SUPERSTITION SUSPICION
Alas! you know the cause too well;
The salt is spilt, to me it fell.
Then to contribute to my loss,
My knife and fork were laid across;
On Friday, too! the day I dread;
Would I were safe at home, in bed!
Last night (I vow to Heaven 'tis true)
Bounce from the fire a coffin flew.
Next post some fatal news shall tell:
God send my Cornish friends be well!
Dish yer rabbit foot'll gin you good luok. De
man w'at tote it mighty ap'fer ter come out
right en' up wen deys any racket gwine on in de
neighborhoods, let 'er be whar she will en w'en
she may; mo' espeshually ef de man w'at got it
know 'zactly w'at he got ter do.
Joel Chandler Harms—Brother Rabbit and
his famous Foot.
Minimis etiam rebus prava religio inserit deos.
A foolish superstition introduces the influences of the gods even in the smallest matters.
Livy—Annates. XXVII. 23.
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{{Hoyt quote
| num = 4
| text = Why is it that we entertain the belief that for every purpose odd numbers are the most effectual?
| author = Pliny
| work = Natural History.
| place = Bk. XXVIII. Ch. V.
| seealso = (See also Lover under Luck)
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{{Hoyt quote
| num = 5
| text = <poem>Midnight hags,
By force of potent spells, of bloody characters,
And conjurations horrible to hear,
Call fiends and spectres from the yawning deep,
And set the ministers of hell at work.
Some devils ask but the parings of one's nail,
A rush, a hair, a drop of blood, a pin, a nut, a
cherry stone;
But she, more coveteous, would have a chain.
Master, be wise: an if you give it her,
The devil will shake her chain and fright us with
it.
Comedy of Errors. Act IV. Se. 3. L. 72.
I pull in resolution, and begin
To doubt the equivocation of the fiend
That lies like truth: "Fear not, till Birnam
wood
Do come to Dunsinane."
Macbeth. Act V. Sc. 5. L. 42.
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{{Hoyt quote
| num = 8
| text = Number three is always fortunate.
Smollett—Peregrine Pickle. Quoted as a
well-known proverb.
| seealso = (See also Pliny)
| topic =
| page = 771
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{{Hoyt quote
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| text = <poem>Superstition is related to this life, religion to
the next; superstition is allied to fatality, religion to virtue; it is by the vivacity of earthly
desires that we become superstitious; it is, on
the contrary, by the sacrifice of these desires
that we become religious.
Madame de Staël. See Abel Stevens' Life
of Madame de StaM. Ch. XXXIV.
SUSPICION
Quoth Sidrophel, If you suppose,
Sir Knight, that I am one of those,
I might suspect, and take th' alarm,
Your bus'ness is but to inform;
But if it be, 'tis ne'er the near,
You have a wrong sow by the ear.
Butler—Hudihras. Pt. II. Canto III. L.
575.
Multorum te etiam oculi et aures non sentientem, sicuti adhuc fecerunt, speculabuntur atque
custodient.
Without your knowledge, the eyes and ears
of many will see and watch you, as they have
done already.
Cicero—Orationes In Catilinam. I. 2.
Cautus enim metuit foveam lupus, accipiterque
Suspectos laqueos, et opertum milvius hamum.
The wolf dreads the pitfall, the hawk suspects the snare, and the kite the covered hook.
Horace—Epistles. I. 16. 50.
Argwohnen folgt auf Misstrauen.
Suspicion follows close on mistrust.
Lessing—Nathan der Weise. V. 8.
li
Que diable alloit-il faire dans cette galere?
What the devil was he doing in this galley?
Moliere—Fourberies de Scapin. Act II. 11.
Cyrano de Bergerac—Pedant Joue. Act
II. Sc. 4.
Julius Caesar divorced his wife Pompeia, but
declared at the trial that he knew nothing of
what was alleged against her and Clodius.
When asked why, in that case, he had divorced
her, he replied: "Because I would have the
chastity of my wife clear even of suspicion."
Plutarch—Life of Julius Caesar. Same in
Suetonius—Life of Cassor.
As to Caesar, when he was called upon, he
gave no testimony against Clodius, nor did he
affirm that he was certain of any injury done to
his bed. He only said, "He had divorced Pompeia because the wife of Cssar ought not only
to be clear of such a crime, but of the very suspicion of it."
Plutarch—Life of Cicero.
All seems infected that the infected spy,
As all looks yellow to the jaundiced eye.
| author = Pope
| work = -Essay on Criticism. L. 568.
is Les soupoons importuns
Sont d'un second hymen les fruits les plus communs.
Disagreeable suspicions are usually the fruits
of a second marriage.
Racine—Phedre. II. 5.
All is not well;
I doubt some foul play.
Hamlet. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 255.
Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind;
The thief doth fear each bush an officer.
Henry VI. Pt. III. Act V. Sc. 6. L. 11.
