372 



FOOT-NOTES TO EVOLUTION. 



imperfectly stated. By processes of suggestion and 

 conventionality the ideas of the individual become as- 

 similated to those of the multitude. Thus tradition and 

 myths arise to account for phenomena not clearly re- 

 lated to the ordinary experiences of life. And the un- 

 known in all mythology is ascribed not to natural forces, 

 but to the action of the power that transcends Nature. 



It has been evident to man in all ages that there lie 

 about him forces stronger than he, invisible and intan- 

 gible, inscrutable as to their real nature, 

 The forces out- ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ j^^^ potent. He can not 

 side ourselves. ., . rr • j i- 



easily trace cause and effect m deahng 



with these forces, and it is natural that he should doubt 

 the existence of causation in the phenomena they pro- 

 duce. As the human will seems capricious because the 

 springs of volition are hidden from our observation, 

 so to the unknown will that limits our own has been 

 ascribed an infinite caprice. All races of men capable 

 of continued thought have come to believe in the exist- 

 ence of something outside themselves, whose power is 

 without human limitations. Through the imagination 

 of great poets these forces become personified. The ex- 

 istence of power seems to demand a will. The power 

 is infinitely greater than ours, the sources of action in- 

 scrutable ; hence man has conceived the unknown First 

 Cause as an infinite and unconditioned man. Anthropo- 

 morphism in some degree is inevitable, because each 

 man must think in terms of his own experience. Into 

 his own universe all that he knows must come. 



Recognition of the hidden but gigantic forces in Na- 

 ture leads men to fear them and to worship them. To 

 think of them, either in fear or worship, is to give them 

 human forms. To grant them the form of man is to 

 give them "a local habitation and a name." As man is 

 a social animal, even in his hopes and fears, these feel- 



