CHAP. 10. OP SUPERSTITIONS. 251 



CHAPTER X. 



OP SEVERAL SUPERSTITIOUS NOTIONS WHICH 

 APPEAR TO HAVE HAD THEIR ORIGIN IN AN 

 OBSERVANCE OF CERTAIN METEOROLOGICAL 

 PHAENOMENA. 



A NATURAL tendency exists in the human 

 mind, arising from the mutual influence of the 

 different organs of the Brain, and the consequent 

 association of ideas, to attach notions of good or 

 evil to those objects which have been observed 

 to precede or to accompany pleasurable or pain- 

 ful circumstances : hence the origin of many 

 superstitious opinions.* 



From such association of ideas many animals 

 were anciently worshipped, either as gods or 

 evil spirits; and even at a later period, when 

 their worship was rejected as superstitious, or 

 useless, they were considered as foreboders of 



* In the figurative language of the ancients, facts were 

 often ascribed to contemporaneous remarkable circumstances ; 

 hence the influence of Procyon or Dog Days, the blustering 

 of the stormy Orion, and many others; see a Memoir Sur 

 1'Origine des Constellations et 1'Explication de la Fable, by 

 M. Dupuis. 



