Page:The reflections of Lichtenberg.djvu/155

 I have looked through the list of illnesses, and did not find cares or sad thoughts mentioned among them. That is a mistake, surely. Things cannot be altogether right in the world, for men still have to be governed by deception.

Whenever we meet with a good idea in our reading, we can try whether something similar may not be said or thought in another field, here assuming that it has some affinity with the former. This is a mode of thought-analysis which a good many scholars perhaps adopt without saying so.

The superstition of common people arises from their early and all too zealous instruction in religion. They hear of mysteries, miracles, works of the devil, and think it very probable that this sort of thing may occur everywhere. If, on the contrary, they were first shown Nature itself, they would more readily regard the mysterious and the supernatural in religion with awe, instead of treating it now as something quite common. If they were told that half-a-dozen angels had to-day crossed the street, I believe that they would think it nothing extraordinary. The pictures in Bibles, again, are not fit for children.

Sermons on diet ought to be preached in church at least once a week, and if the clergy mastered the subject they could then bring in spiritual observations, which would here, surely, find a very appropriate application. For there is no doubt that such