226 MYTH AND SCIENCE. 



are sublimated myths ; the elements are first regarded 

 as deities, and the world is made in the image of man, 

 and considered to be alive ; the stars and the earth 

 are endowed with life and intelligence ; the fate of 

 souls before and after death, their recollection of a 

 prior existence, their transmigrations and wanderings 

 around the tombs, demoniac possession in inspiration 

 and madness, are all very ancient mythical represen- 

 tations, which form a great part of the theoretical and 

 spiritual cosmogony of savages in all times and places. 

 We have seen that not only relatively civilized peoples, 

 but those which are quite savage divide souls into 

 distinct parts r throughout Africa, America, and Asia, 

 th^re is a belief in the transmigration of souls into 

 animals, plants, and other objects. The Tasmanians 

 believed that their souls would ascend to the stars 

 and abide there ; and all savages hold the demoniac 

 possession of inspired persons, of madmen, and of the 

 sick, which has led to what may be called a diabolic 

 pathology. The general conception of the world as a 

 living animal, with all the tendencies ascribed to it 

 by Plato, is only the primeval fact of the animation 

 and personification of phenomena applied to the 

 general idea of the universe. Hence it is easy to see 

 how much of Plato's physics and psychology are due 

 to the necessary and historic course of myth, and to 

 the schools into which myth had been modified before 

 his time. 



We must dwell more particularly on his theory of 



