CHAPTER I: THE IDEAS AND SOURCES OF MYTH (CONTINUED...)
Nor will it be disputed that we find in animals implicit memory, judgment,
and reasoning, the inductions and deductions from one special fact to
another, the passions, the physiological language of gestures, expressive
of internal emotions, and even, in the case of gregarious animals, the
combined action to effect certain purposes; so that, as far as their
higher orders are concerned, animals may be regarded as a simple and
undeveloped form of man, while man, by his later psychical and organic
evolution, has become a developed and complex animal.[4] In my book on the
fundamental law of intelligence in the animal kingdom, I attempted to show
this great truth, and to formulate a principle common to all animals in
the exercise of their psychical emotions, by setting forth the essential
elements as they are generally displayed. I think I was not far from the
truth in establishing a law which seems indubitable; although, while some
men whose opinion is worthy of esteem have accepted it, other very
competent judges have objected to some parts of my theory, but without
convincing me of error. I repeat my conclusions here, since they are
necessary to the theory of the genesis of myth, which I propose to explain
in this work. I hold the complete identity between man and animals to be
established by the adequate consideration of the faculties, the psychical
elements of consciousness and intelligence, and the mode of their
spontaneous exercise; and I believe the superiority of man to consist not
so much in new faculties as in the reflex effect upon themselves of those
he possesses in common with the animals. The old adage confirms this
theory: _Homo duplex_.
No one now doubts that animals feel, hear, remember, and the like, while
man is able to exercise his will, to feel, to remember, deliberately to
consider all his actions and functions, because he not only possesses the
direct and spontaneous intuition with respect to himself and things in
general which he has in common with animals, but he has an intuitive
knowledge of that intuition itself, and in this way he multiplies within
himself the exercise of his whole psychical life. We find the ultimate
cause of this return upon himself, and his intuition of things, in his
deliberate will, which does not only immediately command his body and his
manifold relative functions, but also the complex range of his psychical
acts. This fact, which as I believe has not been observed before, is of
great importance. It is manifest that the difference between man and other
animals does not consist in the diversity or discrepancy of the elements
of the intelligence, but in its reflex action on itself; an action which
certainly has its conditions fixed by the organic and physiological
composition of the brain.
If it should be said that the traditional opinion of science, as well as
the general sentence of mankind, have always regarded reflection as the
basis of the difference between animals and man, so that there is no
novelty in our principle, the assertion is erroneous. Reflection, as an
inward psychical fact, has certainly been observed by psychologists and
philosophers in all civilized times, and instinctively by every one; nor
could it be otherwise, since reflection is one of the facts most evident
to human consciousness. But although the fact, or the intrinsic and
characteristic action of human thought has been observed, and has often
been discussed and analyzed in some of its elements, yet its genesis has
not been declared, nor has its ultimate cause been discovered. We propose
to discover this ultimate cause, and we refer it to the exercise of the
will over all the elements and acts which constitute human intelligence;
an intelligence only differing from that of animals by this inward and
deliberate fact, which enables man to consider and examine all his acts,
thus logically doubling their range. This intelligence has in animals a
simple and direct influence on their bodies and on the external world, in
proportion to their diverse forms and inherited instincts; while in man,
owing to his commanding attitude, it falls back upon itself, and gives
rise to the inquiring and reflective habit of science.
We do not, therefore, divide man from other animals, but rather assert
that many proofs and subtle analyses show the identity of their
intelligence in its fundamental elements, while the difference is only the
result of a reaction of the same intelligence on itself. Such a theory
does not in any way interrupt the natural evolution and genesis of the
animal kingdom, while the distinctive peculiarity of man is shown in an
act which, as I believe, clearly explains the new faculty of reason
acquired by him.
I must admit that in speaking of the psychical faculty as a force which
possesses laws peculiar to itself, it has appeared to a learned and
competent judge that I have conceded a real existence to this faculty,
independently of the physiological conditions through which it manifests
itself, which might be called a mythical personality in the constitution
of the world. If I had really made such an assertion, it would be an error
which I am perhaps more ready than others to repudiate, as it will appear
in the present work. I am far from blaming the courteous critics who
allege such objections to my theory, and indeed I am honored by their
notice. I must blame myself for not having, in my desire to be brief,
sufficiently defined my conception.
