ON TRACES OF THE EARLY MENTAL CONDITION OF MAN. 397 



liio'lier mental culture, and have become survivals, oi", as ^ve call tliem, " super- 

 stitions." In producing" tlie occult sciences, the association of tliouglit works in 

 ways most distinctly recognizable. When the Polynesian weather-maker prac- 

 tices on his sacred stone, wets it when he wants to produce rain, and ])uts it to 

 the tire to dry when he Avants dry weather; and when, in Europe, water is poured 

 on a stone, or a little girl led about and pails of water poured on her that rain 

 may in like manner l)e poured down from the sky, we have practices resting on 

 the most evident and direct association of thoughts. 



Thus we may see a Zulu busy chewing a bit of Avood, and therebj- performing 

 an ideal operation, softening the heart of another Zulu with whom he is going 

 to trade cows, that he may g'et a better bargain out of him. So it is when we 

 find lingering in England a practice l)elonging thoroughly to the savage sorcerer, 

 that of making" an image representing an enemy or part of him, and melting- it, 

 drying- it up, or wounding it, that the like may happen to the person with wdiom 

 it is associated. From time to time there is still found hidden about some coun- 

 try farm such a thing as a heart stuck full of pins, the record of some secret 

 story of attempted magic vengeance. 



In the ancient and still existing art of astrology we see the same early delusive 

 association of ideas producing results so perfectly intelligible to us that it is 

 really difficult for educated people to have patience to study its details. An 

 astrologer will tell us how the planet Jupiter is connected with persons of a bold, 

 hearty, jovial temperament; and how the planet Venus has to do with love and 

 marriage; while to us the whole basis of this theory lies in the accident of the 

 names of certain gods having been given to certain stars, which are therefore 

 supposed to have the attributes of these gods. The wonder is not that much 

 of the magician's sham science is inexplicable to us, but that the origin of so 

 many of its details is still evident. 



[An extract from Zadkiel's almanac was here read, with the object of showing 

 the principle on which the astrologer's deductions are still made, the movements 

 of the heavenly bodies being simply taken to symbolize human action, virtue 

 r.nd good fortune being connected with the aspects of the sun and Jupiter, (sunny 

 and jovial influences,) &c., the Avorking of the early childlike principle of the 

 association of ideas being thus traceable through the occult sciences from their 

 rise among savages to their decay among educated men.] 



By the study of facts like those of Avhich a scanty selection has here been 

 l>rought forward, it seems possible to look back to an early condition of our race 

 much more nearly corresponding with that of existing- savages than with that 

 of the civilized nations even of vovy ancient times. We seem to have before 

 us the traces of a state of language so low that Avords for counting had not yet 

 arisen in it, but mere gesture-language served their purpose. It is not meant 

 to imply that Ave have CAddence of a state of pure gesture-language anterior to 

 any spoken language ; Ave do not seem to have such ev^idence, and even among 

 the lower animals Ave find, in a rudimentary form, expression by action and V>y 

 voice going on together. In the working of the minds of these early tribes, 

 Ave trace a childlike condition of thought in Avhich there is a wonderful absence 

 of definition betAveen past and future, between fact and imagination, betAveen 

 last night's dream and to-day's AA'aking. Out of this state of mind Ave find aris- 

 ing all OA'er the Avorld a consistent, intense, and all-pervading spiritualism to 

 form a basis upon Avhich higher intellectual stages have been reared. In this 

 h)W and early mental state there reigns supreme the faculty of association of 

 thoughts. Out of this, Avhen unchecked by experience, arise those delusions of 

 sorcery Avhich perA'ade and imbitter the whole life of the savage, and carry a 

 stream of folly far on into the culture of the higher races. But through age 

 after age there has gone on a slow process of natural selection, ever tending to 

 thrust aside Avhat is Avorthless, and to favor AAdiat is strong and sound. Wit helm 

 von Iluudjoldt, already once quoted, may serve us again by laying down in few 



