CONTKADICTIONS OF THE CTJKKENT HYPOTHESIS. 4:9 



can be represented in any but a persona] and more or less 

 human form.&quot; (Eraser s Magazine, April, 1870.) Here 

 the concrete is represented as original, and the abstract 

 as derivative. Immediately afterward, however, Prof. 

 Max Miiller, having given as examples of abstract nouns, 

 &quot; day and night, spring and winter, dawn and twilight, 

 storm and thunder,&quot; goes on to argue that, &quot; as long as 

 people thought in language, it was simply impossible to 

 speak of morning or evening, of spring and winter, with 

 out giving to these conceptions something of an indi 

 vidual, active, sexual, and at last personal character.&quot; 

 (&quot; Chips,&quot; etc., vol. ii., p. 55.) Here the concrete is de 

 rived from the abstract the personal conception is repre 

 sented as coming after the impersonal conception ; and 

 through such transformation of the impersonal into the 

 personal, Prof. Max Miiller considers ancient myths to 

 have arisen. How are these propositions reconcilable? 

 One of two things must be said : If originally there were 

 none of these abstract nouns, then the earliest statements 

 respecting the daily course of Nature were made in con 

 crete terms the personal elements of the myth were the 

 primitive elements, and the impersonal expressions which 

 are their equivalents came later. If this is not admitted, 

 then it must be held that, until after there arose these ab 

 stract nouns, there were no current statements at all 

 respecting these most conspicuous objects and changes 

 which the heavens and the earth present ; and that the 

 abstract nouns having been somehow formed, and rightly 

 formed, and used without personal meanings, afterward 

 became personalized a process the reverse of that which 

 characterizes early linguistic progress. 



No such contradictions occur if we interpret myths 

 after the manner that has been indicated. Nay, besides 

 escaping contradictions, we meet with unexpected solu- 

 8 



