STATEMENT OF THE PKOBLEM. Ill 



must meekly comply with their precepts, and must 

 offer up his pains and sorrows to Zeus. 



These utterances of the ancient poets never go 

 beyond the range of polytheism, yet they show how 

 far intrinsic morality and truth were developed, even 

 by the imaginative and mythical faculty of the human 

 mind, during the gradual historical evolution of the 

 race. The plurality of gods appears to be the mani- 

 festation of the divine principle ; their action on the 

 world lost almost all trace of arbitrary power and of 

 their former versatility and caprice. The super- 

 stition of polytheism remained, but it had an inward 

 tendency to more rational conceptions and principles. 



From this brief notice, as well as from the remarks 

 which preceded it, it appears how the evolution of 

 myth, from its beginning and in its historic course, 

 led to a more perfect, although empiric acquaintance 

 with the world, and with the moral principles and 

 civilization of peoples. The logical faculty by which 

 the development is gradually effected is the same by 

 which from another point of view science becomes 

 possible. 



We have clearly demonstrated the indisputable fact 

 that the absolute condition of intrinsic animal per- 

 ception, and consequently of the primary perception 

 of man, was the animation and vivification of the 

 things and phenomena perceived. This primary ac- 

 quaintance with things depended on their spontaneous 

 resolution into active and personal subjects. Nor 

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