INTRODUCTION 



discussions of the primitive mind, vast num- 

 bers of new facts relating to magic, Tabu, myth, 

 and custom have been collected, and decidedly 

 new theories have been advanced. Especially ill, 

 however, has Max Muller*s type of explanation 

 fared in recent literature ; and the "solar" the- 

 ory, whose interpretations of individual myths 

 Fiske so freely accepted, has gone far into the 

 background of discussion. 



If Fiske had rewritten the " Cosmic Philo- 

 sophy," he could not have ignored this aspect 

 of the sociological problems of evolution. He 

 would almost certainly have had to give it 

 more space than primitive religion occupied in 

 the original form of the " Cosmic Philosophy." 

 His final view as to the worth of Spencer's 

 hypothesis, as well as of his own former inter- 

 pretation of mythology, might also have been 

 very greatly modified by the prominence given 

 to primitive magic through the researches of 

 Fraser, in the " Golden Bough" (researches of 

 a type that would have greatly fascinated the 

 young Fiske, could he have but known of them 

 at the time when he wrote the " Myths and 

 Myth-Makers "). In brief, this whole depart- 

 ment of Fiske's studies would have needed, 

 one may be sure, a very deep-going alteration, 

 had he been able to return to the subject in the 

 light of recent research, and would have re- 

 cxliv 



