MYTHOLOGIC PHILOSOPHY. 795 



seen, an imperative necessity to every individual who desires to pos- 

 sess a sound working mind in a sound working body. Hence I do not 

 hesitate to say that one of our most weighty duties in life is to as- 

 certain the kinds and degrees of recreation which are most suitable to 

 ourselves or to others, and then with all our hearts to utilize the one, 

 while with all our powers we encourage the other. Be it remembered 

 that by recreation I mean only that which with the least expenditure 

 of time renders the exhausted energies most fitted to resume their 

 work ; and be it also remembered that recreation is necessary not only 

 for maintaining our powers of work so far as these are dependent on 

 our vitality, but also for maintaining our happiness so far as this is 

 dependent on our health. Remembering these things, I entertain no 

 fear of contradiction when I conclude that, whether we look to the 

 community as a whole, or restrict our view to our own individual' 

 selves, we have no duty to discharge of a more high and serious kind 

 than this rationally to understand and properly to apply the princi- 

 ples of all that in the full but only legitimate sense of the word we 

 call recreation. Again, therefore, I say, if we know these things, happy 

 are we if we do them. And if we desire to do them if as rational 

 and moral creatures we desire to obey the most solemn injunction that 

 ever fell from human lips, " "Work while it is day " we must remem- 

 ber that the daylight of our life may be clouded by our folly or short- 

 ened by our sin ; that the work which we may hope to do we shall be 

 enabled to do only by hearkening to that Wisdom who holdeth in her 

 right hand length of days, in her left hand riches and honor ; and 

 that at last, when all to us is dark with the darkness of an unknown 

 night, such Wisdom will not have cried to us in vain, if she has taught 

 us how to sow most plenteously a harvest of good things that our 

 children's children are to reap. Nineteenth Century. 



MYTHOLOGIC PHILOSOPHY.* 



By Major J. W. POWELL. 



I. The Genesis of Philosophy. 



THE wonders of the course of nature have ever challenged atten- 

 tion. In savagery, in barbarism, and in civilization alike, the 

 mind of man has sought the explanation of things. The movements 

 of the heavenly bodies, the change of seasons, the succession of night 

 and day, the powers of the air, majestic mountains, ever-flowing 

 rivers, perennial springs, the flight of birds, the gliding of serpents, 



* An Address delivered before the American Association for the Advancement of Sci- 

 ence, at Saratoga, New York, August 29, 1879, by Major J. W. Powell, Vice-President. 



