in this generation--and zealously did they
endeavour in indirect ways to fathom the will of the Lord. Dreams were
interpreted, prognostics discerned; every beautiful feeling of the
soul, every sudden discovery made by the combinations of the mind, were
considered as direct inspirations from God. It was an old popular
belief, that accidental words which were impressed on the mind from
outward sources were to be considered as significant, and this belief
had now become a system. As the Jutlander Steno--the Roman Catholic
Bishop of Hanover, and acquaintance of Leibnitz--suddenly became a
fanatic, because a lady had spoken out of the window some indifferent
words, which he in passing by conceived to be a command from Heaven, so
did accidental words sway the minds of the Pietists. It was a favourite
custom in cases of doubt to open suddenly upon some verse in the
Bible or hymn book, and from the tenor of the words to decide these
doubts--the sentence on which the right-hand thumb was set was the
significant one--a custom which to this day remains among the people,
and the opponents of which, as early as 1700, called deridingly
"thumbing." If any one had a call from the external world, the system
was to refuse the first time, but, if repeated, then it was the call of
the Lord. It may easily be conceived that the believing soul might,
even in the first refusal, unconsciously follow a quiet inclination of
the heart which had secretly said yes or no.

That in a period of unbridled passions, the reaction against the common
lawlessness should overstep moderation is natural. After the war, a
crazy luxury in dress had begun; the women loved to make a shameless
display of their charms, the dances were frivolous, the drinking
carousals coarse, and the plays and novels often only a collection of
impurities. Thus it was natural that those who were indignant at all
this should choose to wear high dresses, simple in style and dark in
colour, and that the women should withdraw from dances and other
amusements; the drinking wine was in bad repute, the play not visited,
and dances esteemed a dangerous frivolity. But zeal went still further.
Mere cheerful society also appeared doubtful to them--men should always
show that they valued little the transitory pleasures of the world;
even the most harmless, offered by nature to men's outward senses, its
smiling blossoms and the singing of birds, were only to be admired with
caution, and it was con