STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM. 115 



and intrinsic exercise of the intelligence. We shall 

 be convinced of this truth if we only consider that 

 science and myth have a common origin. 



It is evident that there are great difficulties in 

 such an inquiry; for, putting aside other extrinsic 

 difficulties, we have to reduce to a single act or fact 

 the origin of the two vast worlds of myth and science ; 

 it is needful to gauge the inmost psychical faculty of 

 the intelligence, and to discover the continuous yet 

 rapid and delicate process of its exercise. 



If we are able to attain our object and to tear 

 away the veil which conceals this mysterious act, we 

 shall have a noble recompense in the laborious path 

 on which we have entered, inasmuch as we shall 

 reveal one of the most important laws of life, of the 

 exercise of reflex intelligence and of the genesis of 

 science. Yet we are very sensible how far w r e are 

 from being equal to the enormous difficulties of this 

 inquiry. 



