196 COSMIC PHILOSOPHY. [it. i. 



Such a god, however, had there ever been one, would have 

 been a generalized deity, belonging to a comparatively 

 advanced system of polytheism ; and though we are entitled 

 to infer from this that the earliest generalization of the 

 phenomena of weight was a scientific and not a theological 

 generalization, we are not entitled to infer that in the 

 primeval fetishistic period, before the phenomena had been 

 generalized at 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 theologic 

 epoch. The idea of a god distinct from the phenomenon 

 was, however, a polytheistic, not a fetishistic idea : it was 

 the result of much abstraction and generalization. Fetish- 

 ism endowed the particular object itself with volition. 

 And, such being the case, I am inclined to believe that 

 many even of the simplest mechanical phenomena 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 anthropo- 

 morphic 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 supposed to be intelligent creatures, 

 and were worshipped as such. Even in the enlightened age 

 of Perikles, and in the most advanced community then 

 existing, Anaxagoras came near losing his life for asserting 

 that the moon was a mass of rocks and not a goddess. Long 

 after monotheism had overthrown these crude interpretations, 

 the planets were still supposed to be the abode of controlling 



1 See Mytlis and Myth-Makers, chap, vii., " The Primeval Ghost 

 World. 