I hold the psychical manifestation to be not only conditioned by the
organism, to speak scientifically, and to be rendered physiologically
possible by these conditions, but I consider it to be of the same nature
as the other so-called forces of the universe; such, for example, as the
manifestations of light, of electricity, of magnetism, and the like.
When physicists speak of these forces--if the necessities of language and
the brevity of the explanation constrain us to adopt the term forces, as
though they were real substances--they certainly do not believe, nor wish
others to believe, that they are really such. It is well known that such
expressions are used to signify the appearance under certain circumstances
of some special phenomena which group themselves by their mode and power
of manifestation into one generic conception as a summary of the whole.
They always take place, relatively to these circumstances, in the same
mode and with the same power, so that they may at once be experimentally
distinguished from others which have been grouped together in like manner.
Such manifestations do not imply a real cosmic entity of these forces, as
if they were independent of the matter whence they issue; they are simply
determinate and determinate modes of motions, of actions, and reactions in
the elements of the world. For if magnetism appears to reveal itself in
determinate elements, its modes of manifestation are peculiar to itself,
and its efficacy with respect to other forces is also peculiar; yet it by
no means follows that it possesses a substantial entity, or, as it were,
displays personal activity among phenomena; it rather indicates that the
elements of the world will, under given circumstances, act reciprocally in
such a manner that we perceive phenomena which group themselves together
and which we call magnetic or magnetism. And this explanation applies to
other cases.
I therefore, speaking of psychical force in general, used the same terms;
I certainly did not wish to constitute it into a personal and material
entity of the universe, but I intended to assert that among the
manifestations of the various forces of the world, defined as above, there
is also this psychical force, characterized by phenomena and laws peculiar
to itself, and which, as I have shown, is when exercised one of the
greatest factors of the world. I repeat that if this force varies with the
greater or less perfection of the organisms in which, it is manifested,
yet it possesses a law and fundamental elements by which it is so
constituted that the same results will ensue in the simplest as in the
most complex form. This is the case with all the other forces of nature;
they may be modified by existing circumstances, and yet they have laws and
definite elements to distinguish them from all others.
These forces, however, while they are distinct in their peculiar
manifestations, and take effect through special qualities, quantities, and
rhythmic movements, are all fused together in the infinite and eternal
unity which constitutes the life of the universe. Neither here nor in my
former work is there any question of that most difficult problem, the
individual personality of man.[5] Since there is between man and animals a
relationship and a psychical identity, as well as a genetic continuity of
evolution, it is impossible to deny that there is also in some degree a
like continuity in the products and acts of the consciousness, the
emotions, and the intelligence. This is asserted or admitted even by those
who do not like to hear of the genetic continuity of evolution, nor is
there now any school of thought which impugns such a truth. If this be
true, as it undoubtedly is, and since we are treating of the genesis of
myth in its earliest beginning, we will endeavor, with daring prompted by
the theory of evolution, to discover if the first germ of these
representations may not have already existed in the animal kingdom before
it was evolved in man in the fetishtic and anthropomorphic form.
This is an arduous but necessary inquiry, to which I am impelled by the
doctrine of evolution, as it is properly understood, as well as by the
universal logic of nature.
If I were to consider myth as it has ultimately been developed in man, it
would be a strange and absurd attempt to trace out any points of
resemblance with animals, who are altogether devoid of the logical faculty
which leads to such development. But if, on the contrary, we endeavor to
trace the earliest, spontaneous, and direct elements of myth as a product
of animal emotions and implicit intelligence, such research becomes not
only legitimate but necessary; since the instrument is the same, the
effects ought also to be the same.
We have already said that the fact has been observed and generally
admitted that the primary origin of myth in its essential elements
consists in the personification or animation of all extrinsic phenomena,
as well as of the dreams, illusions, and hallucinations which are
intrinsic. It is agreed that this animation is not the reflex and
deliberate act of man, but that it is the spontaneous and immediate act of
the human intelligence in its elementary consciousness and emotions.
