424? SPECULATION ON ti HOSTS. 



has imagination been more alive to the supernatural, or more indus- 

 triously displayed in the careful preservation of their legendary tales, 

 delivered as they are from one generation to another through the aid 

 of no other medium than oral tradition. 



If we pass from the warm and cultivated regions of eastern mytho- 

 logy, and visit the cold and sterile districts of the north, we still dis- 

 cover the influence of superstition, holding, however, the imagination 

 of man in a more rigid grasp. The character of Druidical worship, 

 the immolation of human victims, the blood-rites that usually accom- 

 panied these religious ceremonies, together with those wild and 

 dreadful legends which guarded their sanctity, were sufficient to 

 stamp the disposition of those pagan tribes with every impression of 

 the terrible and wild. To this melancholy source we may trace that 

 veneration among the modern Germans for the marvellous, in all its 

 unrelenting and supernatural horrors, and which manifests itself in 

 all their romances and works of fancy, wherein the imagination is 

 left to revel without control. This mental thraldom to the credence 

 qf invisible agency, which prevailed with little variation in al] Europe, 

 was, during the dark ages of papal supremacy, carefully inculcated 

 by those spiritual guardians of men's consciences the priests, who 

 were well persuaded that there existed no domination over the mind 

 like that of superstition, and that, whilst they could exercise this 

 power, there was little to fear. But it must be confessed, from the 

 national constitution of our own country, this spiritual domination was 

 of a much milder and more attractive nature than that of other coun- 

 tries of the north. When we look back upon the days of chivalry 

 and romance, the baronial castle resounding with warlike prepara- 

 tions, we feel the association of monkish superstition, so inseparably in- 

 terwoven, that without it half their interest would be wanting. There 

 was scarcely a castle or old manor-house but had its traditionary 

 tale of wonder, and a family ghost seems to have been an indisputable 

 sign of aristocracy in the " good old times," Even in the present 

 day, who is there so free from a slight leaven of superstition that 

 does not, while traversing the silent aisles of some dismantled cathe^ 

 dral, or wandering round the ruins of the untenanted castle, but 

 feels a sensation, he knows not why, that compels him for the time to 

 yield to the popular belief, and to confess a veneration for all those 

 legendary marvels connected with the memory of days of yore. Say 

 what we will, even in our own matter-of-fact days, there is yet a 

 kindly yearning after the good old times and all its deeds of marvel 

 and horror. 



To come nearer, however, to what in this respect may be called 

 modern times. It is not long since when the interposition of super- 

 natural agency was a doctrine of almost universal belief. It was 

 even considered as a foundation for certain physical results ; for 

 Burton in his curious work entitled the " Anatomy of Melancholy," 

 in speaking of the causes of that malady, gravely produces witch* 

 craft as one, and learnedly sets to work in building a theory there- 

 upon ; for this, moreover, the most ample and salutary provisions are 

 afforded by our laws, by virtue of which the good and philosophic 

 Judge Hale piously condemned two, tried for witchcraft at the Bury 



