will have to make no effort to assimilate it.

"That which is not understood is easily criticized, and practical sense
would prevent an orator from attempting to establish an argument whose
premises would offend common sense.

"He would be certain of failure in such a case.

"His efforts will be limited, then, to evoking common sense, by employing
practical sense, so far as what refers to the application of principles
which he desires to apply successfully."

Yoritomo recommends this affiliation for that which concerns the struggle
against superstition.

"Superstition," he says, "offends practical sense as well as common
sense, for it rests on an erroneous analysis.

"Its foundation is always an observation marred by falsity, establishing
an association between two facts which have nothing in common.

"There are people who reenter their homes if, when they reach the
threshold, they perceive a certain bird; others believe that they are
threatened with death if they meet a white cat."

Without going back to the days of Yoritomo, we shall find just as many
people who are the victims of superstitions concerning certain facts,
which are only the observance of customs fallen into disuse, and whose
practise has been perpetuated through the ages, altho, as we have said in
the preceding chapter, the purpose of the custom has disappeared, but the