THE IDEAS AND SOURCES OF MYTH. 27 



ensue in the simplest as in the most complex form. 

 This is the case with all the other forces of nature ; 

 they may be modified by existing circumstances, 

 and yet they have laws and definite elements to 

 distinguish them from all others. These forces, 

 however, while they are distinct in their peculiar 

 manifestations, and take effect through special quali- 

 ties, quantities, and rhythmic movements, are all 

 fused together in the infinite and eternal unity which 

 constitutes the life of the universe. Neither here 

 nor in my former work is there any question of that 

 most difficult problem, the individual personality of 



man.* 



Since there is between man and animals a 

 relationship and a psychical identity, as well as a 

 genetic continuity of evolution, it is impossible to 

 deny that there is also in some degree a like con- 

 tinuity in the products and acts of the consciousness, 

 the emotions, and the intelligence. This is asserted or 

 admitted even by those who do not like to hear of the 

 genetic continuity of evolution, nor is there now any 

 school of thought which impugns such a truth. If this 

 be true, as it undoubtedly is, and since we are treating 

 of the genesis of myth in its earliest beginning, we 



* I stated in my former essay on the fundamental law of the in- 

 telligence in the animal kingdom that philosophy was only the 

 research into the psychical manifestations of the animal kingdom, ami 

 into those peculiar to man, in connection with the respective organisms 

 in which they act, and with the estimate of their power as cosmic 

 factors in the general harmony of the forces of the world. 



