The General Preface.

...I asserted the solidity of the first point with that confidence. The more I considered it, the firmer I found it; nor have I to this day met with either man or book that could produce anything substantial toward the refutation original: "Confutation" of it.

His excuse for not adding a treatise on superstition to the one on enthusiasm.

9. I cannot easily predict original: "presage" what defect anyone might spot in my Treatise of Enthusiasm, nor can I protect myself from appearing deficient to someone who more deeply considers the usefulness of that treatise and wonders why I have not added another on superstition. But I have naturally and inadvertently followed that wise advice of the Poet:

original: "Et quæ Desperas tractata nitescere posse relinque," from Horace’s Ars Poetica.

For I must confess I do not view that subject as something that can be polished by my hand; it is a topic more suited for rhetoric than philosophy. Besides, I never found my mind low or humble enough to sink into any feeling or concept of that state original: "Dispensation" to experimentally find what lies at the bottom of it. I must honestly confess that I have a natural touch of enthusiasm In the 17th century, "enthusiasm" referred to a belief in direct private revelation or religious ecstasy, often attributed to a "complexion" or physical temperament rather than divine grace. in my temperament original: "Complexion", but one that—I thank God—was always manageable enough and which I have finally found to be perfectly conquerable. By virtue of this victory, I understand what is inside enthusiasts better than they do themselves. Therefore, I was able to write what I have written with life and judgment, and I hope I shall contribute significantly to the peace and quiet of this kingdom by doing so.

But having had such a concept of God from my very youth—one that represented Him to me as the most noble and excellent Being possible—it could never enter my mind that He was either easily angered or won over by the omitting or performing of any lowly and insignificant services. Such things neither perfect human nature nor are they the natural result of that perfection. And therefore, I had an early belief that he served God best who was least envious, worldly, or sensual; who delighted most in the common good of the universe; and who had the strongest faith in the bounty and mercy of God. His son, Jesus, is the most tangible pledge of this that He could exhibit to the world. This constant state of spirit made me completely incapable of even the slightest trace original: "Tincture" of superstition. For it is ignorance of better things that causes those anxieties and terrors of mind concerning matters of less importance.

The goal of religion is human happiness and perfection; and he who so serves God as to imagine Him to lack anything of his own, instead of honoring Him, actually insults Him. Therefore, superstition is always accompanied by ignorance or hypocrisy. The first occurs when, not knowing what that "good and acceptable will of God" is (which is to become like Him—"You will honor God best if you make your mind like God," original: "Τιμήσεις δὲ θεὸν ἄριστα ἐὰν τῷ θεῷ τὴν διάνοιαν ὁμοιώσῃς" as Pythagoras taught), they express their zeal and devotion in things that benefit neither themselves nor anyone else. The second occurs when those same trifles are offered up to God, not so much out of ignorance of what is better, but out of a kind of silent fraud and cunning deception of God, as it were. They attempt to make such an unequal exchange with Him, whether He wants it or not. Though they may for a while pacify their false hearts and consciences through these delusions, in the meantime, they really only provoke God by these "sacrifices of fools." A reference to Ecclesiastes 5:1, implying mindless ritual or superficial worship.

This is the summary of what I am able to conceive regarding this other disease of superstition.