ORGANIZATION OF THE SCIENCES 



all, they were not supposed to be due to voli- 

 tion. It is one of the unfortunate results of 

 Comte's use of the term " theological " to 

 characterize this primitive philosophy, that we 

 are apt to think it necessary to seek for signs 

 of a deity when examining the so-called theo- 

 logic epoch. The idea of a god distinct from the 

 phenomenon was, however, a polytheistic, not 

 a fetishistic idea : it was the result of much ab- 

 straction and generalization. Fetishism endowed 

 the particular object itself with volition. And 

 such being the case, I am inclined to believe 

 that many even of the simplest mechanical phe- 

 nomena may have been originally explained as 

 due to the free will of the objects concerned. 1 

 However this may be, there can be no doubt 

 that mechanical conceptions ceased to be an- 

 thropomorphic at a very early date, and that 

 statics, one branch of mechanics, is the oldest 

 of the sciences, outside of pure mathematics. 



If now we consider the three great branches 

 of inorganic physics, we find abundant records 

 of a time when the heavenly bodies were sup- 

 posed to be intelligent creatures, and were wor- 

 shipped as such. Even in the enlightened age 

 of Perikles, and in the most advanced commu- 

 nity then existing, Anaxagoras came near losing 

 his life for asserting that the moon was a mass 



1 See Myths and Myth-Makers, chap, vii., "The Prime- 

 val Ghost World." 



*5 



