone, they were imprisoned, tortured, murdered, and their bodies devoured by the beasts of prey. If the magistrates, tired out with executions, refused to punish, they were themselves accused of the crimes they tolerated; the very ministers of religion raised false witnesses against them, who made them forfeit with their lives the tardy remorse excited in them by humanity. Dreams, apparitions, terror, and consternation of every kind, increased these prodigies of folly and horror. The prisons were filled, the gibbets left standing, and

The Scots appear to have displayed a more than ordinary zeal against witches, and it is said that more deranged old women were condemned for this Imaginary crime in Scotland, than in any other country. So late as 1722, a poor woman was burned for Scotland. A variety of curious particulars in relation to the trials of witches, may be seen in Pitcairn's "Criminal Trials, and other proceedings before the High Court of Justiciary in Scotland."-. Part II. lately published. See also Appendix, No. V.

witchcraft, which was among the last executions in

all the citizens involved in gloomy apprehen sions. So that superstitious notions, so far from being innocent and harmless speculations, lead to the most deplorable results, and therefore ought to be undermined and eradicated by every one who wishes to promote the happiness and the good order of general society.

Such, then, is the evil we find existing among mankind-false opinions, which produce vain fears, which debase the understanding, exhibit distorted views of the Deity, and lead to deeds of cruelty and injustice. Let us now consider the remedy to be applied for its removal.

I have all along taken it for granted, that ignorance of the laws and economy of nature is the great source of the absurd opinions to which I have adverted,-a position which, I presume, will not be called in question. For such opinions cannot be deduced from an attentive survey of the phenomena of nature, or from an induction of well-authenticated facts; and they are equally repugnant to the dictates of revelation. Nay, so far are they from having any foundation in nature or experience, that in proportion as we advance in our researches into Nature's economy and laws, in the same proportion we perceive their futility and absurdity. As in most other cases, so in this, a knowledge of the cause of the evil leads to the proper remedy. Let us take away the cause, and the effect of course will be removed. Let the exercise of the rational faculties be directed into a proper channel, and the mind furnished with a few fundamental and incontrovertible principles of reasoning-let the proper sources of information be laid open-let striking and interesting facts be presented to view, and a taste for rational investigation be encouraged and promoted-let habits of accurate observation be induced, and the mind directed to draw proper conclusions from the various objects which present themselves to view,—and then we may confidently expect, that superstitious opinions, with all their usual accompaniments, will gradually evanish, as the shades of night before the rising sun.

But here it may be inquired, What kind of knowledge is it that will produce this effect? It is not merely an acquaintance with a number of dead languages, with Roman and Grecian antiquities, with the subtleties of metaphysics, with pagan mythology, with politics or poetry: these, however important in other points of view, will not, in the present case, produce the desired effect; for we have already seen, that many who were conversant in such subjects were not proof against the admission of superstitious opinions. In order to produce the desired effect, the mind must be directed to the study of material nature, to contemplate the various appearances it presents, and to mark the uniform results of those invariable laws by which

modern science, and who yet remains the slave of superstitious notions and vain fears? Of all the philosophers in Europe, is there one who is alarmed at an eclipse, at a comet, at an ignis fatuus, or the notes of a death-watch, or who postpones his experiments on account of what is called an unlucky day? Did we ever hear of a spectre appearing to such a person, dragging him from bed at the dead hour of midnight to wander through the forest trembling with fear? No: such beings appear only to the ignorant and illiterate; and we never heard of their appearito any one who did not previously be lieve their existence. But why should philosophers be freed from such terrific visions, if substantial knowledge had not the power of banishing them from the mind? Why should supernatural beings feel so shy in conversing with men of science? They would be the fittest persons to whom they might impart their secrets, and communicate information respecting the invisible world, but it never falls to their lot to be favoured with such visits. Therefore, it may be concluded, that the diffusion of useful knowledge would infallibly dissipate those groundless fears which have so long disturbed the happiness particularly of the lower orders of mankind.*

