ABOEIGINAL AMEEICAN POETRY. 11 



peal are, when perceived, endowed by primitive men, as well as by animals, with subjec- 

 tive life, and the power of acting with deliberate purpose. This, which he considers the 

 first form of myth, is suggested only by phenomena actually present. The next form of 

 myth, which is the first stage of fetish, and confined to man, is, when those objects retain 

 their influence over the mind even when they are absent, as beings that inspire hope or 

 fear and to which worship may be paid. It is, in fact, "the universal and primitive sense 

 of myth in nature which man alone is capable of applying permanently to some given 

 phenomenon, such as wind, rain and the like, or lakes, volcanoes and rocks, and these 

 remain fixed in the mind, as powers of g-ood or eA'il." The second stage of fetichism, 

 which is the third form in which myth develops itself is, according to the same author, 

 " the veneration of objects, animals, plants and the like, in which an extrinsic power is 

 supposed to be incarnated." Signor Vignoli maintains that " many ages elapsed before 

 man attained to the second stage of fetichism, since it was necessarily preceded by a 

 further and reflex elaboration of myth, namely, the genesis of a belief in spirits." Next 

 comes the polytheistic form, to which two classes of people attain — those who classify and 

 ultimately reduce fetiches into a more general conception, and those whose conception 

 takes an anthropomorphic form. When the latter stage has been reached, a new field is 

 opened, through which there is a gradual transition to the monotheistic idea. The 

 methodical process by which that goal is attained — a process characteristic of human 

 thought — is sometimes discerned in an inchoate and imperfect form among the wilder 

 tribes of mankind, such as the Indians of North and Central America and several Asiatic 

 nations. In such cases, the old and debased myths still maintained their ground, and 

 there are examples of such persistence even in Europe itself; "for, while in one direction 

 a capacity for classification leads to a purer monotheistic conception, and even to rational 

 science, the great majority of the common people, and even of those of higher culture, 

 still hold many ideas which are polytheistic and anthropomorphic, and some which really 

 belong to the debased stage of fetichism and A'ulgar superstition." Finally, "science is 

 the de-personification of myth, arriving at a rational idea of that which was originally a 

 fantastic type, by divesting it of its wrappings and symbols." But in this case, too, the 

 process is gradual, science also having its myth ; for when natural force and phenomena are 

 transformed from anthropomorphic beings into laws or general principles, these latter 

 virtually become " entities endowed with eternal and independent existence." But though 

 " science still nourishes myths within its pale," it is " unconsciously, and in their most 

 rational form." 



I have dwelt thus long on Signor Vignoli's theory because it has, by implication, an 

 obvious bearing on the origin of poetry among rude tribes of men as well as on its culti- 

 vation by more advanced races. The subject is, indeed, treated by him at some length 

 when he deals with special myths, such as that of Prometheus, and with a hymn in the 

 Rig- Veda, which he quotes, as having a tendency at once mythical and scientific. In 

 the chapter on " Dreams and Illusions," he especially discusses the disposition among 

 barbarous races to make dance and pantomime and song their aids in the expression of 

 intense feeling. " The arts also," he writes, " like other human products, follow the general 

 evolution of myth in their historic course. . . . The arts of singing and of instrumental 



^ Myth and Science, ch. vii. 



