INTRODUCTION. xxiii 



that person's brain, and out again froni his hps 

 into some other person's ear, and so on, ends in 

 becoming as different from the original thing as a 

 lion is different from a giraffe. The interesting 

 thing is that all this is natural. Take two persons 

 that have heard the same story. Let them narrate 

 it even one hour afterwards. Each will narrate it 

 differently, and this is because the grey matter 

 of their brain, or other parts of their organism, is 

 constitutionally different. The story has to pass 

 through a different medium, and becomes 'refracted' 

 — transformed. 



So with symbols. Each artist unintentionally 

 makes a little variation ; the next one, copying that, 

 does the same with his copy, and so on ; so that 

 after one or two centuries you begin to wonder 

 whether the last was meant for the first, or for 

 something totally different ; and herein lies the 

 difficulty, for we, in a totally difterent age, with 

 different thoughts and surroundings, have to place 

 ourselves mentally in the position of the childhood 

 of mankind. Symbols may have some common 

 type, which would indicate their relations, but the 

 whole thing is a question which has to be studied 

 with new light in order to discover what it all 

 really means. Before long, perhaps, new discoveries 

 in Africa and Asia may throw new light on ques- 

 tions which the thoughts of those two ancient 

 peoples invented. Of this there now can be little 

 doubt. The Assyrians and Egyptians were in 



