216 Charles Darwin. 



metaphysic philosophy as a stepping-stone from 

 the former to the latter. f 



In the lower stages of society, philosophy is purely 

 mythologic. All savage and barbaric peoples explain 

 the phenomena of the universe by a system of 

 myths. A mythology is always a growth, and 

 among every people there grows up by the employ- 

 ment of diverse and superficial analogies curious 

 suggestions a body of mythic explanations which 

 constitute its philosophy. 



Among the Wintuns of California the world is 

 three-storied. There is a world a great chamber 

 above, and there is this world, and a world below. 

 The waters fall from the world above because the 

 sky, the floor of that upper world, leaks ; and the 

 waters come from the world below through the 

 springs that issue from the flanks of the dead volca- 

 noes of that land ; so the waters from above and 

 the waters from below meet and flow down the great 

 Sacramento to the sea, where again they divide ; the 

 waters from above taking their way to their upper 

 home, and the waters from below taking their way 

 to the lower world. 



The mountains were formed by the great mole- 

 god, who crawled under the land and upheaved the 

 mountain ranges that stand on either side of the 

 Sacramento Valley. And so they explain all of the 

 phenomena of the universe with which they are ac- 

 quainted, in a system of myths which constitutes the 

 philosophy of the Wintuns. 



Now such a system of philosophy, a mythology, is 

 found in every savage and barbaric tribe of the world. 



