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men were misled by idle traditions and foolish 

 legends, and put more trust in human dogmas and 

 authorities, than in the pure and simple precepts 

 of religion. It was then that the legitimate objects 

 of faith were hidden from the view ; the lamp of 

 religion burnt low, or her candle was, by heart- 

 less ceremonies, "set under a bushel ;" and the 

 intellect was darkened by barbarous fancies and 

 credulity. 



Mournful, indeed, is the recollection of the de- 

 grading and spirit-slaying superstitions which have, 

 at various periods, enslaved the human race ; and 

 yet none can earnestly examine them without feel- 

 ing conscious of the sterling value of the first feeling 

 from which they sprang. For as obstinacy is but 

 firmness, displayed in a bad cause, or with a want 

 of self-command ; so is superstition but faith, with- 

 out the teaching, and the light, which should direct 

 it, and centre it in its legitimate objects. We 

 grieve when we think of the dark superstitions of 

 the past ; and most of all when we see them, un- 

 happily, still lingering in the world ; when we see 

 men on whom the light of science, the rays of 

 expanding intellect, and, above all, the sun of the 

 Gospel, should have shone, yet groping darkly in 

 the shade, and believing tales which we only con- 

 nect with the period of the dark ages. Stern is 

 the assertion that the history of superstition is the 

 history of the human mind, but its sternness springs 

 from the truth; and though an unwillingness to 

 speak harsh things, and a too compromising tender- 

 ness for errors which are, in truth, but the offspring 



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