Page:Antidote to superstition, or, A cure for those weak minds which are troubled with the fear of, ghosts and witches (NLS104184264).pdf/6

( 6 ) thought it was the diſcontented ghoſt of ſome buried perſon, and by my ſhrieks I alarmed the guard at the Barracks. I was once confined to bed by a violent head-ach; a clock diſturbed my repoſe; I verily imagined it was the devil, but the fright diſlodged my pain; and this was the only profit I ever reaped from my ſuperſtition.

Such were the dreadful effects which this prepoſterous education had on my mind. The hourly and ordinary occurrences in life could not paſs without furniſhing my diſordered and infatuated fancy, with an in exhauſtible fund of incumbent miſery, and corroſive gnawing torment to my ſoul.

My great conſlation was, that my condition was not ſingular. I found many of my numerous circle of acquaintance, both old and young, inveloped in as great abſurdities as myſelf. One of them would not dreſs his head after croſſing a grave: a ſecond would not allow his ſon to be baptiſed without putting ſome bread in its cloaths: a third would not cut his nails on Friday: a fourth would not have his work begun on Saturday: a fifth would not proceed on a journey of importance, it he met a perſon carrying water as he ſet out: a ſixth pretended to expel diſeaſes by burning horſeſhoes in the fire, or making the patient paſs under ſome ſtones taking from a part of the river where the living and dead paſſed,