314 NETHER LOCHABER. 



best acquainted, in particular, would be at all so religious and 

 devout a people as they are confessedly allowed to be, were it 

 not for the substratum of superstition that underlies their better 

 founded beliefs and religious aspirations. Constantly en rapport 

 with the supernatural and the unseen, they are more disposed than 

 they might otherwise be to believe in and shape the conduct of 

 their daily lives in accordance with the doctrine of a future world, 

 with its rewards and punishments, feeling and acknowledging 

 in a very remarkable manner, even through the medium of their 

 superstitions — if erroneous, yet not always degrading — the full 

 force and meaning of what the apostle speaks of in a general way 

 as " the powers of the world to come." An interesting paper might 

 be written in support of the theory here indicated, a theory that 

 to some may seem a paradox, but meanwhile it must lie over for 

 some more fitting occasion. Such a task requires time ; for of all 

 the delicate tasks that the philosophic mind can concern itself with, 

 the most delicate is the endeavour to discover and recognise the 

 spirit of good things in things evil, and of reason in things un- 

 reasonable. Meanwhile, it is the truth, account for it as we may, 

 that notwithstanding the multiplication of ministers and churches, 

 schoolmasters and school boards, " Increase of Episcopate " Bill, 

 and all the rest of it, there is still a lively undercurrent of super- 

 stition amongst our people, do what you can to stamp it out or 

 otherwise ; and that those who believe in it most implicitly are 

 by no means the worst people either. An example of a very 

 common superstition is the f oUovdng : — A few evenings ago, at an 

 accidental gathering of some half-dozen families in a house in our 

 neighbourhood, the subjoined conversation took place with regard 

 to a recent death in the parish. Mrs. B. — " I suppose you have 

 all heard of the death of X. L., poor fellow. It was reported he 

 was better yesterday, but I knew last night that I should hear 

 of a death some time to-day, and knowing of no one else at present 



