THE following pages are offered simply as a con- tribution to science. The progress of human society has, in different ages, presented abundance of hor- rors and abundance of vices, which, in treating history popularly, we are obliged to pass over gently, and often to conceal; but, nevertheless, if we neglect or suppress these facts altogether, we injure the truth of history itself, almost in the same manner as we should injure a mani s health by destroying some of the nerves or muscles of his body. The superstitions which are treated in the two essays which form the present volume, formed a very important element in the working of the social frame in former ages, o in fact, during a very great part of the existence of man in this world, they have had much influence inwardly and outwardly on the character and spirit of society itself, and there- fore it is necessary for the historian to understand them, and a part of the duties of the archE ologist to investigate them. The Dissertation by Richard Payne Knight is tolerably well knowno vi CONTENTS.at least by nameo to bibliographers and antiquaries, as a book of very considerable learning, and at the same time, as one which has become extremely rare, and which, therefore, can only be obtained occasionally at a very high price. It happened that, in a time when the violence of political feelings ran very high, the author, who was a member of the House of Commons, belonged to the liberal party, and his book was spitefully misrepresented, with the design of injuring his character. We know the unjust abuse which was lavished upon him by Mathias, in his now little- read satire, the i Pursuits of Literature.i Some of the Conti- netnal archE ologists had written on kindred subjects long before the time of Payne Knight.It was thought, therefore, that a new edition of this book, pro-duced in a manner to make it more accessible to scholars, would not be unacceptable. Payne Knighti s design was only to investigate the origin and meaning of a once extensively popular worship. The history of it is, indeed, a wide subject, and must include all branches of the human race, in a majority of which it is in full force at the present day, and even in our own more highly civilized branch it has continued to exist to a far more recent period than we might be inclined to suppose. It is the object of the Essay which has been written for the present volumeo of which it forms more than one halfo to investigate the existence of these superstitions among ourselves, to trace them, in fact, through the middle ages of Western Euroipe, and their influence on the history of mediE val and on the formation of modern society, and to place in the hands of historical scholarsPREFACE viisuch of their monuments as we have been able to collect. It is hoped that, thus composed, the present volume will prove acceptable to the class of readers to whom it specially addresses itself