ix.] THE TERRORS OF NATURE. 211 



become the prize of the victor. Such is tbe natural 

 man, the carnal man, the soulish man, the avfyvTros 

 ^VXIKOS of St. Paul, with five tolerably acute senses, 

 which are ruled by five very acute animal passions 

 hunger, sex, rage, vanity, fear. It is with the working 

 of the last passion, fear, that this lecture has to do. 



So the savage concludes that there must be a giant 

 living in the cliff, who threw stones at him, with evil 

 intent ; and he concludes in like wise concerning most 

 other natural phenomena. There is something in them 

 which will hurt him, and therefore likes to hurt him ; 

 and if he cannot destroy them, and so deliver himself, 

 his fear of them grows quite boundless. There are 

 hundreds of natural objects on which he learns to look 

 with the same eyes as the little boys of Teneriffe look 

 on the useless and poisonous Euphorbia canariensis. It 

 is to them according to Mr. Piazzi Smyth a demon 

 who would kill them, if it could only run after them ; 

 but as it cannot, they shout Spanish curses at it, 

 and pelt it with volleys of stones, <( screeching with 

 elfin joy, and using worse names than ever, when the 

 poisonous milk spurts out from its bruised stalks." 



And if such be the attitude of the uneducated man 

 towards the permanent terrors of nature, what will it 

 be towards those which are sudden and seemingly 

 capricious ? towards storms, earthquakes, floods, 

 blights, pestilences ? We know too well what it has 

 been one of blind, and therefore often cruel, fear. 

 How could it be otherwise ? Was Theophrastus's 

 superstitious man so very foolish for pouring oil on 

 every round stone ? I think there was a great deal to 

 be said for him. This worship of -Baetyli was rational 

 enough. They were aerolites, fallen from heaven. 



p 2 