It must therefore be evident that this vague and continual animation of
things ought to be found also in animals, especially in those of the
higher types, in whom consciousness, the emotions, and the intelligence
are implicitly identical with those of man. Consequently, that which is at
first sight absurd becomes obvious and natural, and the fact is only
strange and inexplicable to those who have not carefully considered it.
We must, however, declare that this primary fact is not irreducible, and
that science ought not to be content to stop there, but should endeavor
to explain and resolve it into its elements, so as to be able to say we
have reached the point at which the genesis of myth really begins. This
aim can only be attained by the decomposition by analysis of the primitive
fact. Since intelligence in its essential elements, and in its innate and
implicit exercise, appears to be the same in man and in animals, it is
necessary to reduce the analysis of animal nature to a primary psychical
fact, in order to see whether by this fact, which is identical also in
man, the generating element of myth is really revealed.
I propose to show that this research will reveal truths hitherto
unattained, and explain the general law, not merely of the extrinsic
process of science and of myth, but also of civilization.
Starting from this wide basis, we must trace, step by step, the dawn,
development, and gradual disappearance of myth. Since it is our business
to consider science as well as myth, and their respective relations in the
evolution common to both, we must, as briefly as possible in the present
work, pause to consider these two factors of the human mind, observing the
beginnings, conditions, and modes in which the one arose and gradually
disappeared, while the other advanced and triumphed. We must not only
regard the progress and transformation of religions, but also of science,
as it is revealed in the philosophic systems of every age, in the partial
or complete discoveries of genius, and in the great and stupendous
achievements of modern experimental science. It would require a long
treatise to fill so wide a field, which we must restrict to the limits of
a few pages. Since our readers are now generally acquainted with the
course pursued by human thought, and with the progress of peoples, but few
landmarks or formulas are necessary to enable them to clear away obscurity
and estimate facts at their just value, so as to understand what
civilization and science have to do with the evolution of myth, and of
science itself.
A great corollary also ensues from studies undertaken with the aid of
sociology, that is, the genesis, form, and gradual evolution of human
societies. These vary in character, in attitude, in power, form and
duration, with the different characters of races, and thus fulfil in
various ways the cycle of myth and science of which they are capable. It
would indeed be difficult to attain to a clear and adequate conception of
the universal evolution of myth and science, but for the existence of a
privileged race distinguished for its psychical and organic power, which
from its beginning until now, although subject to many partial eclipses,
has on the whole maintained its position in the world so as to present to
us the long historical drama of its evolutions. Other races, peoples, or
tribes have disappeared in the struggle for existence, or have remained
essentially incapable of further progress even in a relatively inferior
degree, so as to afford no aid in following the successive development of
myth and science; while the Aryan family, a race to which I believe that
the Semitic originally belonged,[6] furnishes the unbroken sequence of
events and the stages of such complex evolution. Nor certainly is there
any signs of the disappearance of this race, since every day its
intellectual and territorial achievements, added to the instruments of a
powerful material civilization, invigorate its strength and presage its
indefinite duration in forms we are not able to foresee, unless indeed
fatal astral or telluric catastrophes should hinder its progress or bring
it to an end.
If we compare this race with itself at different epochs, and in the many
different peoples into which it was severed, and if at the same time we
confront it with the types of other peoples at various stages, from the
rudest to the most civilized, it becomes possible to form a clear
conception of the genesis and successive evolution of myth and science of
which the human race is capable, and in this way we may understand the
general law which governs such evolutions. This study also teaches us that
humanity, whether we agree with monogenists or poligenists, is physically
and psychically in all respects the same in its essential elements; in all
peoples without distinction, as ethnography teaches us, the origin and
genesis of myth, the implicit exercise of reason and its development, are,
at all events up to a given point, absolutely identical. All start from
the same manifestations and mythical creations, and these are afterwards
developed according to the logical or scientific canons of thought, which
are applied to their classification. Both among fetish-worshippers and
polytheists there was a tendency towards monotheism, although sometimes it
could only be discerned in a vague and confused manner.
