234 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Having discarded the ghostology of olden times, many people, and 

 amonsi these some men and women of considerable culture, Lave set 

 up for themselves a novel system of intercourse with the unknown 

 world. Brownies and fairies, with all the fine romance that surrounds 

 the history of their doings among human folks, are dismissed with 

 contempt. Spiritualism has swept all these ethereal puppets off the 

 hoards of ordinary life. To substitute w r hat ? We might at least 

 look for an improved exhibition and more interesting " characters ;" 

 but the truth is, that nothing could be less satisfactory than the mod- 

 ern attempt at demon-craft. There is something so clumsy and in- 

 artistic in the whole get-up of the "spiritual" drama, that it is less 

 surprising to find it very generally scouted than to see it obtain even 

 a partial notoriety. 



Ignorance is the parent of superstition, without a doubt ; and the 

 one never exists apart from the other. There is, however, a second 

 wise saw that tells a great deal of the truth about the origin of that 

 world-old bugbear of the human mind, namely, " The w T ish is father 

 to the thought." What we strongly desire to be, we are next door to 

 believing to be. The appetite of man's vanity is unappeasable, and 

 in catering for it his fancy plays tricks with his reason. He longs for 

 intercommunion with the unknown, and indulges the wish by creating 

 fictitious agents for that purpose. Tokens, signs, omens, and auguries, 

 are also outgrowths of the various forms of desire and vanity. We 

 believe we shall have luck if we turn the money in our pocket when 

 looking at new moon. Men have waited in all ages for the appear- 

 ance of some favorable sign before beginning any enterprise of im- 

 portance. If the sun shines on our wedding-day, how auspicious ! 

 Palpably in each case because we desire these things to be ! But hav- 

 ing set up omens with such an object, we, in the cleft-stick of our own 

 superstition, are bound to believe their absence, or converse, the fore- 

 shadowers of evil. 



In many ways modern credulity frees itself from such mechanical 

 trammels as those we have mentioned, to take a form and complexion 

 from the age, losing meanwhile not one jot of its vigor. To dream 

 three times of a hidden treasure and set about, Whang-the-Miller-like, 

 to lay bare the foundations of one's house, is an exploit not to be 

 thought of by the veriest wiseacre of our day; but the desire to ob- 

 tain wealth easily and rapidly being, if anything, more active and 

 rampant, the belief in some magical means for attaining it is the most 

 natural thing in the world. An El Dorado is required, and lo ! an El 

 Dorado is implicitly thought to exist. The projectors of a bogus com- 

 pany for " utilizing the clippings of old moons," or " extracting starch 

 from granite chips," are the good fairies whom by propitiating with 

 a portion of our substance we hope to enlist in our behalf, and obtain 

 a thousand-fold return. Where such a superstition exists, and it is 

 broadcast, any scheme, however absurd, any swindle, no matter how 



