THE CURSE. a CHAPTER I. VULGAR ERRORS. HERE is a quaint and interesting old book, written more than two hundred years ago by Sir Thomas Browne of England, entitled a "Treatise on Vulgar Errors." By the word "vulgar" he meant not that which is low, but simply that which is common. In that work, the author attempted to gather up and expose all those false notions which he found floating among the people,—the fabulous stories and traditions which had been handed down from gener 7 ation to generation, and passed current,without examination, and without foundation in fact. In his time, the brood of these errors was well-nigh innumerable. European Society was just emerging from the darkness and superstition of the Middle Ages. A thousand common beliefs, the offspring originally of ignorance and fear, circulated freely through the world, and mingled largely in the thought and conversation of almost all classes of the people. To deliver the minds of men from the dominion of these errors, to let in upon the understanding the clear light of reason and common-sense was the aim of this stalwart old thinker and writer. In the general diffusion of knowledge which marks our modern era, and which especially characterizes our Northern States, the particular errors which he combated have for the most part disappeared. Like birds of the night, they slunk away, at the approach of dawn, to their dark hidingplaces, ready to creep forth again if the favoring shadows shall ever return. But though the more gross superstitions of two hundred years ago have departed, there are many opinions still floating about among us, which would fairly come under the denomination of "vulgar errors." Handed down from father to son, accepted early in life, for the most part without thought or examination, they pass on from mind to mind and from age to age, and are seldom confronted by any searching scrutinizing eye. If Sir Thomas Browne could live again, and do for our age what he did so faithfully for his own; if he could collect and exhibit all the false notions and beliefs which haunt modern society, we might be astonished to find how much superstition. and folly are still extant, in spite of common schools and newspapers. On the general subject of slavery, there |