CHAP. 10. SUPERSTITIONS. 271 



conversed, seem to regard it as some waterspout, 

 or else a cloud reflected in the mist, or some 

 other atmospherical phantom, which the super- 

 stitious imaginations of the sailors have con- 

 verted into a ship, and attached thereto the 

 above fable, as well as many other remarkable 

 histories. Those peculiar refractions, whereby 

 the hulks of distant vessels appear elongated, 

 are well known, as is the elevation of the coast 

 seen from the sea, and the Fata Morgana. 



Numerous other similar errors of reason might 

 be added, were it necessary to confirm the 

 unlucky devotee of fable and fancy, who is 

 cursed for walking under a ladder, or toward 

 whom the salt fell on a Friday, that he is per- 

 verting physical truths by his own disturbed 

 imagination. The idle tales about Pandora and 

 about Fortune, and many others, are referable 

 to a physical origin. Idleness too, is a great 

 propagator of superstition. The love of su- 

 pernaturality, anxiousness, and mystic feelings 

 of some persons, viewing the great uncertainty 

 of future events, and the casualties of life, 

 render them more disposed to trust to their stars 

 than to their wits, and they content themselves 

 with praying to the fickle Goddess not to crush 

 their fabric, and, like Horace of old, sing 



