464 Influence of Sa;perstiiion on Growth of Institutions. [Feb. 5, 



false opinion ; and all systems of religion or philosophy which lay 

 more stress on right opinion than on right action, which exalt ortho- 

 doxy above virtue, are so far immoral and prejudicial to the interests 

 of mankind : they invert the true relative importance, the real ethical 

 value, of thought and action, for it is by what we do, not by what 

 we think, that we are useful or useless, beneficent or maleficent, to 

 our fellows. As a body of false opinions, superstition is indeed a most 

 dangerous guide in practice, and the evils which it has wrought are 

 incalculable. But vast as are these evils, they ought not to bhnd us 

 to the benefit which superstition has incidentally conferred on society 

 by furnishing the ignorant, the weak, and the foolish with a motive — 

 bad though it may be — for good conduct. It is a reed, a broken reed, 

 which has yet supported the steps of many a poor erring brother 

 who but for it might have stumbled and fallen. It is a light, a dim 

 and wavering light, which, if it has lured many a mariner on the 

 breakers, has yet guided some wanderers on life's troubled sea into a 

 haven of rest and peace. Once the harbour lights are passed and 

 the ship is in port, it matters little whether the pilot steered by a 

 jack-o'-lantern or by the stars. 



That, ladies and gentlemen, is my plea for Superstition. Per- 

 haps it might be urged in mitigation of the sentence which will be 

 passed on the hoary-headed offender when he stands at the judgment 

 bar. Yet the sentence, do not doul^t it, is death. But it will not be 

 executed in our time. There will l)e a long, long reprieve. It is as 

 his advocate, not as his executioner, that I have appeared before you 

 to-night. At Athens cases of murder were tried before the Areopagus 

 by night, and it is by night that I have spoken in defence of this 

 power of darkness. But it grows late, and with my sinister client I 

 must vanish before the cocks crow and the morning In-eaks grey in 

 the east. 



[J.G.F.] 



