Mark, now, the vow employed by the Roman matrons for the cure of intermittents. It is recorded by Horace, and thus translated by Francis:-- “Her child beneath a quartan fever lies For full four months, when the fond mother cries, 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] [45] Jupiter, ingentes qui das adimisque dolores, (Mater ait pueri menses jam quinque cubantis), Frigida si puerum quartana reliquerit, illo Mane, die quo tu indicis jejunia, nudus In Tiberi stabit.--Casus, medicusve levarit Ægrum ex precipiti; mater delira necabit In gelidâ fixum ripâ, febrimque reducet. HOR. SAT. L. II. 3. 288. 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. DETACHED PREJUDICES AND PRACTICES. Having mentioned the superstitious method used in this country for the cure of the ague, I wish to introduce a short account of some popular prejudices more or less connected with the prevalent religious notions. I shall probably add a few facts under this head, for no better reason than that I do not know how to class them under any other. There is an allusion in Hudibras to an antiquated piece of gallantry which I believe may be illustrated by a religious custom to which I was sometimes subjected in my childhood. The passage runs thus: I’ll carve your name on barks of trees With true love-knots and flourishes, ... _Drink every letter on’t in stum, And make it brisk Champaigne become._[46] [46] Hudibras, Part II. Canto I.