58 MYTH AND SCIENCE. 



dynamic, and the special and permanent character of 

 the act is at once revealed. We have experience of 

 this fact in ourselves, although we are now capahle 

 of immediately distinguishing between the animate 

 and the inanimate, and man alone has, or can have, 

 a rational conception of what are really cosmic objects 

 or things. Yet if we suddenly and unexpectedly see 

 some object move in a strange way, which we know 

 from experience to be inanimate, the innate inclina- 

 tion to personify it takes effect, and for a moment 

 we are amazed, as if the phenomenon w r ere produced 

 by deliberate power proper to itself. 



I have kept various kinds of animals for several 

 years, in order to observe them and try experiments 

 at my convenience. I have suddenly inserted an 

 unfamiliar object in the various cages in w 7 hich I have 

 kept birds, rabbits, moles, and other animals. At first 

 sight the animal is always surprised, timid, curious, or 

 suspicious, and often retreats from it. By degrees his 

 confidence returns, and after keeping out of the way 

 for some time, he becomes accustomed to it, and 

 resumes his usual habits. If then, by a simple 

 arrangement of strings already prepared, I move the 

 object to and fro, without showing myself, the animal 

 scuttles about and is much less easily reconciled to 

 its appearance. I have tried this experiment with 

 various animals, and the result is almost always the 

 same. 



In the cage of a very tame thrush, I made a 



