THE IDEAS AND SOURCES OF MYTH. 17 



him, and what is the cause of this established and 

 universal fact ? The marvellous ethnographic learn- 

 ing of the author, and his profound analysis, do not 

 answer this question, and the problem still remains 

 unsolved. 



It is evident from what we have said, that the 

 theory of the origin of myth has of late made real and 

 important progress in different directions ; it has been 

 constituted by fitting methods, and with dispassionate 

 research, laying aside fanciful hypotheses and systems 

 more or less prompted by a desire to support or con- 

 fute principles which have no connection with science. 

 We have now in great measure arrived at the funda- 

 mental facts whence myth is derived, although, if I 

 do not deceive myself, the ultimate fact, and the 

 cause of this fact, have not yet been ascertained; 

 namely, for what reason man personifies all pheno- 

 mena, first vaguely projecting himself into them, 

 and then exercising a distinct purpose of anthropo- 

 morphism, until in this way he has gradually modified 

 the world according to his own image. 



If we are able to solve this difficult problem, a 

 fact most important to science and to the advance- 

 ment of these special studies must result from it : the 

 assimilation and concentration of all the sources of 

 myth into a single act, whether normal or abnormal 

 to humanity. To say that animism_ is the general 

 principle of myth does not reduce the different sources 

 whence it proceeds to a single psychical and organic 



