"<p>You must not live by superstitions. Friday, the thirteenth, bewitchment, the quackery explanation of numbers and signs, were brought to our world by the Gnostics, the flocking to early Christian Rome of the wacky and rambling sects, the Syrian and Alexandrian tricksters, the cross-eyed wordsmiths, the foaming at the mouth and the sneaky fans. Young Christendom has not yet had the power to beat those who beat you with their eyes, for Friday it says, 'A day'", for thirteen, 'A number like all the rest.'" It was a confusing and fermenting time. The Stoics were no longer in command in Rome, the Christians were not yet ruling. Man stood abandoned in the face of his nature and of nature itself. He was afraid, he was scarce, he was superstitious, he was magical. You're human, you have faith, you know there's order behind the phenomena, a higher intelligence. Reject the superstitions.</p> <p>But know also that the proud consciousness of your intellect and faith does not discipline and intimidate the more secret forces of the world, which steal and prowl around you from birth to death. The accident, the interplay of numbers, the law of large numbers, the incomprehensible intentions and designs of earth, the air, and the rays, are all unseen. Some humility and trembling you may yet retain in your heart. The world is not only bright and dark, no; the world is also murky. There are not only rays and light and heat; there are demons. (Goethe believed in demons.) The world is not only sensible and consistent; somewhere in its phenomena lurks magic. You must not be superstitious, for it is not fit for man. But you must not despise superstition altogether, for it is superhuman, indecent pride. Rather, one should treat one's superstitions with only gentle mischief, as one who smiles - but is also a little afraid.</p>"