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SuperstitionacySnpr THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG 170 em in the bull Summis desiderantes of Innocent VIII. issued in 1484 commanding the clergy to assist in hunting out and punishing witches, and giving papal authority to belief in succubi, incubi, and other horrible figments of the diseased imagination (text of the bull is in Reich, Documents, pp. 200-201; cf. further, Schaff, Christian Church, v. 1, pp. 879 sqq., and 2, pp. 514 sqq.). And with equal force it has made use of the State, from the time of Hammurabi (q.v., II., 2) to the Salic Law (xix. 2; Eng. transl. in F. A. Ogg, Source Book, p. 64, New York, 1908), and even much later (see ORDEAL, § 9). It reestablished the pestiferous distinction between white magic and black, a distinction which seems to have existed in all grades of civilization. Its deadliest power, perhaps, is that by which it acquires influence over the commonest affairs of everyday life, stifling initiative, stagnating thought, poisoning the in tellect, and subjecting activities to the imagined effects of chance happenings with which they have no relation. The statement just made may be exemplified by reference to the list of current superstitions educed by the inductive study of the subject by Dresslar in the work already cited. The study was conducted upon the basis of questions submitted 7. Present to students of normal schools (there Super- fore adults or adolescents) in California stitions. in the twentieth century. Things with which superstitions were connected were named as follows: salt, bread and butter, tea and coffee, plants and fruit; fire, lightning, rainbow, the moon, the stars; babies, birds, owls, peacocks and their feathers, chickens, cats, dogs, cows, sheep, swine, horses, rabbits, rats, frogs and toads, fish, crickets, spiders, snakes, lizards, turtles, wolves, bees, dragon flies; chairs and tables, clocks, mirrors, spoons, knives and forks, pointed instruments, pins, hairpins, combs, umbrellas (mostly unlucky), can dles, matches, tea-kettle, brooms, dishcloths, hand kerchiefs, gardening tools, ladders, horseshoes, hay; days of the week and various festivals or fasts, es pecially Hallowe'en, birthdays; various numbers, counting, laughing, singing, crying; starting on a journey and turning back, two persons simultane ously saying the same thing, passing in at one door and out at another, walking on opposite sides of a post, stepping on cracks, sneezing, crossing hands while shaking hands, use of windows as exits, stumbling; itching of palm, eye, nose, ear, or foot; warts, moles; various articles of dress, shoes, pre cious stones, amulets and charms, rings, money; wish bones; death and funerals, dreams, spiritisms, weddings, and initials. Of course, even this long list is most incomplete and might be expanded in definitely. The practical significance of the beliefs registered in connection with these various beliefs or actions is that activities and procedure are sup posed to be governed by them-action is indicated or inhibited according as the " sign " is favorable or unfavorable. A slavery with respect to action is thus shown which ought to be anomalous in en lightened Christendom, and yet is manifested as current. A graver fact than the preceding is involved in the slavery of thought which is a consequence of
the attention paid to " signs " and " omens." The
function of the Church as an educator and the large
field which is here opened bring the
8. Present subject in this aspect into view with
Conse- relation to religious duty. Knowledge
quences. of the actual work of the Church war
rants the statement that not sufficient
attention is paid to this side of the Church's pai
deutic mission. The preoccupation of the mind by
such superstitious faiths can but retard the accept
ance not merely of scientific but of religious truth.
The very springs of healthy mental and spiritual
perception are poisoned while such trivialities are
permitted to control the sources of action. That
such effects are very far-reaching, even to the con
trol in a measure of business concerns of immense
importance, is shown by the fact that some great
corporations engaged in transoceanic transporta
tion avoid Friday as a day of sailing, this custom
being undoubtedly due in considerable part to the
outworn sailors' superstition as to the misfortune
which surely awaits the voyagers who set out on
that day. And another consequence which is not
paltry is that by such beliefs imposture is encour
aged, while hosts of quacks in medicine, palmists,
fortune-tellers, and " wizards " flourish on the
credulity of the ignorant and deluded, at the same
time that these beliefs are spread because the cun
ning and ambiguous pronouncements of the im
postors are interpreted as wisdom by the victims
and new strength is furnished to superstitious
growths. Of the results in loss of life in more back
ward communities such as Russia and even Ireland,
of sacrifices and cruelties practised even in the lat
ter part of the nineteenth century and indeed in
the city of New York itself, there is not space here
to treat. How terrible the current beliefs and the
almost contemporary consequences are may be dis
covered from the accounts in the Popular Science
Monthly for 1898-99, pp. 207-218, of murders, e.g.,
of helpless infants supposed to be fairy changelings
in the last part of the nineteenth century. And if
at such a period events can occur such as are there
recounted, the imagination must fail to portray what
has happened in the darker ages of human history.
It is therefore no argument for the perpetuation
of superstition that some fruits of good have re
sulted from its existence, such as those adduced by
J. G. Frazer (in Psyche's Task, ut sup.). Exam
ination of savage and barbarous life reveals that,
for instance, the institution of taboo,
9. Contri- founded essentially upon superstition,
butions to has entrenched respect for 'certain
Develop- forms of government, especially those
ment. of a monarchical type, and in this way
has contributed to the development of
the body politic and consequently to society at
large. By this means the will of the individual has
within certain lines been subjected to what is rec
ognized as a common good, a basis for a partially
altruistic practise has been laid, and the exercise of
self-denial has been fostered. In a similar way re
spect for private property has been enforced under
fear of penalty impending from supernatural pow
ers. In certain stages of development the sugges
tion and protection of the rights of ownership were
