Note 1538 — Chapter VIII
Reading edition
On the view that many quasi-magical acts are spontaneous reactions of the man to his environment see I. King, Development of Religion, chap. vii. According to this view the thought suggests the act. The warrior, thinking of his enemy, instinctively makes the motion of hurling something at him (as a modern man shakes his fist at an absent foe), and such an act, a part of the excitation to combat, is believed to be efficacious.