28 MYTH AND SCIENCE. 



will endeavour, with daring prompted by the theory 

 of evolution, to discover if the first germ of these 

 representations may not have already existed in 

 the animal kingdom before it was evolved in man 

 in the fetishtic and anthropomorphic form. This 

 is an arduous hut necessary inquiry, to which I 

 am impelled by the doctrine of evolution, as it is 

 properly understood, as well as by the universal logic 

 of nature. 



If I were to consider myth as it has ultimately 

 been developed in man, it would be a strange and 

 absurd attempt to trace out any points of resemblance 

 with animals, who are altogether devoid of the logical 

 faculty which leads to such development. But if, on 

 the contrary, we endeavour to trace the earliest, 

 spontaneous, and direct elements of myth as a 

 product of animal emotions and implicit intelligence, 

 such research becomes not only legitimate but neces- 

 sary ; since the instrument is the same, the effects 

 ought also to be the same. 



We have already said that the fact has been 

 observed and generally admitted that the primary 

 origin of myth in its essential elements consists in 

 the personification or animation of all extrinsic 

 phenomena, as well as of the dreams, illusions, and 

 hallucinations which are intrinsic. It is agreed that, 

 this animation is not the reflex and deliberate act 

 of man, but that it is the spontaneous and immediate 

 act of the human intelligence in its elementary 



