egin to close here, they are roused
by the bell-man, and summoned at the hour of twelve--first washing
themselves as aforesaid, in the lake, and then adjourning to the prison
which I am about to describe. There is not on earth, with the exception
of pagan rites,--and it is melancholy to be compelled to compare any
institution of the Christian religion with a Juggernaut,--there is not
on earth, I say, a regulation of a religious nature, more barbarous
and inhuman than this. It has destroyed thousands since its
establishment--has left children without parents, and parents childless.
It has made wives widows, and torn from the disconsolate husband the
mother of his children; and is itself the monster which St. Patrick is
said to have destroyed in the place--a monster, which is a complete and
significant allegory of this great and destructive superstition.
But what is even worse than death, by stretching the powers of human
sufferance until the mind cracks under them, it is said sometimes
to return these pitiable creatures maniacs--exulting in the laugh
of madness, or sunk for ever in the incurable apathy of religious
melancholy. I mention this now, to exhibit the purpose for which these
calamities are turned to account, and the dishonesty which is
exercised over these poor, unsuspecting people, in consequence of their
occurrence. The pilgrims, being thus aroused at midnight are sent to
prison; and what think you is the impression under which they enter it?
one indeed, which, when we consider their bodily weakness and mental
excitement, must do its work with success. It is this: that as soon as
they enter the prison a supernatural tendency to sleep will come over
them, which, they say, is peculiar to the place; that this is an emblem
of the influence of sin over the soul, and a type of their future fate;
that if they resist this they will be saved; but if they yield to it,
they will not only be damned in the next world, but will go mad, or
incur some immediate and dreadful calamity in this. Is it any wonder
that a weak mind and exhausted body, wrought upon by these bugbears,
should induce upon by itself, by its own terrors, the malady of
derangement? We know that nothing acts so strongly and so fatally upon
reason, as an imagination diseased by religious terrors: and I regret
to say, that I had upon that night an opportunity of witnessing a fatal
instance of it.

After having washed ourselves in the dark waters of the lake,