COINCIDENCES AND SUPERSTITIONS. 383 



quired to determine whether real association or mere 

 casual coincidence is in question. It is surprising how, 

 in some cases, an association can be traced between 

 events seemingly in no way connected. One is reminded 

 of certain cases of derivation. Ninety-nine persons out 

 of a hundred, for instance, would laugh at the notion 

 that the words ' hand ' and c prize ' are connected ; yet 

 the connection is seen clearly enough when c prize ' is 

 traced back to ' prehendo,' with the root ' hend ' obvi- 

 ously related to ' hand,' ' hound,' and so on. Equally 

 absurd at a first view is the old joke that the Groodwin 

 Sands were due to the building of a certain church ; yet 

 if moneys which had been devoted to the annual re- 

 moval of the gathering sand were employed to defray 

 the cost of the church, mischief, afterwards irreparable, 

 might very well have been occasioned. Even the ex- 

 planation of certain mischances as due to the circum- 

 stance that ' there was no weathercock at Kiloe,' may 

 admit of a not quite unreasonable interpretation. I 

 leave this as an exercise for the ingenious reader. 



But when we have undoubted cases of coincidence, 

 without the possibility of any real association (setting 

 the supernatural aside), we have a problem of some 

 interest to deal with. To explain them as due to some 

 special miraculous intervention may be satisfactory 

 to many minds, in certain cases ; but in others it is 

 impossible to conceive that the matter has seemed 

 worthy of a miracle. Even viewing the question in its 

 bearing on religious ideas, there are cases where it 

 seems far more mischievous (as bringing ridicule on 



