The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-11-28
THE SURVVALS
 OF THE FETCH Little Superstitions Held By Some Great People HAVE FAITH IN CHARMS Macaulay Always Trod In Middle of Paving Stones-Max Muller Car ried Ha'penny With Hole In
 1t For Luck

0AOAi tue Edu nlAL NTazelI6.
 Among the portents of the great plague noted by Defos was running about to fortune-tellers, cunning men, and astrol- ogers." Sadly he reported that this trade grew 80 openly and so generally prac- uced that it became common to have signs and inscriptions set up at the doors, Here Lives the Fortune-Teller.' and the like" This was 250 years ago. in an ig- norant age. enlightenment has marched so far and so fast since then that for tune-tellers. clairvoyants, "and the like' crowd the fashionable streets with their advertisements. And nobody worth atten- ton thinks it a portent. At bishops table one may hear fellow guests pro- claim their belief in palmistry-it is classed among the sciences. Learned per sons investigate the wonders of clairvoy- ance. A fourishng society of astrologers holds debates and issues Literature" So and culture since Defoes time. It is very encouraging for the future
 Does any ono quite escape the snares of superstition? Not all are gross and pal pablo. There is a multitude of private observances. avowedly superstitious, to some of which most of us arc devoted. One need not turn back so far as Bacon or Newton to find examples among the wtsest and sravest- A man more abso- lutely governed by pure reason than Lord Macaulay could not well be found. But in his diary he refers to an after-dnner 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 paving stone. And he adds: T certainly have this very strong 1y." Such fancy Is not vulgar nor un- dignifed, like consulting a disreputable woman as an oracle, but is 1t less un- reasonable?
 Carried Ha'penny for Luck.
 In one of his Hibbert lectures Max Muller said to the students. Many of you. I suspect carry 8 ha'penny with a hole in it for luck. 1 am not ashamed to own that have done so myself for many years" The case was cited as an illus tration 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 a hotel, but a compass was always handy In his baggage to make sure, and the slightest error must be corrected before he would turn in. Little scenes are said to have occurred more than once when the host was stubborn. Miss Justin Mo- Carthy has told how Parnen gravely checked her stirring coffee the wrong way and insisted that she should take another cup. A gentleman of Por- trush sent Lord Roberts an old horseshoe, when things looked i'll in South Africa. Gratefully acknowledging 1t, the general added that he would keep this horseshoe in company with one I picked up the day I entered the Orange Free State. and another I found at Paardeburg the day before General Cronje surrendered"
 When Macaulay and Max Muller con- fess such weakness We are not only per- mitted, but compelled, to suppose that few mortals are exempt Of those who would laugh. in all sincerity, at the charge of superstition. vast number are scrupulous to perform certain daily ex- ercises in ''the right way" as MT. Parnell stirred his coffee. It may probably be the way approved in the beginning of things by Pithecanthropus erectus, moved by inn pulses which we laboriously seek to an- alyze at the present day; but they hold us in subjection still What proportion of English men and women are careful to put shoe and stocking on the right foot first, and feel "uncomfortable' more or less, like Max Muller, if by chance they reversed the proceeding? We happen to know that this fancy is as old as imperial Rome at least, for 1t Is recorded that Augustus once put on his left shoe first and thereby caused mutiny of the Pre- torians.
 Charm In Mandrake Root.
 No harm comes of these absurdties. Sir Mountstuart Grant Duff was mot 8 lit tie surprised to learn some time ago that a public man occupying one of the high est nonroyal positions in Europe attrib- utes much of the success he has had In life to the possession of mandrake root" It shows the genteman's modesty. e oreditable trait of character. Professor Mahafy was shocked to discover that "a woman of good family, educated the wife of an M. F.. had put an amulet on the leg of her child, just bitten by 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 his life. After all, in any case. it did no mischief. It is stated on the best authority that deputation of farmers from Northumberland waited on Sir Thomas Lockhart in 1888 to beg gallon of water in which his famous Lee Pen n.y. had been dipped. wherewith to dose their sick cattle; from a date unknown such superstitions have been addressed to the representatives of the Lockhart fam fly. One is almost sorry to hear that the Reputation returned empty-handed. If they had been allowed to carry on hogshead of the blessed water neither they nor their cattle would have been a penny the worse. And 1t might have done the ''humans'' good, at any rate, by cheering them up. The mischief of su- nuu vryhA o credits another with occult powers and trusts ,aa. ar him accordinElY. For the indi-