79 S THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and there discovers in all things will and design. All phenomena are 

 supposed to be the acts of some one, and that some one having will 

 and purpose. In mythologic philosophy the phenomena of the outer 

 physical world are supposed to be the acts of living, willing, design- 

 ing personages. The simple are compared with and explained by the 

 complex. In scientific philosophy, phenomena are supposed to be 

 children of antecedent phenomena, and so far as science goes with its 

 explanation they are thus interpreted. Man with the subjective phe- 

 nomena gathered about him is studied from an objective point of view, 

 and the phenomena of subjective life are relegated to the categories 

 established in the classification of the phenomena of the outer world ; 

 thus the complex is studied by resolving it into its simple constit- 

 uents. 



Some examples of the philosophic methods belonging to widely 

 separated grades of culture may serve to make my statements clearer. 



Wind. The Ute philosopher discerns that men and animals breathe. 

 He recognizes vaguely the phenomena of the wind, and discovers its 

 resemblance to breath, and explains the winds by relegating them to 

 the class of breathings. He declares that there is a monster beast in 

 the north that breathes the winter winds, and another in the south, 

 and another in the east, and another in the west. The facts relating 

 to winds are but partially discerned ; the philosopher has not yet dis- 

 covered that there is an earth-surrounding atmosphere. He fails also 

 in making the proper discriminations. His relegation of the winds to 

 the class of breathings is analogic, but not homologic. The basis of 

 his philosophy is personality, and hence he has four wind-gods. 



The philosopher of the ancient Northland discovered that he could 

 cool his brow with a fan, or kindle a flame, or sweep away the dust 

 with the wafted air. The winds also cooled his brow, the winds also 

 swept away the dust and kindled the fire into a great conflagration, 

 and when the wind blew he said, " Somebody is fanning the waters of 

 the fiord," or " Somebody is fanning the evergreen forests," and he 

 relegated the winds to the class of fannings, and he said, " The god 

 Hraesvelger, clothed with eagle-plumes, is spreading his wings for 

 flight, and the winds rise from under them." 



The early Greek philosopher discovered that air may be impris- 

 oned in vessels or move in the ventilation of caves, and he recognized 

 wind as something more than breath, something more than fanning, 

 something that can be gathered up and scattered abroad, and so when 

 the winds blew he said, " The sacks have been untied," or " The caves 

 have been opened." 



The philosopher of civilization has discovered that breath, the fan- 

 wafted breeze, the air confined in vessels, the air moving in ventila- 

 tion that these are all parts of the great body of air wdiich sur- 

 rounds the earth, all in motion, swung by the revolving earth, heated 

 at the tropics, cooled at the poles, and thus turned into counter-cur- 



