23\ THE ORIGIN OF HI/MAN REASON. 



are far too few to convey the ideas of the mind, that 

 metaphor exists. It is interesting also to note that 

 figurative, metaphorical language is natural and espe- 

 cially abundant amongst various uncultured tribes. 

 We may conceive of primitive man, as it were, bursting 

 with mental conceptions for which he had not adequate 

 expression; he would have been spontaneously impelled 

 into metaphor to a much greater extent and more 

 universally than are the most metaphorical races of 

 our own day. 



Nothing could well be more unwise than to take the 

 plainest and most material meanings of primitive words 

 as being necessarily their only meanings. Figure, or 

 metaphor, has been occasioned by poverty and ste- 

 rility of visible or audible signs, but their cause is the 

 wealth and fruitfulness of thought. Many primitive 

 terms had thus, no doubt, double meanings from the 

 first, and the mental and moral applications of hard, 

 sharp, low, and high, were probably double accordingly. 

 To this question, however, we shall return.* 



As to ** animistic thought," Mr. Romanes quotes,t in 

 a note, as follows : " ' It must be borne in mind that 

 primitive man did not distinguish between phenomena 

 and volitions, but included everything under the head 

 of actions, not only the involuntary actions of human 

 beings, such as breathing, but also the movements of 

 inanimate things, the rising and setting of the sun, the 

 wind, the flowing of water, and even such purely in- 

 animate phenomena as fire, electricity, etc. ; in short, 

 all the changing attributes of things were conceived as 

 * See below, pp. 271-273. f p. 275. 



