ucation may be, they do
not form an effectual barrier against the admission of superstitious
opinions. In order to do this, the mind must be directed to the study of
the material universe, to contemplate the various appearances it
presents, and to mark well the uniform results of those invariable laws
by which it is governed. In particular, the attention should be directed
to those discoveries which have been made by philosophers in the
different departments of nature and art during the last two centuries.
For this purpose, the study of natural history, as recording the various
facts respecting the atmosphere, the waters, the earth, and animated
beings, combined with the study of natural philosophy and astronomy, as
explaining the causes of the phenomena of nature, will have a happy
tendency to eradicate from the mind superstitious and false notions, and
at the same time will present to view objects of delightful
contemplation. Let a person be once thoroughly convinced that nature is
uniform in her operations, and governed by regular laws impressed by an
all-wise and benevolent Being, and he will soon be inspired with
confidence, and will not easily be alarmed at any occasional phenomena
which at first sight might appear as exceptions to the general rule.

Let persons be taught, for example, that eclipses are occasioned merely
by the shadow of one opaque body falling upon another; that they are
the necessary result of the inclination of the moon's orbit to that of
the earth; that, if these orbits were in the same plane, there would be
an eclipse of the sun and of the moon every month, the former occurring
at the change, and the latter at the full of the moon; that the times
when they do actually take place depend on the new or full moon
happening at or near the points of intersection of the orbits of the
earth and moon, and that other planets which have moons experience
eclipses of a similar nature. Let them also be taught that the _comets_
are regular bodies belonging to our system, which finish their
revolutions and appear and disappear in stated periods of time; that the
northern lights, though seldom seen in southern climes, are frequent in
the regions of the North, and supply the inhabitants with light in the
absence of the sun, and have probably a relation to the magnetic and
electric fluids; that the _ignes fatui_ are harmless lights, formed by
the ignition of a certain species of gas produced in the soils above