The origin of man and of his superstitions / by Carveth Read.

  • Read, Carveth, 1848-1931.
Date:
1920
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The origin of man and of his superstitions / by Carveth Read. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    244/372 (page 228)
    felt between two classes of signs : (1) those that are of a usual kind, such as the tracks of game, the return of the swallows, the croaking of frogs, which are almost constantly the antecedents of interesting events, such as the getting of food, the coming of spring, or of rain; sequences that recur again and again, some of them being, like the tracks of game, easily intelligible; all which, accordingly, are accepted as a matter of course and incorporated with common sense. (2) Less usual events, such as strange animals, lightning, eclipses, shooting-stars; which come to be considered as signs by being connected in imagination with interesting events which happen soon after them, such as a failure in hunting, an attack by enemies, a death in the tribe, the wreck of a canoe; though the connexions are irregular and never intelligible, and are accepted not as a matter of course, but as mysterious, magical and portentous : they are Omens. They acquire the hold upon men that belongs to the growing body of superstition. Although irregular, they are classed with the connexions that are believed to be most regular, and failures are overlooked. To these are added and ac¬ cumulated in tradition, by analogy or caprice, innumerable other signs and warnings. That Omens obtain an inextricable hold in the tangle of superstitious beliefs results from men’s strong desire to foresee the future, especially in social conditions full of dangers and uncertainties, without the settled organisation which, with us in ordinary times, makes one year so much like another. Upon many people, indeed, this desire has the; same effect to this day, and becomes more active in troubled! times like the present. Anxious to know whether they are to marry, or to hear of a death, or to come into money ori some other advancement, they hope to find out by visiting Mrs. Sludge in a stuffy chamber, or (as you may see in: London) by consulting a canary at the street-corner. When a fixed idea of love or ambition or anxiety possesses the mind and leaves it no peace, we are ready to try any device that promises to relieve the strain, and we do things silliei than could have been predicted even by those who knew m best.