THE SEARCH FOR CAUSES 233 



This is the view which is still taken of them in 

 Asia, where, if the purposeful intervention of a 

 God is doubted, they are still ascribed to the work- 

 ings of Fate. In the early days of his mental 

 development man regards himself, not as an 

 independent agent, responsible for error, but as 

 a puppet in the hands of stronger forces. He 

 seems unable to conceive of such an undirected 

 existence as that of chance, and is persuaded that 

 there is an outside cause for everything. It may 

 appear extraordinary that the savage mind should 

 have so rigid an idea of causal connection. But 

 the voluminous records of beliefs and customs, 

 which have been collected by anthropologists, 

 testify very clearly to the existence of this 

 conception. Indeed there are tribes at the 

 present day who are convinced that man is 

 naturally immortal, and that death is always 

 the result of either violence, poison or witchcraft. 

 We may then believe that a search for causes was 

 an imperious propensity in primitive man. 



Two sets of impressions make their mark upon 

 us firstly, those which are received by us through 

 our senses, and, secondly, those which are pre- 

 sented in memory. To us it seems impossible 

 that sensible objects should be confused with 

 imaginary visions : we have been taught from 

 childhood to distinguish the two. But an un- 

 cultured mind can hardly discriminate between 

 the visions of a dream and sensory perceptions : 

 the two impressions may doubtless appear to be 

 of different orders, but one seems to be as real as 

 the other. There are persons who are tortured 

 by the most deceptive hallucinations of sight or 

 hearing : most of us take time to lose the con- 

 viction of reality that is given by a very vivid 

 dream. The verisimilitude of a vision is greatly 

 increased if the memory is able to visualize clearly 



