14 MYTH AND SCIENCE. 



great minds which were first in the field in order 

 to dwell on the two men who, as it seems to me, 

 ha vi' summed up the knowledge of others, and have 

 formulated a theory in great measure peculiar to 

 themselves. 



Tylor's well known name will at once suggest 

 itself, and that of Herbert Spencer ; the former, in 

 his great work on the "Early History of Mankind 

 and of Civilization," and other writings, the latter, in 

 the first volume of his " Sociology," and in his earlier 

 works, have respectively established the doctrine of 

 the universal origin of myths on the basis of ethno- 

 graphy, on the psychological examination of the 

 primary facts of the intelligence, and on the conception 

 of the evolution of the general phenomena of nature. 



It would, indeed, be difficult to excel the great 

 mind, the acute genius, and the universal learning of 

 Herbert Spencer, who has been termed the modern 

 Aristotle by a learned writer ; and this is high 

 praise when we remember how much knowledge is 

 necessary in our times, and in the present con- 

 ditions of science, before any one can be deemed 

 worthy of such a comparison. But with due respect 

 to so great a man, and with the diffidence of one 

 who is only his disciple, I venture to think that 

 Herbert Spencer's attempt to revive, at any rate in 

 part, Evemero's theory of the origin of myths will 

 not be successful, and it may prove injurious to 

 science. First, because all myths cannot be reduced 



