206 SUPERSTITION. [ix. 



the unknown, simply because it is unknown ? Is it 

 not likely, then, to be afraid of the wrong object ? to 

 be hurtful, ruinous to animals as well as to man ? Any 

 one will confess that, who has ever seen a horse inflict 

 on himself mortal injuries, in his frantic attempts to 

 escape from a quite imaginary danger. I have good 

 reasons for believing that not only animals here and 

 there, but whole flocks and swarms of them, are often 

 destroyed, even in the wild state, by mistaken fear ; 

 by such panics, for instance, as cause a whole herd of 

 buffaloes to rush over a bluff, and be dashed to pieces. 

 And remark that this capacity of panic, fear of 

 superstition, as I should call it is greatest in those 

 animals, the dog and the horse for instance, which 

 have the most rapid and vivid fancy. Does not the 

 unlettered Highlander say all that I want to say, when 

 he attributes to his dog and his horse, on the strength 

 of these very manifestations of fear, the capacity of 

 seeing ghosts and fairies before he can see them 

 himself ? 



But blind fear not only causes evil to the coward 

 himself : it makes him a source of evil to others ; for it 

 is the cruellest of all human states. It transforms the 

 man into the likeness of the cat, who, when she is 

 caught in a trap, or shut up in a room, has too low an 

 intellect to understand that you wish to release her : 

 and, in the madness of terror, bites and tears at the 

 hand which tries to do her good. Yes ; very cruel is 

 blind fear. When a man dreads he knows not what, he 

 will do he cares not what. When he dreads desperately, 

 he will act desperately. When he dreads beyond all 

 reason, he will behave beyond all reason. He has no 

 law of guidance left, save the lowest selfishness. No 



