6 MYTH AND SCIENCE. 



are due to the pli3 r sical and intellectual organism of 

 human nature. 



In order to pursue this important inquiry into 

 the first and final cause of the origin of myth, 

 it is evidently not enough to make a laborious 

 and varied collection of myths, and of the primitive 

 superstitions of all peoples, so as to exhaust the 

 immense field of modern ethnography. Nor is it 

 enough to consider the various normal and ab- 

 normal conditions of psychical phenomena, nor to 

 undertake the comparative study of languages, to 

 ascertain how far their speech will reveal the 

 primitive beliefs of various races, and the obscure 

 metaphorical sayings which gave birth to many 

 myths. It is also necessary to subject to careful 

 examination the simplest elementary acts of the mind, 

 in their physical and psychical complexity, in order 

 to discover in their spontaneous action the trans- 

 cendental fact which inevitably involves the genesis 

 of the same myth, the primary source whence it is 

 diffused by subsequent reflex efforts in various times 

 and varying forms. 



In speaking of the transcendental fact, it must not 

 be supposed that I allude to certain well-known a 

 priori speculations, which are opposed to my temper 

 of mind and to nay mode of teaching. I only use the 

 term transcendental because this is actually the primi- 

 tive condition of the fact in its inevitable beginning, 

 whatever form the mythical representation may 



