106 COSMIC PHILOSOPHY. [pt. l 



and effect in the world of phenomena; and he has learned 

 accordingly to apply to his newly -framed notions the rigid 

 test of Verification. Besides which the same accumulation 

 of experiences has built up an organized structure, of ideal 

 associations into which only the less extravagant newly- 

 framed notions have any chance of fitting. The primitive 

 man, or the modern savage who is to some extent his 

 counterpart, must reason without the aid of these multi- 

 farious checks. That immense mass of associations which 

 answer to what are called physical laws, and which in the 

 mind of the civilized modern have become almost organic, 

 have not been formed in the mind of the savage ; nor has he 

 learned the necessity of experimentally testing any of his 

 newly-framed notions, save perhaps a few of the commonest. 

 Consequently, there is nothing but superficial analogy to 

 guide the course of his thought hither or thither, and the 

 conclusions at which he arrives will be determined by 

 associations of ideas occurring apparently at hap-hazard. 1 

 Hence the quaint or grotesque fancies with which European 

 and barbaric folk-lore is filled, in the framing of which the 

 myth-maker was but reasoning according to the best methods 

 at his command." 2 Obviously the broad contrast here indi- 

 cated between modern and primeval thinking is at bottom 

 simply the contrast between the use of the objective and the 

 subjective methods, — between the constant recourse to experi- 

 mental tests and the implicit reliance upon mere subjective 

 congruity. 



But it may fairly be urged that we ought to consider the 



1 Do we not see here how close is the connection, psychologically, between 

 dreaming, insanity, myth-making, and reasoning according to the subjective 

 method ? It is not without reason that we commonly speak of the " dreams " 

 of metaphysicians ; and the distinguishing mark of insanity is the inability 

 to test the validity of one's conceptions by confronting them with the pheno- 

 mena. On the other hand it is in constantly applying die test of Verification 

 that waking-thought, common-sense, and scientific reasoning exhibit their 

 kinship with one another. 



8 Myll-s and Myth-makers, p. 216. 



