The Holy TT - ells of Ireland, by Mr. HARDY, the editor
of the 11` Dublin Penny Journal," professes to contain an authentic ac- count of the various places of pilgrimage and penance that are visited by the Irish peasantry, as well as of the devotions and penances which the pilgrims perform. Some of the matter is original, but the greater part is taken front other authors, as INGLIS, CROFTON CROKER, and CARLETON; and conveys a graphic, but perhaps a coloured idea of the whole. The object of the compiler is to induce the Catholic priests to abolish the pit- grimages,—as if any class of men, much less churchmen, ever spontaneously gave up practices by which they profited!—but the author, like many other good-meaning persons, has not per- ceived the true rationale of the subject. He attributes to a par- ticular mode of belief, that which arises from gross ignorance, and the natural superstition of the human mind. if penance were abolished at once, some other practices, quite as absurd, would be followed either with or in despite of the priesthood. It may be doubted too, notwithstanding the assertions to the con- trary, whether amongst such an intellectually degraded race, anricu'ar confession, and the tangible punishments that follow it, do not operate beneficially on the whole. They may be bad checks, but yet better than none.
Previous page
