2. Deep philosophy, though shallow philosophy may seem
to justify it.

3. Holy Scripture, which regards it as a mere profession.
4. The insincerity of atheists themselves in proselytising and
suffering.

5. The heathen mythology, and the worship of savages.
6. The lack of contemplative atheists.'

II. The causes of atheism :

1. Many divisions in religion.

2. Scandal of priests.

3. Custom of profane scoffing.

4. Learned times, with peace and prosperity. III. The hateful character of atheism :

1. It destroys man's nobility.

2. It destroys 'magnanimity and the raising of human nature'

alike

(a.) In individuals.

(b.) In nations.

XVII.-OF SUPERSTITION. (1612, slightly enlarged in 1625.)

IT were better to have no opinion of God at all than such an opinion as is unworthy of Him; for the one is unbelief, the other is contumely: and certainly Superstition is the reproach of the Deity. Plutarch3 saith well to that purpose, 'Surely,' saith he, 'I had rather a great deal men should say there was no such man at all as Plutarch, than that they should say that there was one Plutarch that would eat his children as soon as they were born;' as the poets speak of Saturn: and, as the contumely is greater towards God, so the danger is greater1 towards men.

Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation: all which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, though religion were not; but Superstition dismounts all these, and erecteth an absolute monarchy in the minds of men: therefore atheism did never perturb states: for it makes men wary of themselves, as looking no further, and we see the times inclined to atheism (as the time of Augustus

Cæsar) were civil 8 times; but Superstition hath been the confusion of many states, and bringeth in a new 'primum mobile,' that ravisheth all the spheres of government.

The master of Superstition is the people,10 and in all Superstition wise men follow fools: and arguments are fitted to practice 11 in a reversed order. It was gravely said by some of the prelates in the Council of Trent, where the doctrine of the schoolmen 12 bare great sway, that the schoolmen were like astronomers, which did feign eccentrics and epicycles, and such engines of orbs 13 to save the phenomena, though they knew there were no such things; and, in like manner, that the schoolmen had framed a number of subtle and intricate axioms and theorems, to save the practice of the Church.

The causes 14 of Superstition are, pleasing and sensual rites and ceremonies; excess of outward and pharisaical holiness; over-great reverence of traditions, which cannot but load the Church; the stratagems of prelates for their own ambition and lucre; the favouring too much of good intentions, which openeth the gate to conceits and novelties; the taking an aim at Divine matters by human, which cannot but breed mixture of imaginations; 15 and lastly, barbarous times, especially joined with calamities and disasters.

Superstition, without a veil, is a deformed thing; for as it addeth deformity to an ape to be so like a man, so the similitude of Superstition to religion makes it the more deformed: and as wholesome meat corrupteth to little worms, so good forms and orders corrupt into a number of petty observances. There is a Superstition in avoiding Superstition,16 when men think to do best if they go furthest from the Superstition formerly received; therefore care would be had that (as it fareth in ill purgings17) the good be not taken away with the bad which commonly is done when the people is the reformer.

NOTES ON ESSAY XVII.

1. ‘contumely’—positive insult, reproach. What Bacon says in this opening sentence seems at first hardly consistent with the language used at the beginning of Essay XVI. In one he says that credulity is better than atheism-in the other he says that atheism, 'to have no opinion of God at all,' is not so bad as superstition. Doubtless, however, he regards atheism in two separate lights-one the plain, deliberate, and explicit denial in words of the existence of God-i.e. active mental atheism-the other, passive moral atheism, which gives or seems to give acquiescence and consent to atheism, by living as if there were no God, or as if we could know nothing about such a Being. The former Bacon regards with abhorrence as worse than the worst credulity—the latter he says is not so bad as to have a positive opinion respecting God which really insults Him.

2. 'Superstition'-lit. a standing over; a putting something over and above (religion); adding to religion fears and scruples which degrade it.

Thus, to believe that God orders all things both in heaven and earth' is a fundamental part of religion; but if I add to that a belief that if I were to have my hair cut when the moon is waning (which is a superstition some people hold), God would be offended thereby, and would, in consequence, cause events to happen so as to injure me, this is superstition, and, as Bacon says, it 'reproaches' God.

Thus superstition is not excess of religion, but it is some absurd and dangerous belief associated with religion; hence Dr Johnson speaks of superstition as 'religion without morals.'

3. Plutarch,' already referred to, was a famous Greek biographer, who lived in the first century after Christ. His great work, Parallel Lives, consists of the biographies of forty-six famous Greeks and Romans.

