Blind Attachment to Superstition

If the disclosure of my thoughts and reflections resulting from

a constant habit of contemplating Nature in her diversified relations

and real modes of existence, can throw a single ray of light into the

darkened intellect of man, it will increase my hopes of future

progression, and essentially tranquillize the sensations of my heart.

It ought to be perceived by every enlightened mind, that long-

established prejudices are not to be suddenly eradicated; but by

protruding the activity of intellect into the field of actual

existence, some diminution of human misery may be reasonably

expected. Man sees not with clearness, that his sufferings are

frequently the consequences of his blind attachment to error and

superstition; he seeks for their origin in the distant heavens, or

the anger or resentment of supposed supernatural agents, while the

truth often is, that his own prepossessions are the causes of his

calamity.

 --Elihu Palmer (1764-1806), Principles of Nature; or, A Development of the Moral Causes of Happiness and Misery Among the Human Species