Many books have been published, having a tendency to deceive the credulous, who suffer themselves to be guided by any thing but reason and experience. Hence the encouragement bestowed on works of enchantment, dreams, omens, and fate. Mankind have always discovered a propensity to peep behind the veil of futurity, and have been lavish of money in consulting persons and books that make a pretension of unravelling the decrees of Fate, which lie hidden in the labyrinths of darkness. From these sources have arisen the following superstitions, as a sample of the many that have disturbed the peace of individuals, families, and sometimes of whole communities.

"A coal in the shape of a coffin, flying out of the fire to any particular person, denotes his death is not far off. A collection of tallow rising up against the wick of a candle is called a winding-sheet, and deemed an omen of mortality. If, in eating, you miss your mouth, and the food falls, it is very unlucky, and denotes sickness. To dream you are dressed in black is an unlucky omen. Some quarrel is about to happen between you and a friend or relative. Sickness is about to attend your family. Death will deprive you of some friend or relation. Lawsuits will perplex and harass you. If you undertake a journey, it will be unsuccessful. If you are in love, it denotes that your sweetheart is very unhappy, and that sickness will attend her. If you are a farmer, your crops will fail, the murrain will attack your cattle, and some dreadful accident will happen by the overturning of one of your wagons. If you are in business, some one will arrest you, and you will have great difficulty in settling the matter. To dream of hen and chickens is the forerunner of ill luck. Your sweetheart will betray you and marry another. If you go to law, the case will be decided against you. If you go to sea, you will lose your goods, and narrowly escape shipwreck. To dream of coals denotes much affliction and trouble. If you are in love, your sweetheart will prove false, and do every thing to injure you. To dream you see the coals extinguished, and reduced to cinders, denotes the death of yourself, or some near friend or relation. It also indicates great losses, and forewarns you of beggary and a prison. To dream you are married is ominous of death. It also denotes poverty, a prison, and misfortunes. To dream of lying with your newly-married husband or wife denotes danger and sudden misfortunes."

Popular charms are equally absurd and nonsensical. For example, a ring made of the hinge of a coffin is good for the cramp. A halter with which a man has been hanged, if tied about the head, will cure the headache. A drop of blood of a black cat cures convulsions in children. If a tree of any kind be split, and weak, rickety, or ruptured children are drawn through it, and afterwards the tree is bound together, so as to make it unite—as the tree heals and grows together, so will the child acquire strength. If in a family the youngest daughter be married before her older sisters, they must all dance at her wedding without shoes, to counteract their ill luck, and procure themselves husbands. And to procure luck when a person goes out to transact business, you must throw an old shoe after him. To spit on the first money received for the price of goods sold on any day will procure luck. And that boxers must spit in their hands before they set to, for luck's sake.

Seamen have a superstition that if they whistle in a storm, the storm will be increased. And in time of a calm, they practise whistling to call the wind, as they term it. Among farmers, in setting a hen, it is deemed lucky to use an odd number of eggs. Among soldiers, salutes with cannon must be of an odd number. A royal salute is thrice seven, or twenty-one guns. Healths are drank odd. Yet the number thirteen is sometimes deemed ominous; it being supposed that when thirteen persons meet in a room, one of them will die within the year. To know whether a woman shall have the man she desires, it is directed to get two lemon peels, and wear them all day, one in each pocket, and at night rub the four posts of the bedstead with them. If she is to succeed, the person will appear to her in her sleep, and present her with a couple of lemons. If not, there is no room for hope. And again the fair ones are directed to take a piece of wedding cake, draw it thrice through the wedding ring, lay it under their pillow, and they will certainly dream of their future husbands. A thousand other equally successful methods have been proposed to solve the mysteries of future fortune; and yet the magical stone, that will turn all our schemes into wished-for realities, remains to be discovered. As time advances, and knowledge pervades the abodes of darkness and ignorance, all this trumpery of ghosts, witches, fairies, tricks, and omens will go down to the "tomb of the Capulets." People will be able to pass through the churchyard, sleep in an old house, though the wind whistle ever so shrill, without encountering any supernatural visitations. They will become wise enough to trace private and public calamities to other causes than the crossing of knives, the click of an insect, or even the portentous advent of a comet. Thanks to the illustrious names recorded in the annals of science and letters, who have contributed towards so happy a consummation.