Now right reason is a rule by which to judge what is and what is not superstitious.  But individual reason or private judgment and right reason are not synonyms in the English or in any other language that is human.  When reasoning men disagree, right reason, as far as the debated question is concerned, is properly said to be off on a vacation, a thing uncommonly frequent in human affairs.  In order, therefore that men should not be perpetually at war concerning matters that pertain to men’s salvation, God established a competent authority which even simple folks with humble minds and pure hearts can find.  In default of any adverse claimant the Catholic Church must be adjudged that authority.  The worship, therefore, that the Church approves as worthy of God is not, cannot be, superstition.  And what is patently against reason, or, in case of doubt, what she reproves and condemns in religion is superstitious.

Leaving out of the question for the moment those species of superstition that rise to the dignity of science, to the accidental fame and wealth of humbugs and frauds, the evil embraces a host of practices that are usually the result of a too prevalent psychological malady known as softening of the brain.  These poor unfortunates imagine that the Almighty who holds the universe in the hollow of His hand, deals with His creatures in a manner that would make a full-grown man pass as a fool if he did the same.  Dreams, luck-pieces, certain combinations of numbers or figures, ordinary or extraordinary events and happenings—­these are the means whereby God is made to reveal to men secrets and mysteries as absurd as the means, themselves.  Surely God must have descended from His throne of wisdom.

Strange though it appear, too little religion—­and not too much—­leads to these unholy follies.  There is a religious instinct in man.  True religion satisfies it fully.  Quack religion, pious tomfoolery, and doctrinal ineptitude foisted upon a God-hungry people end by driving some from one folly to another in a pitiful attempt to get away from the deceptions of man and near to God.  Others are led on by a sinful curiosity that outweighs their common-sense as well as their respect for God.  These are the guilty ones.

It has been said that there is more superstition—­that is belief and dabbling in these inane practices—­to-day in one of our large cities than the Dark Ages ever was afflicted with.  If true, it is one sign of the world’s spiritual unrest, the decay of unbelief; and irreligion thus assists at its own disintegration.  The Church swept the pagan world clean of superstition once; she may soon be called upon to do the work over again.

CHAPTER XXXIV.  OCCULTISM.

Spiritism as a theory, a science, a practice, a religion, or—­I might add—­a profitable business venture, is considered an evil thing by the Church, and by her is condemned as superstition, that is, as a false and unworthy homage to God, belittling His majesty and opposed to the Dispensation of Christ, according to which alone God can be worthily honored.  This evil has many names; it includes all dabbling in the supernatural against the sanction of Church authority, and runs a whole gamut of “isms” from fake trance-mediums to downright diabolical possession.