Sickness and health are thine, all-powerful Jove;
Then, from my son this dire disease remove,
And when your priests thy solemn fast proclaim,
Naked the boy shall stand in Tiber’s stream.
Should chance, or the physician’s art, upraise
Her infant from the desperate disease;
The frantic dame shall plunge her hapless boy,
Bring back the fever, and the child destroy.”[45]
The existence of Heathen superstitions adapted to Christian worship is too common to excite surprise; nor is it any similarity in the externals of the two practices I have just compared, that constitutes their analogy. My mind is struck alone by the unchangeable spirit of superstition, which, attributing in all ages and nations, our own passions and feelings to supernatural beings, endeavours to obtain their favour by flattering their vanity. Both the ancient Roman and modern Spanish vow for the cure of the ague, seem to set at defiance the supposed and most probable causes of the disease, from which the devotees seek deliverance; as if to secure to the patron deities the undoubted and full honour of the miracle.