If myth is, as I have said, to be considered from another point of view,
as the spontaneous effect of the intelligence, and a necessary function,
relatively to the primary act from which it begins, it might appear that
myth would never cease to be, and that humanity, even as it is represented
by the elect and enduring race, must always remain in this original
illusion; so that every man would have to begin again for himself in his
own peculiar cycle of myth. But history shows that this is not the case,
and that the mythic faculty gradually wanes and becomes weaker, even if it
does not altogether cease to exist, a result which would not occur if myth
were a necessary function of the intelligence.
I shall presently reply to such an objection; in the meanwhile, regarding
the question superficially, I need only say that if the mythic faculty
diminishes in one direction, and with respect to some forms and their
corresponding substance, it has certainly not ceased to appear in another,
exerting itself, as we shall see, in other forms and other substance. The
common people, both urban and rural, do for the most part adhere to
primitive and very ancient superstitions, as every one may know from his
own experience, as well as from the writings of well known authors of
nearly all the civilized nations of Europe. In fact, every man in the
early period of his life constructs a heaven for himself, as those who
study the ways of children are aware, and this has given rise to a new
science of infantine psychology, set forth in the writings of Taine,
Darwin, Perez, and others.
We also propose to show that the scientific faculty, which gathers
strength and is developed from the mythical faculty, is in the first
instance identical and confounded with it, but that science corrects and
controls the primitive function, just as reason corrects and explains the
errors and illusions of the senses; so that the truly rational man issues,
like the fetus from its embryonic covering, out of its primitive mythical
covering into the light of truth.
Every one must perceive that the study of the origin of myths has an
important bearing on the clear and positive knowledge of mankind. In
modern times biological science, such as ethnography and anthropology,
have not only thrown much light on the genesis of organic bodies, of
animals and of man, but they have afforded very important aid to
psychological research, on account of the close connection between
psychology and the general physical laws of the world. The mythical
faculty in man, and its results, have received much light from these
sciences, since the modifications induced in individuals and in peoples by
many natural causes, organic or climatological, are based upon their
physiological conditions. In the first chapters of Herbert Spencer's book
on Sociology, there is a masterly investigation into the changes produced
by climate, with its accidents and organic products, on the peculiar
temperament of different peoples and races, and we must refer our readers
to his admirable summary.
We avail ourselves of the aid afforded by all these branches of science in
order to comprehend the true nature of man, and the place which he really
occupies in the animal creation. Man should be estimated as all other
products and phenomena of nature are estimated, according to his absolute
value, divested, as in the case of all other physical and organic
sciences, of preconceived ideas or prejudices in favor of the
supernatural. He should be studied as in physics we study bodies and the
laws which govern them, or as the laws of their motions and combinations
are studied in chemistry, allowance always being made for their reciprocal
relations, and for their appearance as a whole. For if there be in the
universe a distinction of modes, there is no absolute separation of laws
and phenomena.
The various branches of science are only subjective necessities,
consequent on the successive and gradual order of our comprehension of
things; they are classifications of method, with no special reference to
the undivided personality of nature. All are parts of the whole, and so
also the whole is revealed in its several parts. They come to be in
thought, as well as in reality, reciprocal conditions of each other; and
he who is able to solve the problem of the world correctly in a simple
movement of an atom, would be able to explain all laws and all phenomena,
since every thing may ultimately be reduced to this movement.
It is precisely this which has been attained by certain laws, so that the
study of man must not be dissociated from this conception. It is necessary
to regard him as a product of the forces of nature, with which he has
certain properties in common. Although man may appear to be a special and
peculiar subject, yet he is connected with the universal system in which
he lives by the elements, phenomena, and forces of which he consists.
It must not be supposed, as it is asserted with ever-increasing clamor,
that such a method and theory can ever destroy the civilized basis of
society, and the morality and dignity with which it should be informed, as
if we were again reducing man to the condition of a beast. Such an outcry
is in itself a plain and striking proof that we have not yet emerged from
the mythical age of thought, since it is precisely a mythical belief which
prompts this angry protest against the noble and independent research
after truth.
