Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-07-23
"LITTLE" SUPERSTITlONS.
The Curious Beliefs of Some Great
Persons in "Absurdities."

nc SuTIouS DeIleTS OF 0Ofnc 0FedC
Persons in "Absurdities."
Among the portents of the Great
Plague noted by Defoe was running
about to fortune tellers, cunning men,
and astrologers" Sadly he reports
that this trade grew so open and so
generally practiced that it became
common to have signs and inscriptions
set up at the doors: Here lives the
Fourtne Teller and the like" This
was two hundred and fifty years ago,
in an ignorant age; enlightenment, has
marched SO far and so fast since then
that fortune telers, clairvoyants, "an1
the like" crowd the fashionable streets
with their advertisements. And no.
body worth attention thinks it a
portent. At a bishops table one may
hear felloW-guests proclaim their be-
lief in palmistry-it is classed among
the sciences. Learned persons investi-
gate the wonders of clairvoyance. A
flourishing Society of AStrologers
holds debates and issues literature. -
So great has been the progress of
knowledge and culture since Defoe's
| time 1t is very encouraging for the
future.
Does anyone quite escape the snares
of superstition? Not all are gross and
palpable. There is a multitude of
private obServanceS, aVoWedly super
stitious, to some of which most of us
are devoted. One need not turn back
SO far as Bacon or Newton to find eX-
| amples among the wisest and gravest.
A man more absolutely governed by
pure reason than Lord Macaulay could
not well be found. But in his diary he
refers to an after-dinner talk about
the feeling which johnson had-of
thinking ones self bound to touch a
particular rail or post and to tread in
the middle of a paving stone. And he
adds: L certainly have this very
strongly" Such a fancy is not vulgar
nor undignified. like consulting a dis
reputable woman as an oracle, but is
it less unreasonable? In one of his
HILBERT lectures Max Muller said to
the students: MANY of you I suspect
carry a hapenny with a hole in it, for
luck. / am not ashamed to own that l
have done so myself for many years
The case was cited as an illustration of
"survivals'' from primeval fetichism
but on his own account Max Muller
confessed that when, sometimes he
had left home without this ha'penny
talisman, he felt very uncomfortable
until his safe return.
Charles Dickens refused to lie down
unless his bed were placed due north
and south He gave notice of the rule
before arriving at a friends house or
an hotel, but a compass was always
handy in his baggage to make sure.
and the slightest error must be cor
rected before he would turn in. Little
scenes are said to have occurred more
than once when the host was stub
born. Miss Justin Mccarthy has told
how Parnell gravely checked her STIR
ring coffee "the wrong way" and in
sisted that she should take another
cup A gentleman of Portrush sent
Lord Roberts an old horseshoe, when
things looked ill in South Africa.
Grateful acknowledging it, the general
added that he would keep this horse
shoe in company with one I picked up
the day I entered the Orange Free
State, and another I found at Paarde-
burg the day before General CronJe
surrendered"
When Macaulay and Max Muller
confess such weakness we are not only
permitted but compelled to suppose
that few mortals are exempt. OF those
who would laugh, in all sincerity, at
the charge of superstition, a vast num-
Der are scrupulous to perform certain
daily exercises in "the right way" as
Mr.. Parnell stirred his coffee. 1t may
probably be the way approved in the
beginning of things by Pitheean-
thropus erectus, moved by impulses
which we laboriously seek to analyze
at the present day; but they hold us
in subsection STILL What proportion of
put shoe and stocking on the right foot
first, and feel uncomfortable" more
or less, like Max Muller, if by chance
they reverse the proceeding? We
happen to know that this fancy is as
old as imperial Rome at least, for it is
recorded that Augustus once put on
his left shoe first, and thereby caused
a mutiny of the Pretorians.
No harm comes of these absurdities.
Sir Mountstuart Grant Duff was mot
a little surprised to learn, some time
ago. that a public man occupying one
of the highest non-royal positions IN
Europe, attributes much of the success
he has had in life to the possession of
q mandrake root" 1t shows the
gentleman's modesty, a creditable trait
of character. Professor Mahaffy was
shocked to discover that "a woman of
good family, educated the wife of an
M. p, had put an amulet on the leg
of her child, just bitten by a dog" If
the mother had faith she was spared a
terrible anxiety, and if the boy
shared her confidence the amulet may
well have saved her life After all, in
any case it did no mischief. 1t is
stated on the best authority that a