30 MYTH AN ? D SCIENCE. 



appearance of myth. Since it is our business to 

 consider science as well as myth, and their respec- 

 tive relations in the evolution common to both, we 

 must, as briefly as possible in the present work, pause 

 to consider these two factors of the human mind, 

 observing the beginnings, conditions, and modes in 

 which the one arose and gradually disappeared, while 

 the other advanced and triumphed. We must not 

 only regard the progress and transformation of 

 religions, but also of science, as it is revealed in 

 the philosophic systems of every age, in the partial 

 or complete discoveries of genius, and in the great 

 and stupendous achievements of modern experimental 

 science. It would require a long treatise to fill so 

 wide a field, which we must restrict to the limits of 

 a few pages. Since our readers are now generally 

 acquainted with the course pursued by human thought, 

 and with the progress of peoples, but few landmarks or 

 formulas are necessary to enable them to clear away 

 obscurity and estimate facts at their just value, so as 

 to understand what civilization and science have to 

 do with the evolution of myth, and of science itself. 



A great corollary also ensues from studies under- 

 taken with the aid of sociology, that is, the genesis, 

 form, and gradual evolution of human societies. 

 These vary in character, in attitude, in power, form, 

 and duration, with the different characters of races, 

 and thus fulfil in various ways the cycle of myth 

 and science of which they are capable. It would 



