The Birkenhead News and Wirral General Advertiser. — 1910-10-05 (Birkenhead, Merseyside, England)

RESPECT FOR HUMAN LIFE.,  . They now came to examples which showed that superstition had in svarious times and places strengthened-respect for and contributed to the security of human life. The particular superstition which had chiefly produced this good effect was the fear of ghosts, especially the ghosts of :he murdered. It was perhaps univ.-rsal among -savages, and it was, indeed,- not extinct among ourselves. The first extuir.lts Lha the President took by -way of proof were from the ancient Greeks, and incidentally, in referring to the Greek method of purifying a homicide—namely; by killing a sucking pig and washing the hands of the guilty man, in its blood—be Observe(' that, curious as It was, the idea-of expiation by a'sacriSee of blood is, or has been, well-nigh universal. throughout the world. There wtie at this day a widespread opinion in Calabria '(ltaly) that if a murderer was to escape from the vengeance of the ghost, he must suck his victim's blood from the dagger which killed him. Numerous examples of this particular form of superstition, from different .parts of the world, were cited by the President. and of-the measures adopted with the object of scaring away the ghosts, or of -preventing them from moving about. He recalled the cistern in mediseval England of burying' a suicide at cross-roads, and driving a stake through his body to prevent him from wandering. This widespread superstition of the sfear of ghosts had probably served a useful purpose by enhancing the sacredness of human life. To the Chinese their dead were not .merely a dim, sad memory as they were to us, but they kept up an active exchange of both good 'and evil with the suryivors.. Their whole religion revolved tipoit this 'belief„ which enforced respect for human life, and a kind treatment of the sick and aged. A Chinaman would. sometimes hang. Ifimself byAtight .over -the door of alwan who had injured him, in order, as Professor. Groot said, "to wreak in death that vengeance on oppressor which he. could not exact in life." . - . -•  'Raving thus shown that superstition. had, in various places) and at certain times, sided in upholding the four pillar& 'of Society; the Preeident,'M conclusion,- fund: 'But superstition. in its essence-L.A..- wholly bad. Being founded upon the ignoranee, weakness and cruelty of the hasten ease, its' false pre&ses could only.-lead to wrong(deductions, which, are turually elimetrouMin• their • results. It has, from the: earliest times; kept .on putting back the clock' of k program. by preventiog earnest siekeeti after tro,th from having a free hand. in --their .stuaies. There are two phases of snierstibon that have been more cruel st. ' structive than others: in religion, tbe:per,seention of those who happen to believe differently. from ourselves: and in magic, what is known as witchcraft. The-.witch or wizard has always -.been suPPoled" have powers over natural phenomena that' ordr-, mar] persons do not possess. In this cate-1  .11e_r7 era-includes' both.. the earlier scientists who prosecuted their .sesearches, at great risk to themselves, into natural philosophy, and -also those min-scientific persons who were supposed to have acquired Glair knnledge from intereollree with evil spirits. Of the Obeah system, which our Government, has not yet succeeded in stamping oat in ..ramaica, there is no:good thing to say. For I these evil practitioners of a very black 'magic do not scruple to employ poison when their prognosticatiOns of evil are tardy in materialising.  Mr. -Llewellyn Daries, in piopOsing that the President's address be printed and circulated at the expense .of the secietY, thought the' benefits bestowed on the race by, atiperstition were for the main part accidental, that superstition in its essence; was a disadvantage. • Mr. E. A. Fisher, in seconding the resQ-, lution,,suggested that the origin of super.atitionovas an attempton the part of primitive inairto.aecount for the mysteries of 'the actual world.. .Man as he developed- became -self-conscious, and as things affected him personally• they had a feeling of iap'prehension., Superstition 'might be regarded as. a thing expedient to'-do, and also that which it was expedient to leave undone.  In supporting the Motion, Dr. Procter suggested that superstition was essentially .the superseding of old beliefs, -which were former truths; and what the savage _believed when groping for light, and might prove to be sometimes right and sometimes wrong. e,  Mi. J. R, Webb agreed that it had its origin in the atrophy of, belief"and rose upon the idea that all nature was animate. It might be fitly described as the fear of the unknown.  Mr, S.. S. Bacon suggested that it was possible to believe the right ithing for a wrong reason and fhat i Ihe,trankition stage-fact itself is frequently dubbed super•stitiOn until established by evidence.! The discussion was continued.% Messrs. W. Thompson and Southcombe. Dr. Green then acknowledged the, vote of thanks in f brief remark, and the meeting adjourned: .7-- . .