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Of Superstition
by Francis Bacon |
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It were better to have no opinion of God at all, than such an
opinion, as is unworthy of him. For the one is unbelief, the other
is contumely; and certainly superstition is the reproach of the Deity.
Plutarch saith well to that purpose: Surely (saith he) I had rather
a great deal, men should say, there was no sitch man at all, as
Plutarch, than that they should say, that there was one Plutarch, that
would eat his children as soon as they were born; as the poets speak
of Saturn. And as the contumely is greater towards God, so the
danger is greater towards men. Atheism leaves a man to sense, to
philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation all which may
be guides to an outward moral virtue, though religion were not; but
superstition dismounts all these, and erecteth an absolute monarchy,
in the minds of men. Therefore theism did never perturb states; for it
makes men wary of themselves, as looking no further: and we see the
times inclined to atheism (as the time of Augustus Caesar) were
civil times. But superstition hath been the confusion of many
states, and bringeth in a new primum mobile, that ravisheth all the
spheres of government. The master of superstition, is the people;
and in all superstition, wise men follow fools; and arguments are
fitted to practice, in a reversed order. It was gravely said by some
of the prelates in the Council of Trent, where the doctrine of the
Schoolmen bare great sway, that the Schoolmen were like astronomers,
which did feign eccentrics and epicycles, and such engines of orbs, to
save the phenomena; though they knew there were no such things; and in
like manner, that the Schoolmen had framed a number of subtle and
intricate axioms, and theorems, to save the practice of the church.
The causes of superstition are: pleasing and sensual rites and
ceremonies; excess of outward and pharisaical holiness; overgreat
reverence of traditions, which cannot but load the church; the
stratagems of prelates, for their own ambition and lucre; the favoring
too much of good intentions, which openeth the gate to conceits and
novelties; the taking an aim at divine matters, by human, which cannot
but breed mixture of imaginations: and, lastly, barbarous times,
especially joined with calamities and disasters. Superstition, without
a veil, is a deformed thing; for, as it addeth deformity to an ape, to
be so like a man, so the similitude of superstition to religion, makes
it the more deformed. And as wholesome meat corrupteth to little
worms, so good forms and orders corrupt, into a number of petty
observances. There is a superstition in avoiding superstition, when
men think to do best, if they go furthest from the superstition,
formerly received; therefore care would be had that (as it fareth in
the good be not taken away with the bad; which commonly is done,
when the people is the reformer.
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contact: morgan at [email protected] page last modified: thu jan 12 01:37:48 2006 |
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