person fluttered the image of a white dove. And when the spirit had departed, the
doors and windows were immediately opened wide; the clocks were stopped; the
mirrors were covered; and it was held to disturb the rest of the dead, and to be
fatal to the living, if a tear fell upon the winding sheet. And thus, from the cradle
to the grave, Superstition dogged the steps of life; nor even at the grave did it
cease to vex and worry the minds of men with the fancies and visions born of
excited imaginations.
That such fancies, that customs so wild and grotesque, should have existed in
Scotland, and among a well-educated people, down to a comparatively recent
date, might be matter of wonder, if we were not aware of the tenacity with which
the heart clings to the “use and wont” of the Past. Nor trivial as some, and
inexcusable as all of them seem to the philosophic eye, is it wise to regard them
too contemptuously. They seem to us to show how difficult man found it to
realise to himself the idea of a living, personal GOD,—of a GOD, a FATHER, ever
watching over the welfare of His children, chastening them in His mercy, but
never refusing them the light of His countenance when they have sought Him
with faith in the hour of sorrow and darkness. For want of this strengthening,
consoling, elevating idea, he has endeavoured to support himself by the feeble
prop of superstitious credulity, and instead of yielding wholly and trustfully to
the love of GOD the FATHER, has vainly striven to secure some glimpse or
foreshadowing of the Future, and to avert evil by peurile practices and idle
traditions.
We may next be allowed to point out the kinship in superstition which prevails
all over the world; so that the observance or custom which seems peculiar to
England or Scotland, is found in India or Tartary. This remarkable similarity
indicates a certain general tendency to attach an “ominous significance” to
particular things and events. Take as an illustration, the act of sneezing. In Asia
as well as Europe, among Semitic peoples as well as among Aryan, it is usual to
connect with the act some form of blessing. Sometimes the sneezer is blessed by
the bystander; sometimes he blesses himself; if a Mohammedan, he blesses GOD.
In Italy, for example, the salutation addressed to him runs: “May GOD preserve
you!” or “May you have children!” In Hindi it takes the form of “Sadàji’s” (May
you live for ever!) and a similar salutation is used by the Jews of Austria.
But in different places and at different times sneezing has been made to carry a
very different meaning. Among the Arabs, if, while a person is making an
assertion which some may think hazardous or dubious, another sneezes, the
speaker appeals to the omen as a confirmation of what he is saying. A writer in