Page:Bacons Essays 1908 West.djvu/74

Rh the times enclined to Atheisme (as the Time of Augustus Cæsar) were civil Times. But Superstition hath beene the Confusion of many States, And bringeth in a new Primum Mobile that ravisheth all the Spheares of Government. The Master of Superstition is the People; And in all Superstition, Wise Men follow Fooles; And Arguments are fitted to Practise, in a reversed Order. It was gravely said by some of the Prelates, in the Councell of Trent, where the doctrine of the Schoolemen bare great Sway, That the Schoolemen were like Astronomers, which did faigne Eccentricks and Epicycles, and such Engines of Orbs, to save the Phenomena, though they knew there were no such Things; And, in like manner, that the Schoolmen had framed a Number of subtile and intricate Axiomes and Theorems, to save the practise of the Church. The Causes of Superstition are;— Pleasing and sensuall Rites and Ceremonies; Excesse of Outward and Pharisaicall Holinesse; Over-great Reverence of Traditions, which cannot but load the Church; The Stratagems of Prelates for their owne Ambition and Lucre; The Favouring too much of good Intentions, which openeth the Gate to Conceits and Novelties; The taking an Aime at divine Matters by Human, which cannot but breed mixture of Imaginations; And lastly, Barbarous Times, Especially ioyned with Calamities and Disasters. Superstition, without a vaile, 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 Wormes, So good Formes and Orders corrupt into a Number of petty Observances. There is a Superstition in avoiding Superstition, when men thinke to doe best if they goe furthest from the Superstition formerly received: