Message #172162

[Quaid]

The common people know all these terms by name, but not understanding their meaning, they regard the terms themselves with a certain reverential awe, supposing them to exercise some mysterious magic influence. Now, the geomancer, taking advantage of this popular prejudice, comes to them with this compass in his hands, of which the ordinary Chinaman understands next to nothing, and pronouncing his judgment with reference to any given spot in a mystifying learned jargon, his apocalyptic utterances are received with superstitious dread even where there is not much faith in the system. The geomancer himself knows very well that his predictions are all guesswork, based on what experience he manages to collect in the course of his practice. But he also knows that his prophesies are sometimes realised in consequence of the very fear they inspire, and though his predictions may more frequently be disproved by actual events, yet he comforts himself by thinking, that this compass after all makes money flow if not into the lap of his employers yet certainly into his own pocket.