It is impossible that the results of positive and rational science should
in any way destroy the necessary conditions of civilized life and of the
high standard of goodness which should form, elevate, and bring it to
perfection. We must, however, remember that it was not rational science,
nor the ethics of law, which established the _a priori_ rules of a just
and free society, but the necessities of society itself led to the _a
posteriori_ formulation of laws. Theoretic science subsequently explained
these laws, and perfected their form and organism, infusing into them a
nobler purpose; but it was the necessities of nature which first dictated
the balance, system, and harmony of the alliances and associations of
materials and phenomena as they now exist, which rendered possible the
first nucleus of human society, and which, in course of time, brought the
component parts into definite relations with each other. It was
subsequently the reflex and fitting work of thought to raise upon the
foundation laid by nature a rational system of society, and then to bring
its rules and forms to perfection.
Hence it follows that it was not man, nor some extrinsic mythical power
which arbitrarily dictated the code of private and social life, but this
presented itself to man as a spontaneous result of the world's law,
relatively to the conditions possible for social life. For if, as in fact
is the case, and as the progress of knowledge and, of human civilization
will abundantly show, the true and eternal laws which make society
possible, and consequently its standard of righteousness, are innate and
genuine results of universal laws, it is impossible for science to destroy
the inevitable order of things, and to reduce mankind to a hideous chaos.
It must be allowed that great truths, not fully understood by incapable
preachers, who sometimes from ignoble motives foment the turbid instincts
of the ignorant multitude, may bring about, as they have done of old,
grave evils and even crimes in some places and for a short time.
But there is no one so foolish or so ignorant of history as to believe
that all things happen in the best possible way, and in a logical
sequence. Such evils do not invalidate or destroy the force of our
assertion that social order is derived from and is based upon the order of
nature. Although savage passions, excited by an imperfect understanding of
the truth, do from time to time cause the overthrow of given societies,
and arouse the horror and alarm of pessimist votaries of myth, nature is
not thereby overcome; she still triumphs, and restores the order which has
been interrupted, so far as the instinct of conservatism and the
hereditary impulse to that special form of association to which each
people are accustomed are opposed to the revolutionary spirit, and in this
way the balance which has been disturbed is re-established.
When men, having brought their intellectual, and consequently their moral
sense to perfection, are enabled to understand this natural order of laws
and social facts, divested of extrinsic mythical beliefs, they will find
in it so much reciprocal benefit, and will have such a deep sense of their
personal dignity, since they are intellectually their own artificers, that
they will be able to understand how the highest good has ensued and will
ensue from the sacrifices or achievements made by a few for the benefit of
all. We are undoubtedly still a long way from such happy conditions,
either socially or as individuals, but every day brings them nearer, and
it is to this end that our civilization plainly tends, in spite of all the
complaints, the fears, and sometimes even the malevolence of men.
As I have already said, the study of the beginnings and of, the
anthropological conditions of the various myths is necessary to enable us
to understand their psychical phenomena, together with the hidden laws of
the exercise of thought. The learned and illustrious Ribot has justly said
that psychology, dissociated from physiology and cognate sciences, is
extinct, and that in order to bring it to life it is necessary to follow
the progress and methods of all other contemporary sciences.[7] The
genesis of myth, its development, the specification and integration of its
beliefs, as well as the several intrinsic and extrinsic sources whence it
proceeds, will assign to it a clearer place among the obscure recesses of
psychical facts; they will reveal to us the connection between the facts
of consciousness and their antecedents, between the world and our normal
and abnormal physiological conditions; they will show what a complex drama
is performed by the action and reaction between ourselves and the things
within us, and also will declare the nature of the laws which govern the
various and manifold creation of forms, imaginations, and ideas, and the
artificial world of phantasms derived from these. In this way myth will
appear to be not merely due to the direct animation of things, varying in
our waking state with the nature of the exciting cause; but it also arises
from the normal images and illusions of dreams, and from the morbid
hallucinations of madness, both subjectively in the case of the person
affected by them, and objectively for those who observe the extrinsic
effects in gesture and speech, and the whole bearing of the sufferer.
