This Book Said The Past Ain’t Through With Us

Yesterday, I watched the second half of Magnolia, started the evening before.  I’ve watched it dozens of times, and it’s gone from “meh” to my top two favorite PT Anderson films.  There’s a quote heard throughout, and the last line for narrator Ricky Jay:

And the book says, “We may be through with the past, but the past ain’t through with us.”

In what “book” does this quote appear?  After finding a clue on an archived thread that linked to a dead page that I found through the Wayback Machine that turned out to be a fake autobiography of one of the dead site’s editorial staff– well, I found it in an essay:

The full text of “The Natural History of Nonsense” is available from a personal page on the history of Cape Cod.  The book itself is by renowned lexicographer Bergen Evans and concerns superstition in modern times.  I think I’ll buy it.  Someday.