THE IDEAS AND SOURCES OF MYTH. 35 



estimated, according to bis absolute value, divested, 

 as in tbe case of all otber physical and organic 

 sciences, of preconceived ideas or prejudices in favour 

 of the supernatural. He should be studied as in 

 physics we study bodies and the laws which govern 

 them, or as the laws of their motions and com- 

 binations are studied in chemistry, allowance always 

 being made for their reciprocal relations, and for 

 their appearance as a whole. For if there be in the 

 universe a distinction of modes, there is no absolute 

 separation of laws and phenomena. 



The various branches of science are only sub- 

 jective necessities, consequent on the successive and 

 gradual order of our comprehension of things ; they 

 are classifications of method, with no special reference 

 to the undivided personality of nature. All are 

 parts of the whole, and so also the whole is re- 

 vealed in its several parts. They come to be in 

 thought, as well as in reality, reciprocal conditions 

 of each other ; and he who is able to solve the pro- 

 blem of the world correctly in a simple movement of 

 an atom, would be able to explain all laws and all 

 phenomena, since every thing may ultimately be re- 

 duced to this movement. It is precisely this which 

 has been attained by certain laws, so that the study 

 of man must not be dissociated from this conception. 

 It is necessary to regard him as a product of the 

 forces of nature, with which he has certain pro- 

 perties in common. Although man may appear to 