The quotation is from his work, De Superstitione, and the reference is to Saturn (Greek Kronos), who, according to the ancient mythology, devoured all his children, until Zeus (Jupiter) was saved by the substitution of a stone.

4. danger is greater.' Superstition has led to many fearful acts of cruelty the belief in witchcraft has no doubt entailed persecution, and even death, upon many innocent persons. 5. were not '-did not exist.

6. dismounts '-deposes, supersedes.

7. 'perturb'-disturb. He means that atheists, not looking forward to the rewards and punishments of another world, live quietly in this world, because they have nothing to consider but their own interests.

8. 'civil' tranquil; free from war.

9.

primum mobile.' See note 19, Essay XV. Just as the supposed primum mobile was the one source of all the motions of the universe, superstition would be like an opposing force introducing confusion.

10. master of Superstition is the people.' The real origin of superstition is not that common people are deluded and imposed upon by those who wish to lead them wrong, but that there is in them a predisposition to be deceived. They are, in the first place, willing to be led wrong. Men are not easily deluded unless there is first in them a readiness or desire for delusion.

The same is the case with the evils of a pernicious literature, the origin of which is due more to those who read bad books than to those who publish them; for if there were none willing to read such books, none would offer to sell them.

So also in the case of bribery. The guilt of the briber is less than that of the person who lets it be known that he is open to receive a bribe.

II. arguments are fitted to practice'-i.e. men do not conform their practice to those principles which they believe to be true, but they first act in a certain manner, and then seek for arguments to justify their conduct. Thus, in the sixteenth century men first engaged in the African slave trade, and found it lucrative, and afterwards discovered that the negroes, being descendants of Ham, had been consigned to slavery by the Divine decree.

So some of the Corinthians indulged in sensuality, and then found out the principle, ‘Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.'

So also some stingy persons refuse to help in works of legitimate charity, and then justify their meanness by saying that political economy has shown that such works are really and ultimately injurious.

The

12. schoolmen'—those who adopted the 'scholastic philosophy' taught in the schools or universities of Europe during the Middle Ages, beginning with the ninth century, but reaching its height in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. schools were opened by Charlemagne for the prosecution of speculative studies, and were entirely under the guidance of the clergy, who alone had the leisure or inclination for such work. Philosophy was, therefore, very much mixed up with theology, and the great effort of the schoolmen was to construct a theological system upon the basis of the recently revived Aristotelian philosophy. To a modern reader much of their philosophy seems nothing better than a frivolous and wearisome dispute about words, involving the most subtle

13.

questions on the nature of God and angels, and on points of casuistry.

The most eminent schoolmen were Johannes Scotus Erigena, Abelard, Albertus Magnus, St Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventura, Duns Scotus; Raymond Lully, Roger Bacon, and William of Occam, and the nominalists.

'eccentrics and epicycles, and such engines of orbs.' In the Ptolemaic system of astronomy the apparent irregularities in the motions of the heavenly bodies were accounted for by imagining that they moved in orbs having more than one centre ('eccentric'), or that their orbs described circles upon other circles ('epicycles').

These were mere devices ('engines') invented to account for ('save') astronomical phenomena by men who were really ignorant of the true nature of the motions of the heavenly bodies.

Milton refers to these devices as ‘quaint opinions' in the words which he makes Raphael address to Adam:

14. 'causes.'

'When they come to model heaven

And calculate the stars, how they will wield

The mighty frame: how build, unbuild, contrive,

To save appearances; how gird the sphere

With centric and eccentric scribbled o'er,

Cycle and epicycle, orb in orb'-Paradise Lost, viii, 79.

In the seven causes which Bacon enumerates, he seems to have had in view the excesses both of the Puritans and the High Church party.

15. 'mixture of imaginations'-confusion which arises from mixing science with religion, and attempting to measure the truths of one by the standard of the other.

16. Superstition in avoiding Superstition.' A superstitious act or belief is in itself really a thing indifferent, and can do neither good nor harm; just as St Paul says of an idol, 'We know that an idol is nothing in the world' (1 Cor. viii, 4). But some people attach importance to it in the belief that it will do good, while others as sedulously avoid it, in the fear that it may do harm: both these arise from superstition. Many good people perhaps use the sign of the cross in worship in a superstitious way, but others, equally superstitious, regard such a use as wrong and positively hurtful: the truth is, that neither the use nor the neglect have the slightest connection with the essential part of worship. 17. 'ill purgings'-violent medicines; extreme remedies which do harm at the same time as good.