POWELL. ] OUTGROWTH FROM MYTHOLOGIC PHILOSOPHY. 33 
induction only, for in the examination af savage philosophies we actually 
discover zoétheisin in all its proportions. Many of the Indians of North 
America, and many of South America, and many of the tribes of Africa, 
are found to be zodtheists. Their supreme gods are animals—tigers, 
bears, wolves, serpents, birds. Having discovered this, with a vast ac- 
cumulation of evidence, we are enabled to carry philosophy back one 
stage beyond physitheism, and we can confidently assert that all the 
philosophies of civilization have come up through these three stages. 
And yet, there are fragments of philosophy discovered which are not 
zootheistic, physitheistic, nor psychotheistic. Whatare they? We find 
running through all three stages of higher philosophy that phenomena 
are sometimes explained by regarding them as the acts of persons who 
do not belong to any of the classes of gods found in the higher stages. 
We find fragments of philosophy everywhere which seem to assume 
that all inanimate nature is animate; that mountains and hills, and 
rivers and springs, that trees and grasses, that stones, and all fragments 
of things are endowed with life and with will, and act for a purpose. 
These fragments of philosophy lead to the discovery of hecastotheism. 
Philology also leads us back to that state when the animate and the in- 
animate were confounded, for the holophrastic roots into which words 
are finally resolved show us that all inanimate things were represented 
in language as actors. Such is the evidence on which we predicate the 
existence of hecastotheism as a veritable stage of philosophy. Unlike 
the three higher stages, it has no people extant on the face of the globe, 
known to be in this stage of culture. The philosophies of many of the 
lowest tribes of mankind are yet unknown, and hecastotheism may be 
discovered ; but at the present time we are not warranted in saying that 
any tribe entertains this philosophy as its highest wisdom. 
OUTGROWTH FROM MYTHOLOGIC PHILOSOPHY. 
The three stages of mythologic philosophy that are still extant in the 
world must be more thoroughly characterized, and the course of their 
evolution indicated. But in order to do this clearly, certain outgrowths 
from mythologic philosophy must be explained—certain theories and 
practices that necessarily result from this philosophy, and that are in- 
tricately woven into the institutions of mankind. 
Ancientism.—The first I denominate ancientism. Yesterday was bet- 
ter than to-day. The ancients were wiser that we. This belief ina 
better day and a better people in the elder time is almost universal 
among mankind. <A belief so widely spread, so profoundly entertained, 
must have for its origin some important facts in the constitution or his- 
tory of mankind. Let us see what they are. 
3 AE 
