American citizen., 1875-03-27

whether Ithey are, as their adherents
claim, the gathered wisdom of thou
sand years." the observations of countless
old women of countless generations.
:. Cut your nails on Sunday, and you'll
be ashamed on Monday" says one of
these silly saws. Fridays undertaking
is sure to come to breaking" says an
other. "See IA pin and pick it up, all
the day you'll have good luck" third
announces, with more sense than rhyme
See a pin and let it lie, you'll want a
pin before YOU die" And all across the
country, when night falls, the young
maidens are looking at the first star that
glimmers through the twilight, and re-
peatIng, Starlight, starlight, first star
i've seen o-night ; / wish l could, wish
| might, have the wish wish tonight :"
But why should we not then trim our
nails on Sunday, if we will, without fear
of disgrace? What occult harmonies of
the cosmos are broken by the process,
and is there really any wizardy behind
it al2 The simplest wizardry in the
world explains it, at any rate, and just
as simple solution can be produced to
every one of the little superstitions in
its turn. Why should you not trim your
nails on Sunday? Because under the
old civilization in which the saying had
rise the thorough toilet, we blush to
saw, was weekly and not daily in
stitution. 1t was supposed to be the
part of every decent body to have the
person in order for the beginning of the
week, and if you were so laggard
as to be going through the operation
on Sunday instead of Saturday, why, you
naturally then would be laggard enough
in other things to get behindhand and to
be ashamed OF yourself on Monday. This
4G,,r IF iS a
fruitful one for these signs and saws,
and, according to another, although Sun
day is still forbidden day, You can trim
them on Monday if you want news
Tuesday for shoes; Wednesday for
wealth, Thursday for health, Friday for
sorrow, Saturday, see your true.love to-
morrow" which, if you go to the same
church, you very probably would do any
way AS for the Fridays undertak-
ings"-alas! how many of US, even nous
autres are yet in the bonds of that coup
let, will not begin a journey or piece of
work on Friday and would aim ost rather
remain single forever than run the risk
of taking Friday for our wedding-day, in
spite of the example of the Scotch, who
prefer it for a wedding day, and in spite
of the example of the Russians, who re-
gard it as the luckiest of all daysl And
why should we not begin a choice under
simple as the clowns conundrums
not because Friday is hanging day,
but because there isn't time to
finish it in the same week; pres
emily comes Sunday, and the opening
of the new week brings its own work,
and the thing begun on Friday is likely
to drag along till one is sick of it, and so
never get done at all. Then, to go on,
why, if you pick up a pin, will it bring
1,rc Is ,1v-f fh<,
that the person who is both observant
and careful enough to stoop and pick up
such tritle is naturally and intrinsicsl-
-ly in the way of good luck and success,
and for no other. Er pede Herculem: as
it is with one precept SO it is with the
Whole body of the law. Why do they
say you will get your wish if you wish
by hundred white horses? Because il
will take you lifetime to see a hundred
white horses and always remember to
count one and skip none, and possibly
because a thing wished for with so much
persistence is likely to be gained by
other means Why will you quarrel
with the person between whom and your
self you spill the salt at table? Because
such carelessness in one thing is only
indicative of corresponding carelessness
in all things, and the common result of
carelessness, whether it comes from
greedy haste or inattention, is a quarrel.
Why may you not drive a nail on Sun
day without death ensuing in the family
before the year closes? Carelessness
again. The people who are SO improvi-
dent as to leave their nail-driving till
Sunday are reckless enough, under the
old form of ideas, to fall from a house
top or meet with any other of the calam-
tiles called judgments at any time. Why
may we none of us sit down thirteen at
table without entailing death on one of
the banqueters again before the year is
out? Because the number thirteen be-
ing a bakers dozen and the DEVILS dozen
got bad name early, and the average
of death being within such proportion
that whether you sit down at table or
not some one of any given thirteen is
liable to death within the given year.
And thus the answer rises to nearly all
of these little riddles. Nearly, but not
quite all for why in the world, when a
bit of the wick refuses to burn and dark
ems the flame, the goodwife should start
in dismay, and cry that there is shroud
in the candle, or why seeing the moon
over one shoulder should bring you
better luck than seeing it over the other,
though it is very evident why it should
your pocket; or why, because you fall up
stairs, it should follow that you lover is
thinking of you-these and the rest of
them are riddles that not all the wisdom
of puzzlecraft can solve.
Yet about some of these superstitions
a certain shadow of poetry rests, as when
you hear dog howl under the window
at night, and feel the sound add horror
to the darkness and desOlation of the
hour, because just SO the tabled banshee
howls and presages death, or when the
same presage occurs at the breaking of
the looking glass and the shattering of
the reflected image there. But whether
poetical or not, whether explainable or
not, it seems to us that any heed of, not
to say belief in, such absurdities is ut
terly unbecoming members of a Christian
community, and we agree with Lord
Bacon in thinking them not only idle and
puerile, out low bred and mischievous-
Harper's Bdzar.