6o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Many physical phenomena serve to confirm this opinion. It is very 

 late in philosophy when shadows are referred to the interception of 

 the rays of the sun. In savagery and barbarism shadows are supposed 

 to be emanations from or duj)licates of the bodies causing the shad- 

 ows. And what savage understands the reflection of the rays of the 

 sun by Avhich images are produced ? They also are supposed to be 

 emanations or duplications of the object reflected. No savage or bar- 

 barian could understand that the waves of the air are turned back and 

 sound is duplicated in an echo. He knows not that there is an atmos- 

 phere, and to him the echo is the voice of an unseen personage — a 

 spirit. There is no theory more profoundly implanted in early man- 

 kind than that of spiritism. 



Thaumaturgics. — The gods of mythologic philosophies are created 

 to account for the wonders of nature. Necessarily they are a wonder- 

 working folk, and having been endowed with these magical powers in 

 all the histories given in mythic tales of their doings on the earth, we 

 find them performing most wonderful feats. They can transform 

 themselves ; they can disappear and reappear ; all their senses are magi- 

 cal ; some are endowed with a multiplicity of eyes, others have a mul- 

 tiplicity of ears ; in Norse mythology the watchman on the rainbow 

 bridge could hear the grass grow and the wool on the backs of sheep ; 

 arms can stretch out to grasp the distance, tails can coil about moun- 

 tains, and all powers become magical. But the most wonderful power 

 with which the gods are endowed is the power of will, for we find that 

 they can think their arrows to the hearts of their enemies ; mountains 

 are overthrown by thought, and thoughts are projected into other 

 minds. Such are the thaumaturgics of mythologic philosophy. 



Mythic Tales. — Early man having created through the develojj- 

 ment of his philosophy a host of personages, these gods must have a 

 history. A part of that history, and the most important part to us as 

 students of philosophy, is created in the very act of creating the gods 

 themselves. I mean that portion of their history which relates to the 

 operations of nature, for the gods were created to account for those 

 things. But to this is added much else of adventure. The gods love 

 as men love, and go in quest of mates. The gods hate as men hate, 

 and fight in single combat or engage in mythic battles ; and the history 

 of these adventures impelled by love and hate, and all other passions 

 and purposes with which men are endowed, all woven into a complex 

 tissue with their doings in carrying out the operations of nature, con- 

 stitutes the web and woof of mythology. 



Belig ion.'— Agdiin, as human welfare is deeply involved in the op- 

 erations of nature, man's chief interest is in the gods. In this interest 

 religion originates. Man, impelled by his own volition, guided by his 

 own purposes, aspires to a greater happiness, and endeavor follows 

 endeavor, but at every step his progress is impeded : his own powers 

 fail before the greater powers of nature ; his powers are pygmies, na- 



