COINCIDENCES AND SUPERSTITIONS. 



some observed coincidences ; and when once a habit of 

 the sort is associated with the idea of good luck, even 

 the strongest minds have been found unready to shake 

 off the superstition. 



It is to be noticed, indeed, that many who reject the 

 idea that the ordinary superstitions have any real 

 significance, are nevertheless unwilling to run directly 

 counter to them. Thus, a man shall be altogether 

 sceptical as to the evil effects which follow, according 

 to a common superstition, from passing under a ladder ; 

 he may be perfectly satisfied that the proper reason for 

 not passing under a ladder is the possibility of its 

 falling, or of something falling from it : yet he will not 

 pass under a ladder, even though it is well secured, and 

 obviously carries nothing which can fall upon him, 

 So with the old superstition, that a broken mirror 

 brings seven years of sorrow, which, according to some,, 

 dates from the time when a mirror was so costly as to 

 represent seven years' savings, there are those who 

 despise the superstition who would yet be unwilling to 

 tempt fate (as they put it) by wilfully breaking even 

 the most worthless old looking-glass. A story is not 

 unfrequently quoted in defence of such caution. 

 Every one knows that sailors consider it unlucky for 

 a ship to sail on a Friday. A person, anxious to 

 destroy this superstition, had a ship's keel laid on a 

 Friday, the ship launched on a Friday, her masts taken 

 in from the sheer-hulk on a Friday, the- cargo shipped 

 on a Friday ; he found (heaven knows how, but so the 

 story runs) a Captain Friday to command her; and 



