MCGEE] PHILOSOPHIES AND BELIEFS 179 



and iuanimate. The second stage is zootlieism; within it the powers 

 of animate forms are exaggerated and amplilied into the realm of tlie 

 snpernal, and certain animals are deified. The third stage is that of 

 ])lij'sitheisru, in wliicli the agencies of natnre are iiersouitiod and 

 exalted unto omnipotence. The fourth stage is that of psychotheism, 

 which includes the domain of spiritual concept. In general the devel- 

 opment of belief coincides with the growth of abstraction ; yet it is to 

 be remembered tliat this growth represents increase in definiteness of 

 the abstract concepts rather than augmentation in numbers and kinds 

 of subjective impressions, i. e., the advance is m quality rather than 

 in quantity; indeed, it would ulmost appear that the vague and indefi- 

 nite abstraction of hecastotheisui is more jiervasive and i)revalent than 

 the clearer abstraction of higher stages. Appreciation of the funda- 

 mental characteristics of belief is essential to even the most general 

 understanding of the Indian mythology and philosophy, and even after 

 careful study it is difflcult for thinkers trained in the higher methods 

 of thought to understand the crude and confused ideation of the 

 primitive thinker. 



In hecastotheism the believer finds mysterious properties and poten- 

 cies everywhere. To his mind every object is endued with occult 

 power, moved by a vague volition, actuated by shadowy motive rang-_ 

 ing capriciously from malevolence to benevolence; in his lax estima- 

 tion some objects are more potent or more mysterious than others, the 

 strong, the sharp, the hard, and the swift-moving rising superior to 

 the feeble, the dull, the soft, and the slow. Commonly he singles out 

 some special object as his personal, family, or tribal mystery-symbol 

 or fetich, the object usually representing that which is most feared or 

 worst hated among his surroundings. Vaguely realizing from the 

 memory of accidents or unforeseen events that he is dependent on his 

 surroundings, he invests every feature of his environment with a 

 cai)ricioiis humor reflecting his own disposition, and gives to each and 

 all a subtlety and inscrutability corresponding to his exalted estima- 

 tion of his own craft in the chase and war; and, conceiving himself to 

 live and move only at the mercy of his multitudinous associates, he 

 becomes a fatalist — kismet is his watchword, and he meets defeat and 

 death with resignation, just as he goes to victory with complacence; 

 for so it was ordained. 



Zootheism is the offspring of hecastotheism. As the primitive 

 believer assigns special potency or mystery to the strong and the swift, 

 he gradually comes to give exceptional rank to self-moving animals; 

 as his experience of the strength, alertness, swiftness, and courage of 

 his animate enemy or prey increases, these animals are invested with 

 successively higher and higher attributes, each reflecting the mental 

 operations of the mystical huntsman, and in time the animals with 

 which the primitive believers are most intimately associated come to be 

 regarded as tutelary daimons of supernatural power and intelligence. 

 At first the animals, like the undifferentiated things of hecastotheism, 



