A WORLD OF SUPERSTITION.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1663, 1 February 1913, Page 11

A WORLD OF SUPERSTITION.

BYGONE AGES AND PEOPLES.

>[B* ImooekJ >Tb was rather amusing, and perhaps a little oomfortmg, to read thevothor day that th« Local Government Committoo of tho London County Council—that important body of deliberative and presumably matter-of-fact city. ■ men —allowed thempelvos to bo influenoed in a matter which wa9 curiously connected, with tho number thirteen.Wo road that an applioant, with thirteen ■ letters to hia name, asked to havo his house, No, 13, renumbered 14. There were' also thirteen letters in tho , Ba ®o of his, street, and also in tho namo of tho ohairman'of tho committee. To-bo dpgged byNo. 13 in this manner was,, tho committoo evidently' "thought, ' altogether beyond'human endurance, and they gavo the applicant the required permission. As a consequence, irrevorant remarks havo been levelled at the committee by superior people ;for yielding in such a manner to 'silly iiuperstition." Superstition may be "silly," It often is, to,tell tie truth, but nevertheless one does not oome across many people who do not yield to it in Bomo way or another. Among the ignorant it 'stalks - rampant; among enlightened people it is still to be found, though it jno.y be in different forms, becauso they know that no knowledge is absolute,- and that there are still many things existing that aro not "dreamt of in their philoBophj'." ■ . ... Irrational 1 _The dictionary quaintly defines supersti"tion as being an ignorant or irrational fear of that whiah is unknown, or mysterious." 13 aiyr fear irrational that balks at the mysterious, the 'incomprehensible workings of the gods? Far back into that dim ago of tho world's youth, when man was beginning to learn that he'was not animal only, glimmerings of the powers existing outside himself began ;to dawn upon Ms consciousness, and straightway he began his course of evasion or piacation, a course that still continues to-day. ; To him every phase of life was under tho dominion of some spirit,-.benoficent or otherwise, and tho-lower his-intelligence

tho more malicious, tho more terrible were tho qualities : with which fhe invested it. ; The sun, the.moon, the'stors, tho woods, and the streams, .the mountains, the winds,-and . every phenomena' of nature ■ upon which his : dawning: mental- powers con trod wero under the control of supernatural i beings,. and could, he only command their, interest and goodwill, all was .well with'his world.: And so he worked out his code ,of things ; that - were to be done, and things that were not-to be done. . And somo ■of theso are I with us . to-day, and laugh at them as we will, so .strong - is 'tho-pojjMu.o^iyit^at,,.,lpng ;£ sutmierfjed 1 savage ancearystb whiph't'we, that we still pander to those gods .whoso power waa so dreaded then. -. , - Creaturo of a Day. ' . :. Out of- thei immensities of' time, and epaoo and motion, man had to fashion Bome habitation in whioh he could Test .his soul.- Otherwise how could', ho live' in .; sanity ? Time: that went on forever and forever, with no beginning,and no ending; ,Bpaoo that stretched far out into universes beyond all count, beyond all kriowingj motion under whoso spell tho sun, tho moon, worlds without' end, down to tlio lost electron of which they are composed, ' were feet ' whirlingwire tho infinities against man, the finite, had to find some refuge. What is " superstition and what is-knowledge? Who can tell when every day some new theory arises to overthrow'the'last statement to which wo have pinned our trust? Perhaps—who knows?—it is; as well .that, 'superstition should: have 'a - certain place in our lives, if it is only to'remind ■us that after' all wo are not, .though we may boast of boing so, the masters of our :: fate. To the old Greeks, man was the . eport of tho gods and everywhere, in every nation, the, same belief . underlies : - all others. - ' •■/ Many exquisitely beautiful ideas have ' been'bequeathed us by old-time superstition as well as. some that are distinctly ,''eerie; The more imaginative and,natureloving a people are, the greater is their belief in.tho power of "the over-living," and of their active influence in our destinies to- . dayj vTo tho Oeltio : mind, poetic, unsatisfied, forever in search of that [ "light whjch is on neither sea nor land," a mind, which is kin to everything in Nature, the' Invisible is th-j visible, , and the supernatural is but tho natural. One'has only, ■>to read the folk lore of Ireland, of the: • Highlands of Scotland, of Cornwall, of Brittany, to realise this truth, and of how ; 'often the _ veil dividing the unseen from , tho: 6een .is lifted for, these people. . Tho Genius of tho Maori, 'Our ora Maori literature what ha 3 been, collected of it, to come nearer to .hand, is full of tho superstitions and beliefs of tho people,; as .well ~as their legends. 1 Their vivid 1 imagination and' questioning attitude of mind left nothing unaccounted for, and the mysteries of Nature were but . pegs upon, which'they fastened tho fruits. ' of their poetio genius, Probably few people could surpass them in.: tho fervour of, their curses, for tlley seem to havo made a special feature of ■ them. Distance was no bar to tho potency of their spells, and, as a matter of fact, ono reads of curious things that wero ric- , complished W somo oLtho famous to- . hungas, whetfior by pure coincidence or by occult means, who shall say? Who-, ther,* after all, we havo travelled so very far from that attitude of mind istperhaps an open question. Some.of Us in this twentieth century, when a wrong has been inflicted, curso our enemies with fervour, and hug' to ourselves tho 6aying that "the mills of God grind slowly, but they grind . exceeding small." : After all. who is to, say where superstition ends 'and truth' begins ? It may yet be said of us, even in tho twentieth century,. "There was darkness over Eireo: they adored things of Faerie.".

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