FAITH AND CREDULITY 73 



mountain. Here we have a case of credulity run- 

 ning into superstition, belief in the interference of 

 the supernatural where proof or disproof was easy. 



I lately read in the autobiography of the Italian 

 sculptor, Dupr^, an incident which affords a similar 

 illustration. Dupr6 was an excellent man and a 

 great artist, but he was not above superstition, as 

 few of us are. He was driving one day down a 

 steep, rugged mountain road, accompanied by his 

 wife, when he distinctly heard the words, " Stop, 

 stop ! " As he continued, the words were repeated, 

 and so impressed both himself and wife that he did 

 stop and look about him, and called out to his sup- 

 posed challenger. Seeing and hearing nothing more, 

 he drove on, when " Stop, stop, stop ! " again rang 

 out from some place near them. Then he again 

 stopped, and, much impressed and even alarmed, he 

 and his wife both got out of the carriage, when he 

 discovered that the linchpin that held one of the 

 hind wheels was gone, and that the wheel was far 

 bent over and just ready to drop off, and thus en- 

 danger the lives of the occupants. The pious artist 

 was deeply impressed, and evidently regarded the 

 warning voice as providential. But a little investi- 

 gation would doubtless have dispelled the delusion. 

 Probably if he had started up his horses after he 

 and his wife left the carriage, he would have dis- 

 covered the source of the voice in the squeaking 

 wheel. Whenever he had stopped the voice had 

 stopped ; the moment he started the cry began. 



How full history, especially the religious history 



