of the eye against that fate of separation which
cannot be longer combated with tongue or hand, are made over again for
our torture.

It has been said that some persons endeavor to deceive themselves with
reference to their holding any belief in omens and auguries. And some of
those who by position and education should be lifted above gross errors,
are quite as liable as others to this self-deception. Quite a large
circle of prominent persons may remember an instance in which a leading
Doctor of Divinity, renowned for his strong common-sense as well as
beloved for his goodness, was joining in a general conversation on human
traits and oddities, when one of the company alluded to popular
superstitions and acknowledged that he had one, though only one--that of
the "moon over the shoulder." Another confessed to another, and still
another to another, while the Doctor "pished" and "pshawed" at each
until he made him heartily ashamed of his confession. The man of the
lunar tendencies, however, had a habit of bearding lions, clerical as
well as other, and he at last turned on the Doctor.

"Do you mean to say that _you_ have no superstitions whatever, Doctor?"
he asked.

"None whatever," said the Doctor, confidently.

"You have no confidence in supernatural revelations in any relation of
life?" pursued the questioner.

"None whatever," repeated the Doctor.

"And you never act--try, now, if you please, to remember--you never act
under impression from any omen that does not appeal to reason, or are
made more or less comfortable by the existence of one? In other words,
is there no occurrence that ever induces you to alter your course of
action, when that occurrence has nothing whatever to do with the object
in view, and when you can give no such explanation to yourself as you
would like to give to the outside world, for the feeling or the change?"

"There is nothing of the kind," replied the Doctor to this long
question. Then he suddenly seemed to remember--paused, and colored a
little as he went on. "I acknowledge my error, gentlemen," he said. "I
_have_ a superstition, though I never before thought of it in the light
of one. I am rendered exceedingly uncomfortable, and almost ready to
turn back, if a cat, dog or other animal chances to run across the way
before me, at the moment when I am starting upon any journey."

The laugh which began to run round the company was politely smothered in
compliment to the good Doctor'