POWELL.) OUTGROWTH FROM MYTHOLOGIC PHILOSOPHY. 37 
which images are produced? They also are supposed to be emanations 
or duplications of the object reflected. No savage or barbarian could 
understand thatthe waves of the air are turned back, and sound is dupli- 
cated in an echo. He knows not that there is an atmosphere, and to 
him the echo is the voice of an unseen personage—a spirit. There is 
no theory more profoundly implanted in early mankind than that of spir- 
itism. 
Thaumaturgics.—The gods of mythologic philosophies are created to 
account for the wonders of nature. Necessarily they are a wonder-work- 
ing folk, and, having been endowed with these magical powers in all the 
histories given in mythic tales of their doings on the earth, we find them 
performing most wonderful feats. They can transform themselves; they 
can disappear and reappear ; all their senses are magical ; some are en- 
dowed with a multiplicity of eyes, others have a multiplicity of ears ; 
in Norse mythology the watchman on the rainbow bridge could hear the 
grass grow, and wool on the backs of sheep; arms can stretch out to 
grasp the distance, tails can coil about mountains, and all powers be- 
come magical. But the most wonderful power with which the gods are 
endowed is the power of will, for we find that they can think their 
arrows to the hearts of their enemies; mountains are overthrown by 
thought, and thoughts are projected into other minds. Such are the 
thaumaturgics of mythologic plilosophy. 
Mythic tales.—Early man having created through the development of 
his philosophy a host of personages, these gods must have a history. 
A part of that history, and the most important part to us as students 
of philosophy, is created in the very act of creating the gods themselves. 
I mean that portion of their history which relates to the operations of 
nature, for the gods were created to account for those things. But to 
this is added much else of adventure. The gods love as men love, and 
go in quest of mates. The gods hate as men hate, and fight in single 
combat or engage in mythic battles; and the history of these adven- 
tures impelled by love and hate, and all other passions and purposes 
with which men are endowed, all woven into a complex tissue with their 
doings in carrying out the operations of nature, constitutes the web and 
woof of mythology. 
Religion.—A gain, as human welfare is deeply involved in the opera- 
tions of nature, man’s chief interest is in the gods. In this interest 
religion originates. Man, impelled by his own volition, guided by his 
owl purposes, aspires to a greater happiness, and endeavor follows en- 
deavor, but at every step his progress is impeded; his own powers fail 
before the greater powers of nature; his powers are pygmies, nature’s 
powers are giants, and to him these giants are gods with wills and pur- 
poses of their own, and he sees that man in his weakness can succeed 
only by allying himself with the gods. Hence, impelled by this philos- 
ophy, man must have communion with the gods, and in this communion 
he must influence them to work for himself. Hence, religion, which has 
