The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1880-01-10
SELECT LITERATURE.
A TRIAD OF SUPERSTITIONS.

StpNlStit!oii d SJlU vi utlOlOuS latin Ill
which has been, as it were, imbibed with
the first food we took. We have all an
abiding faith in the infinite possibilities
of the race, and one result of this is that
we are always on the watch, as it were.
in sort of dazed, helpless way, for some
new manifestation of hidden forces and
powers. Then, again, we have always a
kind of half-fledged consciousness that
we are part of the natural world, and
it of lis. And this sense of kinship
haunts us so that there is always in us
sort of fearful looking forward for new
and unknown correspondence. We are
like man with an infinite number of
country COUSINS who lives from day to
day never knowing when the next lot of
relations will arrive to announce and
prove their relationship, deposit their
baggage in his hall, and take up their
residence with him as an integral part of
| his family. Who is there of us who
would not rather break a valuable cup
than mirror? How many do not
| mourn, with an underlined sense of fear,
the broken window-pane through which
an owl suddenly made an entrance into
our chamber? and how many would not
think less of overturning cup of coffee
on the snowy damask at dinner than of
upsetting the clearly salt &? Of course
we all know there is absolutely nothing
in these old superstitons, and yet down
in the darkest corner of the farthest
| closet of our CONSCIOUSNESS We all ac
knowledge to n feeling that possibly
| there may be.
There is also another class of supersti-
| tons borne down to us from the Grabbed
times of our Puritan ancestry which |
fancy we shall also somewhat shame
facedly own. They were the daily
maxims which formed part of the
teaching in every genuine New England
home, and their permanance as 4 part of
our mental constitution is an encourag
ing circumstances to educators who
sometimes are inclined to think that.
even line upon line and precept upon
precept fail to make their impression
upon the Maynard mind of youth To
| remove this fear, we stand as living
monuments boldly avowing, first, that
we find it constantly difficult to convince
oursclves-though our reason tells us
that we are absurd-that it is not
moral duty to rise before, or at least
with, the sun. Day by day, as we de-
scend to our eight-o clock or nine o clock
breakfast, we are conscious of a certain
sense of moral turpitude which we know
| to be unreasonable. 1t is in the effort to
| shake of this sense, which is only the
remnant of an old superstition that !
| write. The general axioms on the subject
of carly rising, which helped to make the
| New England Primer and the Farmers
Almanac never failing source of sup
| pused improvements, and which were
afterward accommodated by Franklin, do
not apply to the present day nor to city
life. What is gained even for useful
work by rising at six, and then being
| obliged to take nap i'll the middle of
the day? Why not do up all our sleep
ing at once, and have q clear sweep
for work? If, again, one could carefully
rake up and cover the embers of his fir
at nine p. NJ. and sleep the sleep of
righteous till six, he might possibly ri
at six, or even five, though why, even
that case, any sane~person should insist
on doing two hours work before eating,
and call such action virtue, l could never
understand. Circumstances alter rules
as well as cases, which is what we of
Puritan stock find it hard to understand.
| myself know two young women of New
England birth and training who, though
they 90 into much evening society, and
are frequently awake at midnight or
after, each week during the New York
Winter, yet persists in being punctual
every morning at the half-past-seven
breakfast of the family. True, they
have no appetites; true, they break down
every year by March; yet they gallantly
return to the assault every Autumn, and
would feel ashamed and guilty if til
did otherwise. So strong is the force, !
superstition! Sc
In the future more perfect days it Nj
be considered sin to awake any>hec.
from sleep except in case of lifeC,,
death, and our grandchildren may>,,.S'
haps be free from the inherited weakness
of believing. because the flowers and the
chickens and birds wake when the sun
does. that therefore human being should
do SO. BY what logic do we select the
one action Of walking as suitable for our
imitation? The belief in early rising as
any thing except as DEADLY virtue is
the first superstition. Another, for
which our New England ancestry are
also indirectly responsible, is that ex-
pressed in the famous lines
"Satan finds some mischief still
| For idle hands to do"
In the language of the old Scotchman
lit will be of the Lords mercy" if the
pernicious effect of this doctrine does not
annihilate the American nation before it
has had fairly 4 chance to demonstrate to
the world that seli-Sovernment is posi-
BILE. 1t is my belief that this doctrine
was brought over by Burgoyne or Corn
wallis by special order of the English
government, and artfully mstilled into
the midst of the American colonists by
them. Rapidly spread in the New Eng
land colonies by the prevailing habit Of
talking which is characteristic of that
locality, the pernicious doctrine grew and
ilourishcd. English diplomacy needed
more than y Washington and a Franklin
combined to sound its depths. Secure i'll
the knowledge that this principle had
been sown broadcast in the rebellious
colonies, England could well afford to
lose battle after battle, and finally its
dominion. 1t withdrew its armies, and
sat down content to wait the inevitable
result. What would it have been to
England to compel thirteen miserable
colonies to beg her pardon, compared to