GENESIS OF MAN, MORALLY 



tions, inducing that kind of dissatisfaction which, 

 if weak, we call regret, and, if severe, remorse." ^ 

 All these varieties of incentive are next rein- 

 forced by incentives of a mysterious and super- 

 natural character. When intelligence has pro- 

 gressed to the point where some curiosity is felt 

 concerning the causes of phenomena, — a point 

 barely reached by the lowest contemporary sav- 

 ages, — mythologies begin to be framed. A 

 mythology is a rudimentary cosmic philosophy ; 

 and let me note, in passing, that an uncivilized 

 race must have attained considerable latent 

 philosophic capacity before it can construct a 

 rich mythology, — instance the luxuriant folk- 

 lore of Greece as contrasted with the scanty 

 mythology of savages. Now, the earliest kind 

 of philosophy is fetishism, by which natural 

 phenomena are attributed to the volitions of 

 countless supernatural agencies. What are these 

 agencies ? Recent researches have elicited the 

 fact that they are supposed to be the ghosts of 

 the dead ancestors of the tribe. The dead chief, 

 who appears to the savage in dreams, is sup- 

 posed to rule the winds and floods, and to visit 

 with his wrath those who violate the rules of 

 action established in the tribe.^ When one of 

 Mr. Darwin's companions, in Tierra del Fuego, 

 shot some birds to preserve as specimens, a 



^ Darwin, Descent of Man, vol. i. p. 87. 



* See Myths and Myth-Makers, pp. 102, 320. 



141 



