Genre:

Essay

Subjects:

Belief, Superstition, Railways, Commerce, Charlatanry, Race

    Begins by lamenting the fact that 'in this age of science and intelligence, and in our own enlightened country', George Hudson should have been worshipped as somebody who 'exercised unlimited power over all railway matters, and could render any line that he took under his tutelage a source of indefinite emolument to his votaries'. Criticises the amount of money that people poured 'into his temple'—i.e. how much money they invested in his dubious railway schemes. Continuing the analogy between Hudson and a pagan idol, explains how the 'golden visions' (i.e. hopes of profit) and money of the 'idolaters' were dispelled, and how the idolaters then destroyed the idol, conducting themselves 'exactly like certain savages, who, when accustomed to offer all sorts of indignation to their gods, before which previously they had prostrated themselves in the most abject abasement'.