der of
things, and to believe in the efficacy of ritual proceedings which
contain no rational relation of means to ends. Then it costs no effort
to believe that one person can bewitch another, and do it unconsciously.
Any relation of responsibility can be invented and believed, since there
are no tests of agency. It follows that a new function is opened for the
mores. They have to select and establish those relations of agency and
responsibility which are to be believed in; that is, they define crimes
and criminal responsibility. Ordeals as tests fall in with the same
system. They touch no actual relations and therefore prove nothing. It
is the mores which establish faith in them and give them the sanction of
the society. As to the evil eye, as the evil result of envy and of
prosperity, it is an _a posteriori_ inference from observed facts,
exaggerated into a dogma. Cases of disaster in the hour of triumph
occur, both as consequences of overweening self-confidence and by pure
chance (Caesar, Caesar Borgia, Napoleon). The aleatory interest always
averages up, but the successful, who have enjoyed good fortune for a
time, believe that it must last for them, and forget that the balance
requires bad luck. The lookers-on, however, form their philosophy from
what they see. They believe in Nemesis, or other doctrine of offsets,
and try by vituperation to make artificial offsets which will avert
greater and more real calamities. In all steps of these doctrines and
acts the mores are called into play. They are the only limits to the
applications of the doctrines. They are of little use. They are afloat
in and with the faiths and doctrines. They never can make definitions or
set limits. They only enthuse customs, which may change from day to day
in their definitions and limits and carry the mores with them. No doubt
primitive religion here had excellent effect, for as it arose out of
demonism it brought in authority and fixed dogma, which, although
erroneous and in itself bad, was a great deal better than the floating
superstitions of demonism.

[1767] Levit. xii.

[1768] _Ibid._, xiii, xiv, xv.

[1769] Schomburgk, _Brit. Guiana_, II, 316.

[1770] _Globus_, LXXXI, 337.

[1771] Sibree, _Great Afr. Island_, 290.

[1772] Ellis, _Tshi-speaking Peoples_, 94.

[1773] Ellis, _Ewe-speaking Peoples_, 153.

[1774] Fritsch, _Eingeb. Sued-Afr._, 201.

[1775] Powers, _Calif. Indians_, 31.

[1776] Gehr