It forms no objection to what has been now stated, that the late Dr. Samuel Johnson believed in the existence of ghosts, and in the second sight: for, with all his vast acquirements in literature, he was ignorant of natural science, and even attempted to ridicule the study of natural philosophy and astronomy-the principal subjects which have the most powerful tendency to dissipate such notions,-as may be seen in No. 24 of his "Rambler;" where he endeavours to give force to his ridicule by exhibiting the oddities of an imaginary pretender to these sciences. He talks of men of science "lavishing their hours in calculating the weight of the terraqueous globe, or in adjusting systems of worlds beyond the reach of the telescope ;" and adds, that "it was the greatest praise of So

It would be unfair to infer from any expressions here used, that the author denies the possibility of supernatural visions and appearances. We are assured, from the records of Sacred History, that beings of an order superior to the human race, have "at sundry times, and in divers manners," made their appearance to men. But there is the most marked difference between vulgar apparitions, and the celestial messengers to which the records of Revelation refer. They appeared, not to old women and clowns, but to patriarchs, prophets, and apostles. They appeared, not to frighten the timid, and to create unnecessary alarm, but to declare "tidings of great joy." They appeared, not to reveal such paltry secrets as the place where a pot of gold or silver is concealed, or where a lost ring may be found, but to communicate intelligence worthy of God to reveal, and of the utmost importance for man to receive. In these, and many other respects, there is the most striking contrast between popular ghosts, and the supernatural communications and appearances recorded in Scripture.

crates, that he drew the wits of Greece from the vain pursuit of natural philosophy to moral inquiries, and turned their thoughts from stare and tides, and matter and motion, upon the va rious modes of virtue and relations of life." His opinions and conduct, therefore, can only be considered as an additional proof of the propriety of the sentiments above expressed.

Nor should it be considered as a thing impracticable to instruct the great body of mankind in the subiects to which I have alluded. Every man possessed of what is called common sense, is capable of acquiring all the information requisite for the purpose in view, even without infringing on the time allotted for his daily labours, provided his attention be once thoroughly directed to its acquisition, and proper means used to promote his instruction. It is not intended that all men should be made profound mathematicians and philosophers; nor is it necessary, in order to eradicate false opinions, and to enlarge and elevate the mind. A general view of useful knowledge is all that is necessary for the great mass of mankind; and would certainly be incomparably preferable to that gross ignorance, and those grovelling dispositions, which so generally prevail among the inferior ranks of society. And, to acquire such a degree of rational information, requires only that a taste for it, and an eager desire for acquiring it, be excited in the mind. If this were attained, I am bold to affirm, that the acquisition of such information may be made by any person who is capable of learning a common mechanical employment, and will cost him less trouble and expense than are requisite to a schoolboy for acquiring the elements of the Latin tongue.

To conclude this branch of the subject:Since it appears that ignorance produces superstition, and superstitious notions engender vain fears and distorted views of the government of the Almighty, since all fear is in itself painful, and, when it conduces not to safety, is painful without use, every consideration and every scheme by which groundless terrors may be removed, and just conceptions of the moral attributes of the Deity promoted, must diminish the sum of human misery, and add something to human happiness. If therefore the acquisition of useful knowledge respecting the laws and the economy of the universe would produce this effect, the more extensively such information is propagated, the more happiness will be diffused among mankind.

SECTION II.

ON THE UTILITY OF KNOWLEDGE IN PREVENTING DISEASES AND FATAL ACCIDENTS.

IT is a conclusion which has been deduced from long experience, "that mankind in their

opinions and conduct are apt to run from one extreme to another." We have already seen, that, in consequence of false conceptions of the Deity, and of his arrangements in the economy of nature, the minds of multitudes have been alarmed by the most unfounded apprehensions, and have been "in great fear where no fear was." On the other hand, from a similar cause, many have run heedlessly into danger and destruction, when a slight acquaintance with the powers of nature, and the laws of their operation, would have pointed out the road to safety. This leads me to the illustration of another advantage which would be derived from a general diffusion of knowledge,-namely,

That it would tend to prevent many of those diseases and fatal accidents which flow from ignorance of the laws which govern the operations of

nature.