Every one must admit that all these phenomena, and the beliefs which arise
from them, must tend to make the observation of psychical life more easy,
just as morbid psychical phenomena often explain the natural action of
such life under normal conditions. These phenomena, so closely connected
with physiological disturbances which are beyond the control of our
personal will, will inform us of the biological relations between
consciousness and thought on the one side, and our organism on the other.
The mythical faculty, as we shall see in the following chapters, combined
with physiological excitements, both normal and abnormal, generally
assumes constant forms in the various and manifold world of its creation;
constant forms which conversely also reveal those of the scientific
faculty. In this way the development, composition, and integration of a
myth, into which others are fused by assimilation, may be said to explain
to us the mode in which systems of philosophy are constituted, and to
manifest to us in a fanciful way the underlying mode in which human
thought is exercised.
Nor do the effects and importance of these studies end here; they are also
the necessary foundation of true and rational sociology. In fact, the
relations of the individual to the world, the manifold conditions caused
by the relations of persons to each other, the constitution of all social
order, and the various modifications of that order; all these are resolved
into the primitive thought, and into the emotional impulses of mythical
prejudices and fancies, and in these they have also their natural
sanction, and the cardinal point on which they rest and revolve.
There is no society, however rude and primitive, in which all these
relations, both to the individual and to society at large, are not
apparent, and these are based on superstitious and mythical beliefs.
Take the Tasmanians, for example, one of the peoples which has recently
become extinct, and regarded as one of the most debased in the social
scale, and we have in a small compass a picture of the acts and beliefs to
be found in their embryonic association.
In every society, however rudimentary, these are held to be important
facts: the birth of individuals, which is their entrance into the society
itself, and into the possession of its privileges; marriages, funerals,
reciprocal obedience between persons and classes, or to the chief; public
assemblies, and the existence of powers equal or superior to living men.
Among the Tasmanians, the placenta was religiously venerated, and they
carefully buried it, lest it should be injured or devoured by animals.
If the mother died in childbirth her offspring was buried alive with her.
When a man attained puberty, he was bound to submit to certain ceremonies,
some of them painful, and dictated by phallic superstitions.
Funeral rites were simple: the corpse was either burnt, with howls and
superstitious functions, or it was placed in the hollow trunk of a tree in
a sitting position, with the chin supported by the knees, as was the
custom with Peruvian mummies; and the belief in another world prompted
them to place the weapons and utensils used, during life beside the
corpse. Sometimes a wooden lance, with fragments of human bones affixed to
it, was placed below the tumulus, as a defense for the dead during his
long sleep. It appears from these customs, and from others mentioned by
Clarke, that they had a vague idea of another life, holding that the
shades went up to inhabit the stars, or flew to a distant island where
they were born again as white men. These beliefs were necessarily
connected with the rites which they fulfilled when living, and served as a
kind of obscure sanction for them.
Milligan and Nixon tell us that the Tasmanians believed in the existence
of evil and sometimes of avenging spirits, destroyers of the guilty.
They supposed that the shades of their friends or enemies returned, and
caused good or evil to befall them; and according to Milligan there were
four kinds of spirits. Purely superstitious rites were used for marriage.
Old women and witches were often the arbiters of peace and war between the
tribes, and they had the right of pardoning. Sorcerers intervened in many
social acts, and before beginning their operations and incantations they
revolved the mysterious _Mooyumkarr_, an oval piece of wood with a cord,
which was certainly connected with phallic superstitions. Bonwick asserts
that on many private and public occasions, the more skilled sorcerers
called up spirits with appropriate ceremonies and formulas. They were
powerful, and produced diseases, and were able to exert malign influence,
and the urine of women, human blood, and ashes were superstitiously used
as remedies against their spells.
