ABSTRACT
Many assumed and some still assume an after-life and judgment before God, with God sounding and acting rather like a super-parish-priest, grave and ready to run through the list of your sins in life, but willing 'to make allowances'. That may sound cynical and would be resisted if suggested to a great many people as the real ground of their belief. Superstitious belief, probably in all classes but particularly in the working-class, can without any sense of contradiction coexist with professed religious belief, and is still amazingly powerful. That belief has two main branches: first, the belief in something simply identified, though not analysed, as 'Fate', a vague but also pervading element and as often as not malign. 'Luck' is its near companion, like a twin in a folk-tale. 'Chance' sits somewhere between the two, but is nearer 'luck' and is a fancier word with fancier contexts, not much used below the lower middle class.
