CALAMO CURRENTE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9124, 4 August 1888, Page 1 (Supplement)

CALAMO CURRENTE.

«< What is one man's meat is another man's pen-on,'" a maxim that probably did nob 1.,;',,,e5t itself to the Rev. C. M. Nelson when he discoursed before the Athenaeum on the pregnant subject of " Superstition." for what superstition? Its definition mHit be given in terms equivalent to those f ./heterodoxy : Orthodoxy is my doxv, and heterodoxy is the other fellow's doxy. Such, ■I'ljiarentlv. is the distinction in Mr. Nelson's mind between true religion and supers! ibion. His views on things supernatural are sound and true ; those of others who do not think as he does are merely superstition. His definition of the subject of his treatment was that " Superstition is iV excess of ignorance with regard to religion and the supernatural." I suppose that is as good as any other, but an excellent dictionary that I have taken up to verifv Mr. Nelson's dictum, gives such a MU'ietv of meanings that I am bewildered. It says superstition is excessive exactness or rigour in religious opinions or practice." That would include the conduct of the Presbyterians when they are heresy-hunting astride of the Confession of Fait " Excess or extravagance in religion." That points to the Salvationists beating the big drum to frighten Satan. *• The doing of thing.- not required by God or abstaining from things not forbidden. That evidently means the Church of England shunning beefsteak on Friday. " lhe belief of what is absurd, or belief without evidence that hits all round so evenly that 1 feel not tiro necessity to particularise. ♦' Relief in the direct agency of superior jsowers in certain extraordinary or singular events that makes a bulls-eye at the Bible itself. And another authority, taking a more comprehensive view, tells me that „ - r-.i;i;km is the "error of those who, in heir opinions of the causes on which the

*~;e of men depends, believe or disbelieve w.: mt judgment and knowledge." That .. a mud, good definition : for it means • v ideas of those who have not as good . ;_-me:it or as sound knowledge as our-

e

T'.:at is exactly the view of Mr. Nelson mh. \ ;. v says that superstition is the ex-

C; --o: ignorance with regard to religion .... i the supernatural. And the only thing v.. .i:u_ to complete the description is that h-.> h:»i told what constitutes ignorance. . r who wav we are to know it when we -ce::. What is tin. test of ignorance? Is

i: i * ;»e;'ience or reason, or is it intuition ? O; v>'bat is the thUriel's spear which Mr. N->n would have us use, which makes this ignorance stand naked as the author : .;:ri--r<ntion. However, away with deli: i:;..!!< : taev ate a bother always, and , . Mj. NeW-n's illustrations of super- - in at various '.tiles. lie says that

. is .{• 'lie i > believe he false and disi k- true." That is an extraordinary «.<•:U!R. ;uiJ eivtf# us little hope of arriving a: : v conclusion? ; however, undeMi, • by it. i would like to instance a few i— i Is.jt Mr. Nelson's own tear of Ithuriel v touch them for our enlightenment. Ho -- " there has always been a belief in the human mind that there were certain indi vi iuah who had control over the power: e: nature." He is perfectly correct ii thi-: but is it an illustration of supersti

■; Because there is a venerable old '■ v quite familiar to Mr. Nelson, all full of :h:< kind of thing : the waving of a wand ovvr the -.-a and the waters were divided;

Mowing of rams' horns, and the city's w,;l!s foil ;* the ranking of a river with a mat,a- and the waters parted : the taking j. jvvt-r ixitient by the hand and the malady dt-j<irtv 1. and kindred things, the belief ex-i-;i:icr in the human mind that these agents ha ! control over the powers of nature. Was this a superstition in the minds of th'">se that belic-vcd it then and of those that btlieve it now ? It is not to cast either disparagement -or doubt on such belief I ask, }>•;: f.jjtv '■> -a >•" the vagueness of Mr. 2s --1 - dehn:::on- of superstition, and to ask him whether we are justified in our arrogance in condemning a belief in the supernatural ? and a- he hurls his epithets of dupe- and impostors about, lie should let n - know by what features we are to descry that ignorance which is the parent of superstition. so that we may know the dupes and re c '_rni-e impost or s.

Eat coming to an illustration that was particularly pertinent to the lecturer's ad- , •«<. witchcraft: on what warrant does he take on him to denounce the belief in witchcraft a? ignorance and superstition ? Cert.iinlv not the warrant of the Book on which he bases his own correct and orthodox v- of the supernatural ; for old John We-ley. of whom lie made a butt ap-pir-ntly. was peif-etiy correct when he that " the giving up of a belief in witchcraft was the giving up of the Bible."' The existence of the agency of witchcraft i- a- (ii-tincily recognised therein as the existence of the city of Jerusalem ; and out of the -acred height of Sinai itself there eerie the prohibition, Thou .-halt not .-•j a witch to live." Such a c-jiumand from such a source, and .ail-led by such awe-inspiring circum•Hanees. was" not likely to have been liUTjched at a mere delusion, or ignorant ! .r.cv, even if we had not such a de.tiled and circumstantial description <•: the doings of the witch of Endor. The Lecturer .-poke with pitying contennit of the slaughtering of thousands •'f v .-eh- -in the days of old as evidence of '■tin- ignorance of the days when this .a : •••-e.iti.-n prevailed and yet it was in -'rat . di-hi'e to the command of that

■ ..1.1 V o:i which lie bases his more cul

I faith, which says: "There .-hall not ! ■■ a , id among you a witch ;' and which i-. -h<i!;! v after, the command, "that iv. . --I,! blood be not shed in thy land." h-t t-. : lecturer be not too free in hurling hi-denunciations against the belief in the ,•;,;,-i-.-ir--e of supernatural power, lest his blows falls where he means them not.

And is Mr. Nelson in the position to a-ert that such a power as that of witchel ait ina.v not even now exist? Has he no v. heard of the death-dealing "Makut-u" -•.uaiiio- tin; Maori.-? Let him not say that this is merely the belief of ignorance ; for hundreds of colonists believe in it, and 1 have heard from the lips of a genuine scientist. who was accustomed to subject everything to scientific tests, the distinct belief expressed, founded on his own lengthened personal observation, that there are -Maoris capable of exercising such deathdealing powers over others. To confront such a statement with the mere supercilious assertion that " it could not be," is at least as unscientific as the belief itself : for with all our sell-assurance about the scientific enlightenment of our times, we are as utterly ignorant of the conditions and limitations of psychic force as our forefathers were. But a little while ago Mesmerism was a superstition by Mr. Nelson's standard, and the belief of it was assumed to be but the out--1 line of ignorance and credulity. Wo may know very little of mesmerism yet, but we know enough to know that it is neither superstition nor delusion, but a fact of nature; and it seems to have lifted one hit hi corner of the curtain that hides from us the mysterious borderland of mind and loath r, where there is probably a world of scientific truth of the most awe-inspiring kind yet to be yielded up to our posterity. The man that dubs as ignorance and superstition a belief in the possibility of powers which are not ordinarily possessed ; who regards as deserving of contempt a belief in spirit acting on matter beyond the limits of its own corporeal enclosure; who regards as baseless superstition the belief that the air may be filled with spiritual beings, which may intervene in the busings of our lives, which may effect 'ami-rations without the intervention of the materialism from which they have been emancipated ; so effecting results that in car ignorance we may regard as suspension ol the laws of Nature, without our knowing one thousandth part of what all the laws of Nature are, I say that the man that does so in this age of startling revelation and discovery is as much in cord with the teachings of the Bible as ie is out of touch with the scientific spirit Oi the age ; anil there is more in heaven and arta than is dreamt of in his philosophy. FOLL£X.