198 THE NATURAL HISTORY [LETT. 



more modern exhibiter of bees ; and we may justly say of 

 him now, 



- Thou, 



Had thy presiding star propitious shone, 

 Shouldst Wildman be 



When a tall youth he was removed from hence to a distant 

 village, where he died, as I understand, before he arrived at 

 manhood. 



SKLBORNE, Dec. 12, 1775. 



LETTER LXX. 



TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINOWN. 



IT is the hardest thing in the world to shake off superstitious 

 prejudices : they are sucked in, as it were, with our mother's 

 milk ; and, growing up with us at a time when they take the 

 fastest hold and make the most lasting impressions, become 

 so interwoven into our very constitutions, that the strongest 

 good sense is required to disengage ourselves from them. No 

 wonder, therefore, that the lower people retain them their whole 

 lives through, since their minds are not invigorated by a liberal 

 education, and therefore not enabled to make any efforts 

 adequate to the occasion. 



Sucli a preamble seems to be necessary before we enter on 

 tlie superstitions of this district, lest we should be suspected 

 of exaggeration in a recital of practices too gross for this en- 

 lightened age. 



But the people of Tring, in Hertfordshire, would do well to 

 remember, that no longer ago than the year 1751, and within 

 twenty miles of the capital, they seized on two superannuated 

 wretches, crazed with age, and overwhelmed with infirmities, on 

 a suspicion of witchcraft ; and, by trying experiments, drowned 

 them in a horse-pond. 



