What people believe

 Lucas, the ancient cat, cleaned both ears before bedtime.

His diligence reminded me of my college days. One of the odder courses I took was in demographics.

It was taught by a historian who was interested in medieval tax records. He was convinced they shed light on the way people thought about themselves when nationalism — the idea of living in a nation, rather than in a neighborhood — was an emerging idea.

I got interested in diaries from the era that I called the Age of Enlightenment. I was surprised to find that people who were interested in the new sciences believed in witches.

I came away with the conviction that we know little about what our ancestors were thinking. We overestimate the amount of reasoning they did. We underestimate the social forces that shaped their beliefs.

The Rev. James Woodforde, whose The Diary of a Country Parson, is still read, had university degrees and believed in vaccinations. He also believed that if a cat cleaned both ears the weather was about to change.

• Source: Thomas Mallon, A Book of One’s Own: People and Their Diaries; New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1984, p. 13. For an earlier note that mentions the college course, see “A portrait of a friend,” Oct. 19, 2024.