INTRINSIC LAW OF APPREHENSION. 147 



or emotion, the external or internal phenomenon 

 implicitly generates the subject, and with this the 

 cause. These abstract conceptions did not and do 

 not result in the anthropomorphism of phenomena or 

 ideas, but are transformed into entities which have a 

 real existence. 



We must also observe the mobility and inter- 

 changeableness of these fetishes, myths, and imaginary 

 entities in the primitive times of the human race, and 

 even in later ages ; at one time the fetish acts as a 

 myth, at another the myth has a logical existence. 

 Of this there are many proofs in the traditions of 

 ancient peoples, in the intellectual life of modern 

 savages, and in that of the civilized nations to which 

 we ourselves belong. The historic development does 

 not always follow the regular course we have just de- 

 scribed, although these are, in a strictly logical sense, 

 the necessary stages of intellectual evolution. Histori- 

 cally they are often jostled and confounded together by 

 the lively susceptibility and alacrity of the imagination > 

 of primitive man, and it is precisely this characteristic 

 which makes these marvellous ages so fertile in fanci- 

 ful creations, and also in scientific intuitions. 



Any one who is sufficiently acquainted with the 

 ancient literature of civilized peoples, and with the 

 legends of those which are rude and savage ; any one 

 who has reflected on the spontaneous value of words 

 and conceptions in modern speech, must often have 

 observed how myth assumed the form of a logical 



