the fluctuating and uncertain motions of it, and by their ministry, fire and vapor, storms and tempests, snow and hail, heat and cold, are all kept within such bounds and limits as are most serviceable to the ends of Providence.  They take care of the variety of seasons, and superintend the tillage and fruits of the earth; upon which account, Origen calls them invisible husbandmen.  So that, all affairs and things being under the inspection and government of these incorporeal beings, the power of the dark kingdom and its agents is under a strict confinement and restraint; and they cannot bring a general mischief upon the world without a special permission of a superior Providence.”

Spenser has the same imagery and sentiment:—­

    “How oft do they their silver bowers leave,
    To come to succor us, that succor want? 
    How oft do they with golden pinions cleave
    The flitting skies, like flying pursuivant,
    Against foul fiends to aid us militant? 
    They for us fight, they watch and duly ward,
    And their bright squadrons round about us plant,
    And all for love and nothing for reward: 
    Oh! why should heavenly God to man have such regard?”

While there can be no doubt that the superstitious opinions we have been reviewing were diffused generally among the great body of the people of all ranks and conditions, it would be unjust to truth not to mention that there were some persons who looked upon them as empty fables and vain imaginations.  Error has never yet made a complete and universal conquest.  In the darkest ages and most benighted regions, it has been found impossible utterly to extinguish the light of reason.  There always have been some in whose souls the torch of truth has been kept burning with vestal watchfulness:  we can discern its glimmer here and there through the deepest night that has yet settled upon the earth.  In the midst of the most extravagant superstition, there have been individuals who have disowned the popular belief, and considered it a mark of wisdom and true philosophy to discard the idle fancies and absurd schemes of faith that possessed the minds of the great mass of their contemporaries.  This was the case with Horace, as appears from lines thus quite freely but effectively translated:—­

    “These dreams and terrors magical,
    These miracles and witches,
    Night-walking spirites or Thessal bugs,
    Esteeme them not two rushes.”

The intellect of Seneca also rose above the reach of the popular credulity with respect to the agency of supernatural beings and the efficacy of mysterious charms.

If we could but obtain access to the secret thoughts of the wisest philosophers and of the men of genius of antiquity, we should probably find that many of them were superior to the superstitions of their times.  Even in the thick darkness of the dark ages, there were minds too powerful to be kept in chains by error and delusion.