Magic Science and Religion 79 



and worldly ambitions, in all his strivings to catch good fortune and 

 trap propitious luck, man moves in an atmosphere of rivalry, of 

 envy, and of spite. For luck, possessions, even health, are matters 

 of degree and of comparison, and if your neighbour owns more 

 cattle, more wives, more health, and more power than yourself, 

 you feel dwarfed in all you own and all you are. And such is 

 human nature that a man's desire is as much satisfied by the 

 thwarting of others as by the advancement of himself. To this 

 sociological play of desire and counter-desire, of ambition and 

 spite, of success and envy, there corresponds the play of magic and 

 counter-magic, or of magic white and black. 



In Melanesia, where I have studied this problem at first-hand, 

 there is not one single magical act which is not firmly believed 

 to possess a counter-act which, when stronger, can completely 

 annihilate its effects. In certain types of magic, as for instance 

 that of health and disease, the formulas actually go in couples. 

 A sorcerer who learns a performance by which to cause a definite 

 disease will at the same time learn the formula and the rite which 

 can annul completely the effects of his evil magic. In love, again, 

 not only does there exist a belief that, when two formulas are 

 performed to win the same heart, the stronger will override the 

 weaker one, but there are spells uttered directly to alienate the 

 affections of the sweetheart or wife of another. Whether this 

 duality of magic is as consistently carried out all the world over as 

 in the Trobriands it is difficult to say, but that the twin forces 

 of white and black, of positive and negative, exist everywhere 

 is beyond doubt. Thus the failures of magic can be always 

 accounted for by the slip of memory, by slovenliness in perform- 

 ance or in observance of a taboo, and, last not least, by the fact 

 that someone else has performed some counter-magic. 



We are now in a position to state more fully the relation 

 between magic and science already outlined above. Magic is 

 akin to science in that it always has a definite aim intimately 

 associated with human instincts, needs, and pursuits. The magic 

 art is directed towards the attainment of practical aims. Like the 

 other arts and crafts, it is also governed by a theory, by a system of 

 principles which dictate the manner in which the act has to be 

 performed in order to be effective. In analysing magical spells, 

 rites, and substances we have found that there is a number of 

 general principles which govern them. Both science and magic 



