BOGIES.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 4767, 3 July 1876, Page 3

BOGIES.

(From the Liberal Review.) Though the tendency of modern times is to cause people to think lightly of the supernatural in their appreciation of the mundane, the popular mind is largely permeated by superstition. Notwithstanding that this is an age of iron, money, and exploded miracles—an age in which men may be found who decline to believe in anything which they cannot see, or the existence of which cannot be proved beyond the possibility of doubt—scores of simple-minded people continue to cherish a faith in occult influences and mysterious sigi s. Nor is it mostly those whose aspirations continually rise above this world who do this. On the contrary, in many instances persons who neglect their church, make short work of their prayers, and are not remarkable for their love of the moral code, are often the most inveterate of the disciples of superstition. Thus you will find men who are distinguished by their levity betraying in many ways how they are influenced by trivial things to which, judging from their blatant utterances, they might be expected to be superior. For instance, you may detect them in the act of looking out for omens with a persistency which is almost childish, and you may find that you are cherishing a sort of fatalistic creed which is utterly at variance with the strength of what they say in the presence of their fellows. That they do these things secretly, and that they will not own to being superstitious, is proof enough that they are even more taunted than may appear at a first glance. They may be unable to defend the peculiar forms of superstition which they affect. Probably such is the case. More probably still, however, they have no wish to support by logical processes of reasoning what seems to be more a sort of instinct, which is held in defiance of one’s better judgment, than anything else. Now, superstition, of course, takes many forms. The sailor who will not go to sea on Friday because it is unlucky to do so, and the timid person who will decline to walk beneath a raised ladder for the same reason, are but types of a large class. So are those persons who believe that when a dog howls a person is about to die, and that when a person dreams a

certain thing something portentous is to follow Of the degrading belief in witchcraft, which has been proved to be still rife in England, we say. nothing, and of the marvels of the modern science called “ Spiritualism,” the _ manifestations of which are a combination of the extraox-dinary and the x-idiculous, we are also silent. Indeed, superstition is altogether a matter which it is best fox- the scientist and the priest to deal with. Still, one of its phases comes immediately within our scope. This phase is its ridiculous aspect. Now, xvhile people are at liberty to believe in all the demons, and witches, and mysteries, which have ever awed a weak mind and clogged men’s energies and cramped men’s thoughts, in doing so they should display some consideration for the feelings of those with whom they associate. Especially should they be kind enough to do this when they are so ashamed of theirbeliefsthatthey ax-e continxxally disavowing them in a timorous, fainthearted way which, strange to say, amounts to a practical confession of faith. But superstitious people are, of all pei-sons in the world, the last who show much regax-d for the susceptibilities of their neighbors. Fox- instance, the manner in which they act when that superstition aneut thirteen people sitting down at table is brought forward is certainly not calculated to place people at their ease. It is trxxe that they will condescend to talk grandiloqxxently about the “ exploded superstition,” but, nevertheless, they give you to understand that they do not half like forming one of the thirteen, and the probability is that if they ax-e forced into doing so they add to the festivity of the board by retailing a number of stories which tend to show that there is, after all, something in the “ exploded superstition,” and they may go so fax- as to express a hope that nothing may happen in their case, doing so in such a manner that one may be pardoned if he comes to the conclusion that they could, if they would, prophesy in a manner utterly at variance with their expressed hopes. How cheerful people may become when thirteen of them are dining or supping together, and when the company is graced by one ox- two killjoys who ax-e literally saturated with superstition and yet are ashamed to make a true confession of their feelings, and so contradict themselves evex-y other moment, only those who have had personal experience can tell. But the tortures which are to be endured at such a time are small, indeed, compared with those which it is iu the power of superstitious beings to inflict upon their victims when circumstances are ’more propitious. There is no need to travel far to illustrate this. Say that you form one of a household, a mxxch-loved member of which is sick it may be unto death. While the invalid thus lies there flock around you a number of sympathising friends who give you to understand that they have had plenty of experience and know how to act at critical moments. Well, it happens, that xvhile they are by some dog, suffering it may be from toothache or pining for the society of its master, relieves its feelings by indulging in a stray howl ox- two. Hereupon, the superstitious croakers commence. You hearhoxv a xvretched animal howled all night xvhen their father oxgrandfather lay a-dying, and you are indirectly xvarned to prepare for the xvox-st. Yet the croakers lead yoxx to understand that they do not xvish to alarm you unduly ; indeed, they probably go so far as to state that it is their desire to put you in good spirits. Of course, it is possible, indeed it is more than possible, that, circumstances being what they are, you are placed in a position of extreme discomfoi-t and anxiety from which the timely recovery of the sick one almost fails to relieve yoxx. It may happen that the superstitious croakers, not content with retailing to yoxx the signs xvhich betokened the father’s or grandfather’s death, go to the tx-ouble of dreaming dreams of the most horx-ible character, upon xvhich they put the most awful significance, and xvhich, along xvith their melancholy interpretations, they vex-y cousidex-ately give you the benefit of. Perhaps it shoxxld, in justice to them, be said that they do not merely dream when sickness is at hand, but that they are everlastingly dreaming themselves and putting a fearful interpretation upon the dreams of their neighbors. When everything is, apparently, bright and cheerful, and when they ought, as reasonable beings, to be bright and cheerful also, they xvill cast a pall over the prevailing sunniness by sepulchrally declaring that they are assured that something dreadful is about to happen, and they xvill support their impression by recounting xvhat they have seen iu the land of visions. It may be that, in a general way, their prophecies prove inaccurate, bxxt they have the satisfaction of kuoxving that they make many people very miserable, inasmxxch as the anticipation of trouble is often worse tbau trouble itself.