190 NATURAL HISTORY 



better, and directed to the same object, he had perhaps abated 

 much of our wonder at the feats of a more modern exhibitor 

 of bees ; and we may justly say of him now, 



_ _ Thou, 



<c Had thy presiding star propitious shone, 

 Should'st 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. 



I am, &c. 



LETTER XXVIII. 



TO THE SAME. 



Selborne, Jan. 8, 1776. 



DEAR SIR, 



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. 



Such a preamble seems to be necessary before we enter on 

 the 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. 