There are, indeed, several accidents to which mankind are exposed, which no human wisdom can foresee or prevent. Being furnished with faculties of a limited nature, and placed in the midst of a scene where so many powerful and complicated causes are in constant operation, we are sometimes exposed, all on a sudden, to the action of destructive causes, of which we were ignorant, or over which we have no control. Even although we could foresee a pestilence, a famine, an earthquake, an inundation, or the eruption of a volcano, we could not altogether prevent the calamities which generally flow from their destructive ravages. But, at the same time, it may be affirmed with truth, that a great proportion of the physical evils and accidents to which the human race is liable, are the effects of a culpable ignorance, and might be effectually prevented, were useful knowledge more extensively diffused. But it unfortunately happens, in almost every instance, that the persons who are exposed to the accidents to which I allude, are ignorant of the means requisite for averting the danger. To illustrate this point, I shall select a few examples, and shall intersperse a few hints and maxims for the consideration of those whom it may concern.

The first class of accidents to which I shall advert, comprises those which have happened from ignorance of the nature and properties of the different gases, and of the noxious effects which some of them produce on the functions of animal life.

We have frequently read in newspapers and magazines, and some of us have witnessed, such accidents as the following:-A man descends into a deep well, which had for some time been shut up. When he has gone down a considerable way he suddenly lets go his hold of the rope or ladder by which he descends, and drops to the bottom in a state of insensibility, devoid of utterance, and unable to point out the cause of his disaster. Another hastily follows him,

to ascertain the cause, and to afford him assistance; but by the time he arrives at the same depth he shares the same fate. A third person, after some hesitation, descends with more cautious steps. But he soon begins to feel a certain degree of giddiness, and makes haste to ascend, or is drawn up by assistants. In the mean time, the unhappy persons at the bottom of the well are frequently left to remain so long in a state of suspended animation, that all means of restoration prove abortive; and the cause of the disaster remains a mystery, till some medical gentleman, or other person of intelligence, be made acquainted with the circumstances of the accident. Similar accidents, owing to the same cause, have happened to persons who have incautiously descended into brewers' vats, or who have entered precipitately into wine cellars and vaults, which had been long shut up from the external air, and where the process of fermentation was going on: They have been suddenly struck down, as by a flash of lightning; and, in some instances the vital spark has been completely extinguished. Many instances, too, could be produced, of workmen, who have in cautiously laid themselves down to sleep in the neighbourhood of lime-kilns where they were employed, having, in a short time, slept the sleep of death. The burning of charcoal in close apartments has also proved fatal to many; more especially when they have retired to rest in such apartments, while the charcoal was burning, and before the rooms had received a thorough ventilation.

Numerous are the instances in which accidents have happened, in the circumstances now stated, and which are still frequently recurring; all which might have been prevented had the following facts been generally known and attended to:-That there exists a certain species of air, termed fixed air, or carbonic acid gas, which instantly extinguishes flame, and is de structive to animal life; that it is found in con siderable quantities in places which have been shut up from the external atmosphere,—as in old wells, pits, caverns, and close vaults; that it is copiously produced during the fermentation of liquors in brewers' vats, where it hovers above the surface of the liquor; in cellars where wine and malt-liquors are kept; and by the burning of lime and charcoal; and, that being nearly twice as heavy as common air, it sinks to the bottom of the place where it is produced. The following plain hints are therefore all that is requisite to be attended to, in order to prevent the recurrence of such disasters. Previous to entering a well or pit which has been long secluded from the external air, let a lighted candle or taper be sent down; if it continues to burn at the bottom there is no danger, for air that will support flame, without an explosion, will also support animal life; but, should the taper be