HUMAN SENSATION AND PEECEPTION. 91 



tions from the types he has formed of various pheno- 

 mena, and his attitude towards this internal world 

 does not differ from his attitude towards that which 

 is external. He personifies the images, ideas, and 

 conceptions by transforming them into living subjects, 

 just as he had originally personified cosmic objects 

 and phenomena. 



In myths, since they owe their origin to the reflex 

 power which is gradually organized and developed, 

 man carries on this faculty of personification which 

 had already been exerted in him as an animal. But 

 the object of myth became twofold just as the animal 

 nature became duplex in man, whether as a special 

 image of special conception, or as an intellectual 

 definition of the specific type already formed. The 

 myths are, therefore, from their very nature, either 

 special, that is, derived from the psychical duplica- 

 tion of a personified image ; or they are specific, and 

 are derived, as we are about to explain, from the 

 personification of a type. 



The deliberate intention to be beneficent or malign, 

 useful or injurious, which is ascribed to any external 

 object, thus transforming it into an intelligent 

 subject, is the first and simplest stage of myth, and 

 the innate form of its genesis. In this case, it is 

 always special, extrinsic, and concrete, and belongs 

 implicitly to the animal kingdom, although more or 

 less vividly in proportion to the mental and physical 

 evolution of the species. It is for the same reason 



