THE IDEAS AND SOUECES OF MYTH. 33 



that every man would have to begin again for himself 

 in his own peculiar cycle of myth. But history shows 

 that this is not the case, and that the mythic faculty 

 gradually wanes and becomes weaker, even if it does 

 not altogether cease to exist, a result which would not 

 occur if myth were a necessary function of the 

 intelligence. 



I shall presently reply to such an objection; in 

 the meanwhile, regarding the question superficially, 

 I need only say that if the mythic faculty diminishes 

 in one direction, and with respect to some forms 

 and their corresponding substance, it has certainly 

 not ceased to appear in another, exerting itself, as 

 we shall see, in other forms and other substance. 

 The common people, both urban and rural, do for 

 the most part adhere to primitive and very ancient 

 superstitions, as every one may know from his own 

 experience, as well as from the writings of well known 

 authors of nearly all the civilized nations of Europe. 

 In fact, every man in the early period of his life 

 constructs a heaven for himself, as those who study 

 the ways of children are aware, and this has given 

 rise to a new science of infantine psychology, set forth 

 in the writings of Taine, Darwin, Perez, and others. 



We also propose to show that the scientific faculty, 

 which gathers strength and is developed from the 

 mythical faculty, is in the first instance identical and 

 confounded with it, but that science corrects and 

 controls the primitive function, just as reason corrects 



