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Transcriber's note:

      Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).

      There are minor differences between the titles of sections
      and those given in the Table of Contents. A reference to two
      notes, at the end of the book, has been inserted in the table.





NATURAL HISTORY OF ENTHUSIASM.

by

ISAAC TAYLOR


  ... δύο ἐστὶ, τὸ μὲν ἀρετὴ φυσικὴ, τὸ δ' ἡ κυρία.


From the Ninth London Edition.






New York:
Robert Carter & Brothers
No. 530 Broadway

1859.




ADVERTISEMENT.


The belief that a bright era of renovation, union, and extension,
presently awaits the Christian Church, seems to be very generally
entertained. The writer of this volume participates in the cheering
hope; and it has impelled him to undertake the difficult task of
describing, under its various forms, that FICTITIOUS PIETY which
hitherto has never failed to appear in times of unusual religious
excitement, and which may be anticipated as the probable attendant of a
new development of the powers of Christianity.

But while it has been the writer's principal aim to present to the
Christian reader, in as distinct a manner as possible, the characters of
that specious illusion which too often supplants genuine piety, he has
also endeavored so to fix the sense of the term Enthusiasm as to wrest
it from those who misuse it to their own infinite damage.

The author would say a word in explanation of his choice of a term in
this instance; and of the extent of meaning he has assigned to it. The
best that can be done, when matters of mind are under discussion, is to
select, from the stores of familiar language, a word which, in its usual
sense, approximates more nearly than any other to the abstraction spoken
of. To require from an ethical writer more than this, would be to demand
that, before he enters upon his subject, he should both renovate the
science of mind, and reform his mother tongue: for when things not yet
scientifically defined are to be spoken of, it must needs happen that,
in proportion to the accuracy with which they are described, there will
be apparent occasion for taking exception against the sense imputed to
the term employed.

The author proposed it to himself, as his task, to depict, under its
principal forms, FICTITIOUS SENTIMENT in matters of religion, including,
of course, a consideration of those opinions which seem to be either the
parents or the offspring of such artificial sentiments. Having this
object before him, he would have thought it a very inauspicious, as well
as cumbrous method, to have constructed a many-syllabled phrase of
definition, to be used on every page of his essay. Instead of attempting
any such laborious accuracy, he has boldly chosen his single
term—Enthusiasm; confiding in the good sense and candor of his readers
for allowing him a span or two of latitude when employing it in
different instances, which seem to come under the same general class.




CONTENTS.

                                                                    PAGE
 SECTION I.
 Enthusiasm, Secular and Religious,                                    7

 SECTION II.
 Enthusiasm in Devotion,                                              27

 SECTION III.
 Enthusiastic Pervers