The Tasmanian who wished to hurt or bewitch any one, procured something
belonging to his enemy, and especially his hair; this, was enveloped in
fat and then exposed to the action of fire, and it was thought that as it
melted, the man himself would waste away. They feared lest the evil spirit
evoked by the enchantments of an enemy might creep behind them in the
night to steal away the renal fat, an organ with which various
physiological superstitions were connected. They believed that stones,
especially certain kinds of quartz crystals, were means of communication
with spirits, with the dead, and also with absent persons. A woman often
wore round her neck the phallus extracted from the body of her dead
husband. The movements of the sun and moon, and some of their phases, had
a mythical bearing on various social acts, or on the date of their
assemblies, since the sun was the object of great veneration; and the full
moon, the epoch of assemblies, was celebrated with feasting and dancing.
Dances of many different kinds were connected with traditional myths,
astrological superstitions, and the phallic worship. Some remains of
circular buildings and concentric compartments, discovered by Field and
others, had reference to their feasts, assemblies, and dances. Among their
cosmic myths, Milligan has preserved one relating to the double stars
which perhaps refers to the invention of fire.
From this cursory view of the conditions of society in its simplest form,
and among the most savage peoples, and of the mythical beliefs which
prevailed under such conditions, it clearly appears how myth, dating from
the first beginnings of human association, has regarded, invested,
sanctioned, and generated all special acts and relations, and the whole
social order, both private and public. The exercise of thought in
primitive times not only consisted of mythical beliefs and associations,
but this same condition of thought reacted on all the phenomena of nature,
and on all social facts. For if, as we have already observed, more
rational empirical notions, and a certain rude form of scientific faculty
made its appearance amid those mythical ideas which were still persistent,
its various forms were not animated, sustained, and preserved by myth.
Hence it is evident that the basis of the genesis of sociology as a whole
consists in myth, which sanctions its acts and establishes their relations
to each other. The immense importance of these studies, even for the right
understanding of the laws and historical evolution which guide and govern
sociology, is evident from this fact.
It must not be supposed that such a vast and profound incarnation of myth
in social facts is peculiar to the primitive ages; it persists and is
maintained in all the historical phases of civilization, even of the
higher races, although sometimes in a dormant form. Even in our days, any
one who considers our modes of society, the organism, customs, ceremonies,
and manifold and complex institutions of modern life, will readily see
that religious influences and their rites initiate, sanction, and
accompany every individual and social fact, although civil and religious
societies are becoming ever more distinct.
Since, therefore, myth is a constant form of sociology, completely invests
it, and accompanies and animates its transmutations down to our days,
everyone must recognize the necessity of this study in order to understand
and explain the true history of thought and of sociology.
The energy, the power, the physical and intellectual worth of a people are
revealed as a whole in its mythical products, whether in the quality and
greatness of their beliefs, in the greater or less definiteness of their
system, or in their development into more rational notions; and from the
complex whole we can estimate the worth of their civilization.
So that, where other extrinsic testimony is wanting, the study of these
primitive creations will reveal to us their psychological worth. This is
the origin of the comparative psychology of peoples, a most fruitful
science, which not only teaches us to rank the various families of peoples
according to their relative value, but it is of great use in making man
acquainted with himself, and with psychology in general.
In fact, modern psychology can only advance by means of observation and
experiment, which constitute it one of the natural sciences; and this is
abundantly proved by the modern English schools, and the experimental
school in Germany. Yet observation of the states of consciousness taken
alone is defective, unless it is enlarged by the comparative examination
of a greater number of subjects; nor must ethnical peculiarities be passed
over, and it is precisely these which are included in the comparative
psychology of peoples. The large amount of results, their infinite
variety, and at the same time a certain uniformity in their modes of
beginning, of their development, and of their place in the universe, give
a splendid illustration of the innate exercise of human thought; the
likenesses as well as the contrasts are instructive as to its real nature.
The comparative psychology of peoples, studied from this point of view,
certainly does not include the whole of psychological science, which
requires other instruments and other modes of experience, but it is a
great help as a foundation. We believe that the study of myth, which
throws so much light on comparative psychology, is likewise of use for the
special psychology of man, since this can only arise from individual and
ethnical observation, and from experiment, dissociated from every
hindrance, and from metaphysical prejudice. And if by our humble essay we
can throw any light on this noble science, we shall be abundantly
rewarded. |
