The Tragical in Nature 



WE are all superstitious, and it is a fact not 

 to be ashamed of. Superstition is an 

 adumbration of religion — though not 

 infrequently the shadow falls the other way. It is 

 not the fact of superstition, but its character, which 

 may be the source of terror and misery. It is when 

 we fill the darkness and the unknown with malevo- 

 lence, cruelty, hate, selfishness, and deify other 

 ferocious passions, that we produce a baleful super- 

 stition. Superstition came into being in the woods, 

 and there, in her original amiability, she is still 

 dwelling. What starts and thrills along the nerves 

 she sends by her weird sounds and her ghostly 

 shapes! What omens there are in yonder black 

 ravine, into which sifts just enough of the rays of 

 the full moon to set off the darkness ! If you should 

 have to cross it alone you would descend all ready 

 and expectant of a fright; but the innocent and 

 honest brook, dancing and laughing along like a 

 pure little child, makes you smile at your fears. 



Tragical superstitions are inherited memories of 

 real tragedies. For example, fear of the darkness 

 is an inherited memory of the time when rapacious 

 beasts were abroad at night, and men were in dan- 



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