HISTORICAL EVOLUTION OF MYTH AND SCIENCE. 205 



may be represented by signs ; and in and through 

 these a universal and objective mode of exercising the 

 intellectual faculty of reasoning has been created. 



Speech can, by means of reflex memory, produce 

 at will the particular images already classified in the 

 mind, and this makes the process of reasoning pos- 

 sible ; since such a process becomes more easy by 

 the use of signs to which the attention can revert. 

 The relative size of objects, and the like qualities, 

 which are at first regarded as so many different intui- 

 tions in space, are defined by words or gestures, 

 and are thus subjected to comparative analogy ; but 

 in the early stages of language these relations were 

 presented in an extrinsic form by phonetic signs, and 

 became images which in some sort represented one 

 particular state of consciousness with respect to the 

 two things compared. Galton, speaking of the 

 Damaras, tells us that they find great difficulty in 

 counting more than five, since they have not another 

 hand with which to grasp the fingers which represent 

 the units. When they lose any of their cattle, they 

 do not discover the loss by the diminution of the 

 number, but by missing a familiar .object. If two 

 packets of tobacco are given to them as the regulation 

 price of a sheep, they will be altogether at a loss to 

 understand the receipt of four packets in exchange 

 for two sheep. Such examples might be multiplied 

 to any extent. 



We repeat that when not endowed with speech, or 



