180 MYTH AND SCIENCE. 



dramas. The intrinsic habit of forming mythical 

 representations of nature is due to a more vivid sense 

 of her power, to a rapid succession of images, and to 

 a constant projection of the observer's own personality 

 into phenomena. This peculiar characteristic of our 

 race is never wholly overcome, and to it is added a 

 proud self-consciousness, an energy of thought and 

 / action, a constant aspiration after grand achievements, 

 and a haughty contempt for all other nations. 



" The very name of Aryan, transmitted in a modified 

 form to all successive generations, denotes dominion 

 and valour ; the Brahrnanic cosmogony, and the 

 epithet of apes, given to all other races in the epic of 

 Valmiki, bear witness to the same fact ; it is shown in 

 the slavery imposed on conquered peoples, in the 

 hatred of foreigners felt by all the Hellenic tribes ; in 

 the omnipotence of Borne, the haughtiness of the Ger- 

 manic orders ; in the feudal system, in the Crusades ; 

 and finally, in the modern sense of our superiority to 

 all other existing races. The quickness of perception, 

 and the facile projection of human personality into 

 natural objects, led to the manifold creations of Olym- 

 pus, and this was an aesthetic obstacle to any nearer 

 approach to the pure and absolute conception of 

 God, while the innate pride of race was a hindrance 

 to our humiliation in the dust before God. The 

 Semites declared that man was created in the image 

 of God, and we created God in our own image ; while 

 conscious of the power of the numina we confronted 



