The poor in tenements and huts, in spite of rags and hunger hope for wealth.--Hope fills their thin and trembling hands with gold. The dying hopes that death is but another birth, and Love leans above the pallid face and whispers, "We shall meet again." Hope is the consolation of the world. Let us hope, if there be a God that he is wise and good. Let us hope that if there be another life it will bring peace and joy to all the children of men. And let us hope that this poor earth on which we live, may be a perfect world--a world without a crime--without a tear. SUPERSTITION. I. WHAT IS SUPERSTITION? To believe in spite of evidence or without evidence. To account for one mystery by another. To believe that the world is governed by chance or caprice. To disregard the true relation between cause and effect. To put thought, intention and design back of nature. To believe that mind created and controls matter. To believe in force apart from substance, or in substance apart from force. To believe in miracles, spells and charms, in dreams and prophecies. To believe in the supernatural. The foundation of superstition is ignorance, the superstructure is faith and the dome is a vain hope. Superstition is the child of ignorance and the mother of misery. In nearly every brain is found some cloud of superstition. A woman drops a cloth with which she is washing dishes, and she exclaims: "That means company." Most people will admit that there is no possible connection between dropping the cloth and the coming of visitors. The falling cloth could not have put the visit desire in the minds of people not present, and how could the cloth produce the desire to visit the particular person who dropped it? There is no possible connection between the dropping of the cloth and the anticipated effects. A man catches a glimpse of the new moon over his left shoulder, and he says: "This is bad luck." To see the moon over the right or left shoulder, or not to see it, could not by any possibility affect the moon, neither could it change the effect or influence of the moon on any earthly thing. Certainly the left-shoulder glance could in no way affect the nature of things. All the facts in nature would remain the same as though the glance had been over the right shoulder. We see no connection between the left-shoulder glance and any possible evil effects upon the one who saw the moon in this way. A girl counts the leaves of a flower, and she says: "One, he comes; two, he tarries; three, he courts; four, he marries; five, he goes away." Of course the flower did not grow, and the number of its leaves was not determined with reference to the courtship or marriage of this girl, neither could there have been any intelligence that guided her hand when she selected that particular flower. So, count' ing the seeds in an apple cannot in any way determine whether the future of an individual is to be happy or miserable.