COMPULSION OF NATURE- ACTION 317 



allegiance, their purposes may be, so to speak, adap- 

 tively modified, or they may be in some way induced 

 to preserve or augment the petitioner, and to nullify, 

 weaken, or destroy his enemies. 



This primitive attempt to obtain desired results by 

 obeying, yielding, or giving up something of one's self 

 to an unwilling power, and thus by means of these gifts, 

 or additions to it, helping, inducing, or compelling 

 that power to modify itself, or to make up its own mind 

 how to act, is an important step toward bringing about 

 that mutual adaptation which is so essential to all co- 

 operative action. The creative principle utilized is 

 right, for it is the only method that can give creative 

 returns. The specific application may be largely, or 

 wholly, wrong. 



IX. The Tendency to Unify and Simplify Natural 



Phenomena 



But we need not further recall the familiar facts 

 of animism and anthropomorphism. They are easily 

 accessible. What I wish more particularly to empha- 

 size is that as man, consciously, or unconsciously, tried 

 to find cooperative explanations of natural phenomena, 

 explanations that would work together to strengthen 

 one another and at the same time strengthen and pre- 

 serve himself, or serve as guiding principles in the bet- 

 ter conduct of his own life, he gradually reduced his 

 legions of warring gods and devils to a smaller num- 

 ber; that is> he unconsciously classified natural phe- 

 nomena into larger and larger groups presided over 

 by more powerful "spirits," or more comprehensive 

 agencies. 



