Savages believe that casual omens are a sign of coming events; that some trees are lucky, that some animals are lucky, that some places are lucky, that some indifferent actions--indifferent apparently and indifferent really--are lucky, and so of others in each class, that they are unlucky.
Bagehot describes the various beliefs savages hold regarding luck and omens.
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If the above reasoning be sound, compulsory constituencies are necessary, voluntary constituencies destructive; the optional transferability of votes is not a salutary aid, but a ruinous innovation.
But, above all things, they were frightened of 'the world;' the spectacle of nature filled them with awe and dread.
They have given what I may call a CONFIDENCE IN THE UNIVERSE.
Perhaps such powers as these are what a wise man would most seek to exercise and least fear to possess.
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