ays an observation marred by falsity, establishing
an association between two facts which have nothing in common.

"There are people who reenter their homes if, when they reach the
threshold, they perceive a certain bird; others believe that they are
threatened with death if they meet a white cat."

Without going back to the days of Yoritomo, we shall find just as many
people who are the victims of superstitions concerning certain facts,
which are only the observance of customs fallen into disuse, and whose
practise has been perpetuated through the ages, altho, as we have said in
the preceding chapter, the purpose of the custom has disappeared, but the
custom itself has not been forgotten.

It is in this way that the origin of the superstition concerning salt
dates back to the time of the Romans, who (while at variance with the
principles of contemporary agriculture) sowed salt in the fields of their
enemies and thought that by so doing they would make them sterile.

To that far-distant epoch can be traced the origin of the superstition
concerning the spilling of salt.

Whatever may have been its cause, superstition is the enemy of common
sense, for, when it does not originate in an abolished custom, it is the
product of a personal impression, associating two ideas absolutely
unconnected.

"Practical sense," Yoritomo continues, "is a most valuable talent to
cultivate, for it prevents our judging from appearances.

"Frivolous minds are always inclined to draw conclusions from passing
impressions; they adopt neither foresight, nor precaution, nor
approximation.

"There are people who will condemn a country as utterly unattractive,
because they happened to have visited it under unfavorable circumstances.

"Others, without considering what a country has previously produced, and
that at present the grain has not been planted, will declare unfertile
the soil which has been untilled for some months.

"On the other hand, if they visit a house on a sunny day, it would be
impossible for them to associate it with the idea of rain.

"It would be most difficult to make these people alter their judgment,
prematurely formed, and, in spite of the most authoritative assertions
and the most self-evident proofs, their initial idea will dominate all
those which one would like to instil into their minds.

"One moment would, however, suffice for reason to convince them that the
variations of atmosphere and the conditions of cult