EDITOR'S TABLE. 



121 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



AN UNHAPPY "SURVIVAL." 



CONSIDERING that we are drawing 

 near to the end of the nineteenth 

 century, and that the thought of our day- 

 is supposed to be more or less dominat- 

 ed by the scientific spirit, it is extraordi- 

 nary to find certain words and phrases 

 in common use that imply a survival 

 of modes of thought proper only to 

 periods of barbarism. As an example 

 wo would cite the word "luck," and 

 all the familiar phrases in which that 

 word is employed. By common con- 

 sent, apparently, "luck" is a thing not 

 to be defined; but it is none the less 

 spoken of — and that not only by the 

 ignorant and uneducated — as some- 

 thing exercising a real and potent in- 

 fluence on the affairs of men. It is 

 qualified as good or bad : the man who 

 has good luck enjoys the protection, as 

 it were, of a guardian angel ; the man 

 who has bad luck is haunted and pur- 

 sued by a malignant spirit. It is not 

 men only who can be " lucky " or 

 "unlucky"; ships, houses, railway 

 lines, special days, special numbers, 

 special gems, etc., may likewise fall 

 into either category. It is even fash- 

 ionable to talk about " mascots " — a 

 mascot being an object, animate or 

 inanimate, that contributes to the good 

 fortune of its possessor. Thus we 

 read a few days ago in one of our 

 daily papers of a dog that was, as the 

 traveling public believed, the " mas- 

 cot" of a steamboat. The rage for 

 horseshoes, as "lucky" things to nail 

 np on one's premises, is perhaps as 

 great as ever it was. Fashionable so- 

 ciety, particularly, seems disposed to 

 fondle the superstitions that science is 

 laboring to banish. The light has come 

 into the world, but there are those 

 who neither comprehend it nor wish 

 to comprehend it. Even on the part 



of men of scientific mind we find occa- 

 sionally an unguarded use of language 

 suggesting a participation in beliefs 

 which, if seriously presented, they 

 would strenuously condemn. Thus that 

 excellent writer, Mr. S. Laiag, author 

 of one of the most interesting and use- 

 ful books of the present day, " Modern 

 Science and Modern Thought," says, in 

 the concluding chapter of that work, 

 that, if a laboring-man has once saved 

 ten pounds, he may, " if he has any 

 Ivck, readily make the ten a hundred 

 or even a thousand pounds." Now, we 

 think this an unfortunate expression : 

 the idea it suggests is one which the 

 writer would be the first to repudi- 

 ate ; and yet it might easily be quoted 

 as evidence that even a most enlight- 

 ened scientific writer recognizes " luck " 

 as an element of success. 



There is little use, probably, in 

 arguing with people whose belief in 

 luck is sincere and deep-seated. Such 

 must be left to the education of experi- 

 ence and the influences of the time ; 

 and, likely enough, even with these 

 aids, they will not unlearn their errors. 

 But there is another class who, when 

 they use the terms " luck " and 

 "lucky," do so in a careless, indo- 

 lent manner, or at most with only a 

 half-belief that the words have any 

 real significance. To these it may be 

 well to represent that to talk of 

 " luck " is simply to shuffle out of 

 the responsibility of assigning things 

 to their proper causes; and that, while 

 this careless way of talking may do no 

 special harm to the intelligent man 

 who knows better than to be imposed 

 upon by his own phrases, it does harm 

 to people of less intelligence by con- 

 firming them in their delusions. It 

 might perhaps be affirmed, indeed, that 

 no man, however intelligent, can alto- 



