belief in him is not encumbered with the perplexities which arise when
we attempt to apprehend the infinite Being. Belief may often be tested;
that is to say, we may be able to discover whether it is an active
belief or not by inquiring what disbelief it involves. So also the test
of disbelief is its correspondent belief.

Superstition is a name generally given to a few only of those beliefs
for which it is imagined that there is no sufficient support, such as
the belief in ghosts, witches, and, if we are Protestants, in miracles
performed after a certain date. Why these particular beliefs have been
selected as solely deserving to be called superstitious it is not easy
to discover. If the name is to be extended to all beliefs which we have
not attempted to verify, it must include the largest part of those we
possess. We vote at elections as we are told to vote by the newspaper
which we happen to read, and our opinions upon a particular policy are
based upon no surer foundation than those of the Papist on the
authenticity of the lives of the Saints.

Superstition is a matter of RELATIVE evidence. A thousand years ago it
was not so easy as it is now to obtain rigid demonstration in any
department except mathematics. Much that was necessarily the basis of
action was as incapable of proof as the story of St. George and the
Dragon, and consequently it is hardly fair to say that the dark ages
were more superstitious than our own. Nor does every belief, even in
supernatural objects, deserve the name of superstition. Suppose that
the light which struck down St. Paul on his journey to Damascus was due
to his own imagination, the belief that it came from Jesus enthroned in
the heavens was a sign of strength and not of weakness. Beliefs of this
kind, in so far as they exalt man, prove greatness and generosity, and
may be truer than the scepticism which is formally justified in