Note 353 — Chapter VII · OMENS

An infallible sign is, in Formal Logic, the same as a cause, according to the scheme If A, then B; and it is conceivable that, with strict thinking, a belief in an Omen may give rise to a magical practice. “For,” says Lord Avebury, “granted that the fall of a stick certainly preludes that of the person it represents, it follows that by upsetting the stick his death can be caused” (Origin of Civilisation, p. 166). I do not see why such an inference should not be drawn, but can give no example of it. The possibility shows how much community there is between Magic and the lore of Omens; but as to this particular case, the magical cast of mind is already implied in the original setting up of the stick whose fall should prelude that of a given individual.