Excerpt from The Western Monthly Magazine, Vol. 3: A Continuation of the Illinois Monthly Magazine; From January to December, 1835 None but the purest motives should be attributed to him whose mental endowments, which would have secured lasting fame if enlisted in the interests of secular literature, have been employed in the opprobrious cause of tracing to their origin vitiated religious sentiments. Such has been the ungrateful, but eminently beneficial, task, which has been achieved by the unknown author of the Natural History of Enthusiasm - whose talented production was noticed in a previous number of the Magazine. The laborious employment of collecting and arranging the materials for that and two kindred works - Sat arday Evening, and Fanaticism - engaged the author, at inter vals, for more than twelve years. Such performances would have justified the expenditure of thrice that amount of time and effort. Those works will be admired, not only in the pre sent age, but in distant periods, by those who delight to witness the operations of a gigantic intellect tearing away the massy pillars that have long supported the edifice ofa false, and con sequently pernicious religion. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.