174 MYTH AND SCIENCE. 



with those of their conquerors. The same thing may 

 be observed in the development of Judaism during 

 the Babylonish captivity, in the biblical and messianic 

 doctrines which were grafted on pagan beliefs, and in 

 the teaching of Islam, as it was adopted in the East 

 and among the black races of Africa. 



We must make allowance for these extrinsic 

 accidents if we are to describe correctly the natural 

 course and logical evolution of myth. Even with 

 respect to the special evolution of myth in a separate 

 people, unmixed with others, while it is normal in 

 what may be termed its general form and categorical 

 phases, yet like all natural objects and phenomena, 

 and much more in all which concerns the human 

 mind, there are variations in its forms, and it attains 

 its ends by many ways. 



If we take a wider view of the general and reci- 

 procal influences of ethnic myths ; as respects the 

 historic results of mythologies, we shall see that if 

 every race evolved its sphere of myth in accordance 

 with the canons laid down by us, their effect upon 

 each other would work together for a common result 

 more quickly than when each is taken apart. The 

 reader must allow rne to make my meaning clear by 

 the following passage from my work on the "Dottrina 

 razionale del Progresso," which I published in 1863, 

 in the " Politecnico," Milan, on the fusion of the 

 monotheistic conception of the Semitic race with 

 the beliefs of Greece and Rome at the dawn of 

 Christianity : 



