| PART FIRST. |
| INTRODUCTION. |
| THE OBJECT OF THIS WORK. |
| PAGE |
| Nursery tales of giants, dwarfs, ghosts, fairies, and witches.?—? Their effect upon juvenile minds.?—?A belief in ghosts still prevalent.?—?The excitability of the public mind.?—?Ghost reported as having been seen in Waltham, Massachusetts. | 17 |
| CHAPTER I. |
| ORIGIN OF POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS. |
| Ignorance of correct reasoning.?—?Conclusions from particular facts.?—?Water boiled by heat.?—?Signs.?—?Breaking a mirror.?—?Gene ral conclusions from a few facts.?—?A victim to superstition in New Hampshire.?—?How signs may be multiplied.?—?The design of the Creator in endowing us with reason. | 19 |
| CHAPTER II. |
| INDUCTIVE PHILOSOPHY NOT UNDERSTOOD. |
| Ignorance of it the cause of many superstitions.?—?Lights seen in marshy grounds, &c.?—?Supposed to be supernatural.?—?Causes of these lights, and phenomena connected with them.?—?Shrinking and swelling of pork in boiling.?—?Cause.?—?Supposed influence of the moon in making soap, grafting trees, cutting timber, &c.?—?Lunar influence in matters of wedlock.?—?Love not to be fed on moonshine. | 22 |
| CHAPTER III. |
| IGNORANCE OF THE CAUSES OF DREAMS. |
| Fruitful source of superstitions.?—?Opinions of ancient divines. ?—?Dreams related in the Scriptures.?—?Their object.?—?Principles of mental philosophy applied to modern dreams.?—?Examples of singular dreams.?—?Dreams occasioned by sickness.?—?Fulfilment of certain dreams.?—?Causes of the same.?—?Remarkable case of a German student.?—?Case of a member of Congress.?—?Amusing case concerning a passage of Scripture.?—?Necessity of a pure conscience, and a careful attention to our stomachs. | 24 |
| CHAPTER IV. |
| EFFECTS OF THE IMAGINATION ON THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. |
| Ignorance of it has given rise to many superstitions.?—? Experiments of Mesmer and Deslon in Paris.?—?Singular developments.?—?Trials at Dr. Franklin's house.?—?Children uninfluenced by mesmeric operations.?—?Magnetizing a tree in Dr. Franklin's garden.?—?Experiments upon two females. ?—?Effect produced.?—?Experiment upon a female by Dr. Sigault. ?—?Practice among the Chinese.?—?Girl frightened to death by a Gypsy.?—?Practice among the New Zealanders.?—?Killing others by incantation.?—?Intercourse with departed spirits.?—?An account of Perkins's metallic tractors.?—?Their supposed influence in various diseases.?—?Suspicions concerning them.?—?Experiments with wooden tractors.?—?Result of these experiments.?—?Statements of a modern mesmerizer. | 29 |
| CHAPTER V. |
| IGNORANCE OF MENTAL PHILOSOPHY. |
| This ignorance a cause of many superstitions.?—?Case of a person who slept in a bed room supposed to be haunted.?—?Skeleton seen by moonlight.?—?Apparition seen by Dr. Gregory.?—?Case related by Dr. Conolly.?—?Ship's crew frightened by an apparition.?—?Young lady supposed to have been murdered by pirates.?—?Cases of impressions connected with bodily disease.?—?Phantasms in febrile diseases.?—?A farmer frightened to death by a light in the road.?—?A figure like Death striking a lady in her side with a dart.?—?Illusion of sight and hearing.?—?Case of a lady who saw her absent husband standing by her side.?—?Countenance of a friend seen in a mirror.?—?Tunes heard.?—?Inverted objects.?—?Visions of the world of spirits.?—?Case of Baron Swedenborg.?—?Case of a lady in Boston, who saw her deceased grandmother.?—?The phantom ship seen in New Haven.?—?The science of optics.?—?Of nauscopy.?—?Cases of mirage. | 38 |
| CHAPTER VI. |
