SUPERSTITION 



5638 



SUPREME COURT 



lent trade in all the large American cities, and 

 business men, as well as men and women of 

 all classes, consult them on financial ventures, 

 love affairs, and the critical enterprises of life. 

 Nothing could more pointedly illustrate the 

 danger that lurks in a yielding to the super- 

 stitious habit, or permitting it to extend be- 

 yond the playful realm, where, as is true of 

 myth and fairy tales and legends, it adds an 

 innocent spice to adventures of human inter- 

 est. Education insists that the mind's habits 

 shall be formed by a scientific training, with- 

 out stunting the imagination or neglecting the 

 poetic and religious interpretation of life; for 

 in all this there is illumination and progress. 

 But superstition is stagnant and unprogressive ; 

 it is about the same in savage conditions, in 

 the days of medieval darkness, and among the 

 ignorant of all stages of civilization. Supersti- 

 tion survives somewhat naturally in those whose 

 careers, like those of sailors, are constantly at 

 the mercy of uncertain ventures; it may be for 

 a like reason that gamblers, speculators, and 

 others following venturesome forms of pursuits 

 have a strong belief in luck and signs. Yet the 

 more widespread tendency responsible for cre- 

 dulity is the inability to grasp the all-compre- 

 hensiveness of scientific thinking, and to cling 

 to the suspicion that outside this established 

 realm of cause and effect there is another type 

 of influence, of an occult or hidden order, 

 which now and again with a personal motive 

 directs human fate* However inconsistently, 

 the two tendencies manage to persist in the 

 same mind, which in most affairs reacts scien- 

 tifically, but keeps certain reserved areas for 

 the exercise of the older type of beliefs. Such 

 lapses or partial developments maintain super- 

 stitions and the attempted revival from time 

 to time of pseudo-scientific systems, that are 

 entirely out of keeping with the spirit and the 

 life of the twentieth century and the educa- 

 tional ideal of a democracy. j.j. 



Relating to Various Beliefs. The following 

 articles in these volumes, while not all bearing 

 on superstition, are of interest in this connection : 

 Alchemy Occult 



Astrology Palmistry 



Clairvoyance Phrenology 



Conjuring Physiognomy 



Demonology Psychical Research 



Divination Psycho-Analysis 



Faith Cure Spiritualism 



Hypnotism Subconscious 



Magic Suggestion 



Medium Telepathy 



Mesmerism Theosophy 



Mind Reading Trance 



Necromancy Witchcraft 



SUPPLY AND DEMAND. In economics, 

 supply and demand refer to the quantity of a 

 commodity on the market compared with the 

 demand for that commodity for immediate 

 use. The relation of these conditions deter- 

 mines in a large measure the price of the com- 

 modity. If the supply is greater than the de- 

 mand the price is low, and if the supply is not 

 sufficient to meet the demand the price is high. 

 For a detailed discussion of this principle see 

 ECONOMICS, subhead Supply and Demand. 



SUPREMACY, suprem'asi, ROYAL, an Eng- 

 lish legal term used to denote the power of the 

 king over the Established Church. Until the pe- 

 riod of the Reformation in England, the Pope 

 had been the acknowledged head in ecclesiastical 

 matters. In 1534, after the Pope had refused to 

 annul the marriage of Henry VIII and Catha- 

 rine of Aragon and to declare the marriage with 

 Anne Boleyn valid, Henry induced Parliament 

 to declare him head of the English Church. 

 Twenty years later Mary had this act repealed, 

 but in the reign of Elizabeth Parliament passed 

 a new Act of Supremacy. To-day the theory 

 of royal supremacy is recognized, but the king 

 presumes to exercise no control over spiritual 

 matters. See CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 



SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED 

 STATES. This is the highest judicial tribunal 

 in the American republic and the most dignified 

 body of its kind; its members are vested with 

 greater power than is delegated to any other 

 court in the world. Its existence was author- 

 ized in the Constitution of the United States 

 (Art. Ill, Sec. I) : 



The judicial power of the United States shall 

 be vested in one Supreme Court, arid in such 

 inferior courts as Congress may from time to 

 time ordain and establish. 



The Constitution did not declare the method 

 of organization of the court nor specify the 

 number of justices of which it should be com- 

 posed. To Congress was delegated the duty of 

 organization, and in 1789 a law was passed 

 which provided 



* * * that the Supreme Court of the United 

 States shall consist of a Chief Justice, of five 

 Associate Justices, any four of whom shall be a 

 quorum, and shall hold annually at the seat of 

 government two sessions, one commencing the 

 first Monday of February and the other the first 

 Monday of August. 



It is an error to give the members of the 

 Supreme Court the title of judges. The act of 

 Congress referred to them as Justices, a title 

 of greater dignity and one which declares by 

 inference their more exalted station. As the 



