MONSTERS AND SUPERSTITIONS. 



707 



author might well have sufficed to prevent our credulous 

 ancestors from venturing into the gorges of the Alps or 



searching into their dark caverns ! 



335. Dragon of the Caverns ot Mount Pilatus. -Facsimile taken from tlie Mundas Sahtcr- 

 raneus of tlie Keverend Father Kirclier. 



Kircher the Jesuit, who was one of the most progres- 

 sive men of his epoch, fell into the most deploral:)lc errors. 

 He represents frightful drag.ms which guard the riches of 

 the earth, and which must be vanquished before obtain- 

 ing possession of them. And as we sometimes find in 