| IGNORANCE OF TRUE RELIGION. |
| God the Supreme Ruler of the Universe.?—?The natural world governed by regular laws.?—?Sign of the howling of a dog under the window.?—?Lucky and unlucky days.?—?Sir Matthew Hale's opinion.?—?Early laws of Connecticut.?—?Superstition of sailors.?—?Timidity of Voltaire.?—?Peace and happiness on all days.?—?How procured. | 50 |
| CHAPTER VII. |
| BELIEF IN WITCHCRAFT. |
| A witch as regarded by our fathers.?—?Compact or agreement with the devil.?—?Carried through the air on brooms and spits.?—? Anointing their bodies with a magical ointment.?—?How to prepare the same.?—?Singular ceremonies at the meetings of witches.?—?How they afflicted others.?—?The bewitched pins shown to Grace Greenwood.?—?Mode of examining and trying witches.?—?Witch catcher in England.?—?How he was arrested and condemned.?—?Singular record on a church book in Scotland.?—?Notice of the Salem witchcraft.?—?How such superstitions are to be done away.?—?Witches and wizards of modern times. | 53 |
| CHAPTER VIII. |
| NECROMANCY AND FORTUNE TELLING. |
| Moll Pitcher, the queen of the race.?—?Her place of abode.?—? Company that visited her.?—?Member of a church sent to consult her.?—?Casting out evil spirits in Syria.?—?Account of Lady Hester Stanhope.?—?The astrologer of Hopkinton, Massachusetts. ?—?Chief characteristic of fortune seekers.?—?Effects produced upon them. | 58 |
| CHAPTER IX. |
| FAIRIES, OR WANDERING SPIRITS, AND GYPSIES. |
| Description of fairies, habits, localities, &c.?—?Subterranean spirits in Wales, called Knockers.?—?The Brownies in Scotland.?—?A farmer in Ireland who was tormented by fairies.?—? Method taken to appease their anger.?—?Spenser's poem of the Fairy Queen.?—?Gypsies and their employments.?—?Casting the evil eye.?—?Safeguard against it.?—?Charm of the Bible and key.?—?Superstition called the elf-shot.?—?Practice of poisoning animals, and the cure.?—?Superstitions concerning the loadstone.?—?Translation of St. Luke into the Gypsy tongue.?—? Singular notions of the Gypsies concerning it.?—?Condemned by the royal edict at Madrid.?—?The Gypsy choirs at Moscow. ?—?Anecdote of Madame Catalini. | 61 |
| CHAPTER X. |
| Ignis fatuus seen by Dr. Derham.?—?Corpusants seen by mariners.?—?Dampier's account of them. | 274 |
| SAILORS' OMENS. |
| Sailors' omens and superstitions.?—?Devil's power in stirring up winds.?—?Losing a cat overboard, a bucket, or a mop. | 276 |
| LOVE CHARMS. |
| Othello winning Desdemona by conjuration.?—?Execution of a young lady for giving a love powder.?—?Her dying confession.?—?A charm or an allay for love. | 277 |
| EFFECTS OF A BELIEF IN A GHOST. |
| Effects of a belief in the reality of ghosts.?—?Case at the University at Cambridge.?—?A student frightened to death. | 279 |
| THE INVISIBLE LADY. |
| The invisible lady in Boston.?—?The invisible girl in London.?—?Joice Heth, the India rubber woman.?—?Professor Grimes's discovery among the "rappers."?—?Mrs. Culver respecting the Rochester rappers. | 280 |
| SORCERERS IN THE EAST. |
| Persons killed by the enemy's fires.?—?Singular custom in Java. | 281 |
| SINGULAR METAMORPHOSES. |
| Men turned into tigers by eating a certain root, and turned back again by eating another.?—?A tiger-man shot in the woods and recognized, after having devoured some of his neighbors.?—?Account of the wolf mania in Egypt and in Brittany.?—?A husband that lived and died a wolf. | 282 |
| PERNICIOUS ERRORS RELATING TO HEALTH. |
| Astrology.?—?Vegetable oil of swallows, &c.?—?Cleanliness, diet, &c.?—?Ablution.?—?Ventilation.?—?Food.?—?Quality of meats. | 284 |
