She had been guilty, they said, of loving the baby too much, and
God, who was a jealous God, would not suffer His people to set their
affections on any object in a greater degree than on Himself; and
therefore, He, in his mercy toward her, had removed from her the object
of her idolatry. The poor woman in her agony could only sob out, "Surely
it was no sin to love my own child that God gave me." The more correct
term for such a theological conception would not be superstition, but
blasphemy.
Another danger from which children required to be shielded was the
baneful influence of the _evil eye_. Malicious people were believed to
possess the power of doing harm by merely looking upon those whom they
wished to injure. This belief is very ancient. From Professor
Conington's _Satires of A. Persius Flaccus_, I extract the following
notice of it:--"Look here--a grandmother or a superstitious aunt has
taken baby from his cradle, and is charming his forehead and his
slavering lips against mischief by the joint action of her middle finger
and her purifying spittle; for she knows right well how to check the
evil eye.
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