CLASS 111. 1. 2. 7. OF VOLITION. 315 



when taken into foreign service frequently to desert from this 

 cause, and especially after hearing or singing a particular tune, 

 which was used in their village dances, in their native country, 

 on which account the playing or singing this tune was forbid by 

 the punishment of death. Zwingerus. 



Dear is that shed to which his soul conforms, 

 And dear that hill, which lifts him to the storms. 



GOLDSMITH. 



Spes religiosa. Superstitious hope. This maniacal hallu- 

 cination in its milder state produces, like sentimental love, an 

 agreeable reverie; but when joined with works of supereroga- 

 tion, it has occasioned many enormities. In India devotees con- 

 sign themselves by vows to most painful and unceasing tortures, 

 such as holding up iheir hands, till they cannot retract them; 

 hanging up by hooks put into the thick skin over their shoulders, 

 sittiug upon sharp points, and other self torments. While in 

 our part of the globe, fasting and mortification, as flagellation, 

 has been believed to please a merciful Deity! The serenity with 

 which many have suffered cruel martyrdoms, is to be ascribed 

 to this powerful reverie. 



Mr. , a clergyman, formerly of this neighbourhood, be- 

 gan to bruise and wound himself for the sake of religious morti- 

 fication, and passed much time in prayer, and continued whole 

 nights alone in the church. As he had a wife and family of small 

 children, I believed the case to be incurable; as otherwise the^ 

 affection and employment in his family connections would have 

 opposed the beginning of this insanity. He was taken to a mad- 

 house without effect; and after he returned home, continued to 

 beat and bruise himself, and by this kind of mortification, and 

 by sometimes long fasting, he at length became emaciated and 

 died. I once told him in conversation, that, " God was a merci- 

 ful being, and could not delight in cruelty; but that I supposed 

 he worshipped the devil. " He was struck with this idea, and 

 promised me not to beat himself for three days, and I believe kept 

 his word for one day. If this idea had been frequently forced 

 on his mind, it might probably have been of service. 



When these works of supererogation have been of a public 

 nature, what cruelties, murders, massacres, has not this insanity 

 introduced into the world! A commander, who had been very 

 active in leading and encouraging the bloody deeds of St. Bar- 

 tholomew's day at Paris, on confessing his sins to a worthy ec- 

 clesiastic on his death-bed, was asked, " Have you nothing to 

 say about St. Bartholomew ?" " On that day," he replied, " God 



