Page:Antidote to superstition, or, A cure for those weak minds which are troubled with the fear of, ghosts and witches (NLS104184264).pdf/3

( 3 ) Where-ever knowledge and ſcience are wanting, ignorance, dulneſs, and credulity dwell, and blind folly and rampant ſuperſtition will have numberleſs abertors and votaries: until the old woman is wholly expelled from our breaſts, we ſhall remain abject ſlaves to the moſt ridiculous prejudices of habit, cuſtom and education. The whole inhabitants of the globe verify the truth of theſe obſervations. In Lapland, which is as much covered with ignorance & ſuperſtition as it is with eternal ſnow, magicians and ſorcerers abound. They live by their craft; they are wind-merchants, and the mariners are ſuch ſlaves to theſe impoſtors, that they often buy from them a magic cord, which, they vainly hope, will gain what wind they want. Egypt, the mother of occult ſciences is at this day over-run with jugglers and ſlight-of-hand men. The native Americans are abſorbed in ſuperſtition; they believe that ſome bad genii produce all their miſery, and that jugglers are their miniſters to predict future events. The Chineſe fortune-tellers and aſtrologers direct and govern the whole populace in all affairs of consequence. The modern Perſians are the moſt ſuperftitious people on earth, wholly addicted to, and governed by judicial aſtrology. The weſtern Scots Iſlanders pretend to mantology and the ſecond-ſight; numbers amongſt ourſelves are ſlaves