LESSON XXIII. 



ON THE IGNIS FATUUS. 



-A wand'ring fire 



"Compact of unctuous vapour, which the night 

 Condenses, and the cold environs round, 

 Kindled through agitation to a flame, 

 (Which oft, they sa>, some evil spirit attends,) 

 Hovering, aud blazing with delusive light, 

 Misleads th' amaz'd night-wanderer from his way 

 Through bogs and mire. MILTOV 



1 OO numerous by far are the stones of ghosts 

 and apparitions, hobgoblins and spectres, which 

 are handed down from one generation to another, 

 by the great vvtakness and folly of some parents 

 and nurses, who?e whole in'ention, one would 

 imagine, is to make tueir children chiefly suscepti- 

 ble of the impn sions of fear. When we consider 

 how difficult it is to eradicate prejt.d cts which 

 were imbibed in th Idhood, we shall not be greatly 

 surprized at the avidity with which tales of the 

 mischievous feats performed by Jack o' Lanterns, 

 and Will u 1th a Wisps, are swallowed, even by up- 

 grown people, of mature judgment in otb. r con- 

 cerns. For instance, a child njay have been told 

 by his father, that once, when he was going over a 

 piece of marihy land in a dark night, he was sud- 

 denly 



