2G8 MYTH AND SCIENCE. 



were recalled to take their part within his breast: 

 he supposed the phenomenon to be objective, not 

 subjective. 



Prophecy, for instance, was often supposed to be a 

 recollection, and some primitive accounts of the genesis 

 of things, handed down by tradition, were reputed to 

 be inspired, and objectively dictated to the mind. 

 The Platonic theory of reminiscence relies on these 

 conceptions. The power which recalled the images to 

 memory was supposed to be external, and identical 

 with that which raises up the images of dreams ; 

 primitive man traced a fanciful identity between the 

 phenomena of memory and of dreams, and the dis- 

 tinction between them was not supposed to consist in 

 the actual images, but in the modes of their appear- 

 ance in the waking or sleeping state. The images 

 assumed in the memory a relative reality, somewhat 

 resembling those of dreams. In fact, some savages do 

 not clearly distinguish between the images of these 

 states, and see little difference between the spontaneous 

 recollection of things, the fancy, and dreaming. This 

 also occurs in children, who at a very early age often 

 call by name absent persons and things which recur 

 to their memory ; and on the other hand they do not 

 distinguish the facts of real life from those of dreams. 

 I have observed this fact in several children. 



Among primitive peoples it often happens that an 

 object with which they are unfamiliar, but which has 

 analogy with those with which they are 



