the
feature of his volumes on which we place the still higher value, is the
honesty of his English spirit. He knows the value of his country; he
does justice to her principles; he gives the true view of her power; he
vindicates her intentions; and without depreciating the merits of
foreign nations, he pays a manly tribute to the truth, by doing deserved
honour to his own.

FOOTNOTES:

[A] _Narrative of an Overland Journey Round the World._ By Sir George
Simpson, Governor-in-Chief of the Hudson's Bay Company's Territories in
North America.

LETTERS ON THE TRUTHS CONTAINED IN POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS.

VI.--RELIGIOUS DELUSIONS: THE POSSESSED: WITCHCRAFT.

Dear Archy,--The subjects about which I propose writing to you to-day
are, delusions of a religious nature;--the idea of being possessed,--the
grounds of the belief in witchcraft. With so much before me, I have no
room to waste. So, of the first, first.

The powerful hold which the feeling of religion takes on our nature, at
once attests the truth of the sentiment, and warns us to be on our guard
against fanatical excesses. No subject can safely be permitted to have
exclusive possession of our thoughts, least of all the most absorbing
and exciting of any.

"So--it will make us mad."

It is evident that, with the majority, Providence has designed that
worldly cares should largely and wholesomely employ the mind, and
prevent inordinate craving after an indulgence in spiritual stimulation;
while minds of the highest order are diverted, by the active duties of
philanthropy, from any perilous excess of religious contemplation.

Under the influence of constant and concentrated religious thought, not
only is the reason liable to give way--which is not our theme--but,
alternatively, the nervous system is apt to fall into many a form of
trance, the phenomena of which are mistaken by the ignorant for Divine
visitation. The weakest frame sinks into an insensibility profound as
death, in which he has visions of heaven and the angels. Another lies,
in half-waking trance, rapt in celestial contemplation and beatitude;
others are suddenly fixed in cataleptic rigidity; others, again, are
dashed upon the ground in convulsions. The impressive effect of these
seizures is heightened by their supervention in the midst of religious
exercises, and by the contagious and sympathetic influence through which
their spread is accelerated among the more excitable temperaments and