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of a purified spirit in its purgatory ; but with aU t ; his humanity , they think themselves obliged by their religion to let a heretic perish with hunger rather than relieve him . * ¦¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦
The Tartars shave their heads , with the exception of a tdft of the size of a crown piece , which is suffered to grow to the length of seven or eight inches . It is by this tuft that the angel of the tomb is to carry the elect into paradise , +
If we look to the Romans , who can forget the ridiculous mummery which was observed in the consecration of their temples \ % their sacrifice of dogs and goats ; their feasts of the JLupercalia ; their augurs and auguries ;§ their lucky || and unlucky ^[ omens , their officers called aruspices , whose business it was to examine the entrails
of the beasts offered in sacrifice , and from thence divine the success of any particular enterprise ; the ridiculous story-of a brazen target having fallen from heaven into the hands of Numa , during a dreadful pestilence which raged at Rome in the eighth year of
his reign ; the sacred fire of the Vestal Virgins , which was cherished with so much veneration ; the Sibylline writings , and the mutilated priests of Cybele ; the absurd custom of abstaining from marrying on certain
days and in certain months of the year 5 their veneration for places which had been struck with lightning ; or , the anxiety which was universally expressed to inhale into their own bodies , the souls of their departing friends ? Of this there are innumerable
instances . Augustus Caesar expired , according to Suetonius , in the kisses of . Li via . ** Nicias , the Athenian general , was so superstitious , that an eclipse of the moon , prevented him from taking
ad-* Folney ' s Ruins , 8 tro . Loud . 1807 , p . 165 . t Ibid . 338 . % See Ken net fc ^ Antiquities , 8 ro . Lond . 1763 , p . 40 . 4 The celebrated sphynx of fesrypt was ^ ifik .- .. * & * Mr of this nature .
| T Suetonins in Vita Vitellii . Sec . ix . if ; Ffergusdn , in his History of the Roman Republic , furnishes an instance of the dre&d of unlucky events , attended b y a barbarity too ahocking to be here related . Sec qmt ^ to editio n , III . 54 J . ? J !^ a ( weM > ttia » in Vij& Augy * tu Sec . * ci-
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vantage of the only favourable iftcimeriti for his retreat ; this occasioned his own death , and all the disasters of the Athenians in Sicily . * Thle intrepid Pelopidas , who had the honour and satisfaction of having delivered
Thebes from the tyranny of its rulers , at last lost his life in consequence of the superstition of his troops , who were terrified at an unexpected eclipse of the sun , at the moment when they were about to march against Alexander , f ¦ ,- " '"
In like manner the Lacedemonians lost their expected share of the honour of contributing to the common safety of Greece , in the plains of Marathon , by not daring to take the field before the moon was at the < frill . £ Even at this day , the Italians are so
superstitious respecting this luminary , that their fishermen , who go out by night , invariably take ari awning with them to protect the fish from the baleful effect of her rays . Besides , no Italian will ever lie down to sleep where moonshine is likely to reach him . §
In enumerating the superstitions of the ancient Romans , I should have mentioned the still greater absurdity and impiety of the Apotheosis , a ceremony whereby this people placed their emperors , and some of their most esteemed senators , among the gods , and thus entitled them to divine worship . S . P . [ To be continued . ]
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$ 64 * Glemwn&s .
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No . CCCXXIX . Proof of Intention from Tendency . The servant of a Scots Jacobite exile was unadvised enough to wear , in the streets of Rome , a pair of hose ,
after the fashion of his native place , of tartan , in which the red largely prer dominated ; and red stockings being a distinctive mark of Cardinals , unibrtunately for him , he was dragged before a tribunal to answer for the crime
of wearing stockings of a colour ex-* Uniw Hist . f Plutarch . X Rolling Ancient History , and te Clare de Septcbenes on the Religion of the Ancient Greeks , 8 ro , p . 251 / § Swiaturn ' s Travels . *;
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GLEANINGS ; OR , SELECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS MADE IN A COURSE OF GENERAL HEADING ,
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1818, page 264, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2475/page/40/
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