Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1869-08-04
CLASSIC SUPERSTITIONS
Reverence of the Ancient Romans for
the Supernatural.


Wheu Lucretius sought to Danish the su
pernstrlral from the universe, he was COM
PEELED to employ much ingenuity IN en-
deavoring to explain, by a natural law, why
a miraculous fountain near the temple OF
Jupiter Ammon was hot by night and cold
by day, and why the temperature OF wells
is higher in winter than IN
summer. Eelipses are supposed by
the populace to foreshadow calam-
ity; but the Roman soldiers believed
that by beating drums and cymbals they
could cause the moon IS disc to regain Its
brightness. In obedience to dreams, the
great Emperor Augustus went begging
money through the streets of Rome,
and the historian who records the
act himself wrote to Pliny, entreating the
postponment of the trial. Phe
stroke of lightning was an augury and its
menace was directed especially against the
great who covered in abject terror during
a thunderstorm. Augustus used to guard
himself against thunder by wearing the skin
of the sea-calf. Tiberius who professed to
be complete free thinker, had great faith
in laurel leaves. Caligula was accustomed,
during thunderstorm, to creep beneath
his bed. During the games in honor of
julius Caesar, a comet appearing for seven
days in the sky, the people believed it to
be the soul of the dead, and a temple was
erected in its honor. Sometimes we find
this credulty broken by curious 1nconsis-
tencies of belief or explanations. Livy, who
relates with perfect faith innumerable
prodigies, has observed nevertheless, that
the more prodigies are believed, the more
are announced. Those who admitted most
fully the reality of the oracles occasionally
represented them as natural, contendlng
that prophetic faculty was innate in all
men, though dormant in most; that 1t
might be quickened into action by sleep,
by pure and ascetic life, or in the prostra-
ton that proceeds DEATH or in the delerium
produced by certain vapors; and they
added, that the gradual enfeebling of the
last was the cause of q cessation OF
oracles. Earthquakes were believed to
result from supernatural interposl-
tons, and to call for expiatory
sacrifices, but at the same time they had dl-
rect natural antecedents. The Greeks be-
heved that they were caused by subterran-
can waters, and they accordingly sacri-
feed to Poseidon. The Romans were un-
certain as to their physical antecedents,
and therefore inscribed no name on the
altar of expiation. Pythagoras is said to
have attributed them to the strugglings of
Uu6 uSdus AllyJ dlUeI ~ lung uloCunoloh,
decided that they were produced by the
air forcing itself through the issures of the
earth, but he Immediately proceeds
to assert that they are invariably
the precursors of calamity. The
same writer, having recounted the triumphs
of astronomers in predicting and explain
ing eclipses, bursts into an eloquent apos-
trophe to those great men who had thus
reclaimed man from the dominion of su-
perstition, and in high and enthusiastic
terms urges them to pursue still further
their labor in breaking the thraldom of ig-
norance. A few chapters later he processes
his unhesitating belief in the ominous
character of comets. The notions too, of
magic and astrology were detached from
all theological belief, and might be found
among many who were absolute atheists -
" r. H. Lee5rL