g or singing a particular tune,
which was used in their village dances, in their native country, on which
account the playing or singing this tune was forbid by the punishment of
death. Zwingerus.

Dear is that shed, to which his soul conforms,
And dear that hill, which lifts him to the storms.
GOLDSMITH.

7. _Spes religiosa._ Superstitious hope. This maniacal hallucination in its
milder state produces, like sentimental love, an agreeable reverie; but
when joined with works of supererogation, it has occasioned many
enormities. In India devotees consign themselves by vows to most painful
and unceasing tortures, such as holding up their hands, till they cannot
retract them; hanging up by hooks put into the thick skin over their
shoulders, sitting upon sharp points, and other self torments. While in our
part of the globe fasting and mortification, as flagellation, has been
believed to please a merciful deity! The serenity, with which many have
suffered cruel martyrdoms, is to be ascribed to this powerful reverie.

Mr. ----, a clergyman, formerly of this neighbourhood, began to bruise and
wound himself for the sake of religious mortification, and passed much time
in prayer, and continued whole nights alone in the church. As he had a wife
and family of small children, I believed the case to be incurable; as
otherwise the affection and employment in his family connections would have
opposed the beginning of this insanity. He was taken to a madhouse without
effect, and after he returned home, continued to beat and bruise himself,
and by this kind of mortification, and by sometimes long fasting, he at
length became emaciated and died. I once told him in conversation, that
"God was a merciful being, and could not delight in cruelty, but that I
supposed he worshipped the devil." He was struck with this idea, and
promised me not to beat himself for three days, and I believe kept his word
for one day. If this idea had been frequently forced on his mind, it might
probably have been of service.

When these works of supererogation have been of a public nature, what
cruelties, murders, massacres, has not this insanity introduced into the
world!--A commander, who had been very active in leading and encouraging
the bloody deeds of St. Bartholomew's day at Paris, on confessing his sins
to a worthy ecclesiastic on his death-bed, was asked, "Have you nothing to
say about St. Bartholomew?" "On that day,