RIGHT AND LEFT 29 



she finds most useful in the long run must certainly have 

 many good points to recommend it. 



And this last consideration suggests another aspect of 

 right and left which must not be passed over without one 

 word in this brief survey of the philosophy of the subject. 

 The superiority of the right caused it early to be regarded 

 as the fortunate, lucky, and trusty hand ; the inferiority of 

 the left caused it equally to be considered as ill-omened, 

 unlucky, and, in one expressive word, sinister. Hence come 

 innumerable phrases and superstitions. It is the right hand 

 of friendship that we always grasp ; it is with our own 

 right hand that we vindicate our honour against sinister 

 suspicions. On the other hand, it is ' over the left ' that 

 we believe a doubtful or incredible statement ; a left-handed 

 compliment or a left-handed marriage carry their own con- 

 demnation with them. On the right hand of the host is 

 the seat' of honour ; it is to the left that the goats of eccle- 

 siastical controversy are invariably relegated. The very 

 notions of the right hand and ethical right have got mixed 

 up inextricably in every language : droit and la droite dis- 

 play it in French as much as right and the right in English. 

 But to be gauche is merely to be awkward and clumsy ; 

 while to be right is something far higher and more im- 

 portant. 



So unlucky, indeed, does the left hand at last become 

 that merely to mention it is an evil omen; and so the 

 Greeks refused to use the true old Greek word for left at 

 all, and preferred euphemistically to describe it as euony- 

 mos, the well-named or happy-omened. Our own left 

 seems equally to mean the hand that is left after the right 

 has been mentioned, or, in short, the other one. Many 

 things which are lucky if seen on the right are fateful 

 omens if seen to leftward. On the other hand, if you spill 

 the salt, you propitiate destiny by tossing a pinch of it over 



