PRE-THALESIAN PHILOSOPHY 2O3 



He has shown in more than one of his earlier works that no one has 

 seized hold of the essence of the mythopoeic power more convincingly; 

 and he repeats that mythology is the fruitful mother of all the activities 

 of civilized, mental activity. He admits that the tendency to real 

 explanatory work sets in markedly with the school of Miletus; but he 

 sees that there is still much of the matrix about the jewel of science. 

 And then on the other hand, when he turns to the rich masses of primitive 

 wisdom in the folklore of these great collectors how clearly his eye detects 

 the points that are really of philosophical significance. Here we have 

 the clear and piercing insight of this great writer at its brightest and best. 

 He turns lightly away from the jurisprudence, and religion, and govern- 

 ment, and manners, and poetry, and military strategy, and other features 

 of the ancient fables, and fixes our minds upon 



1) the beginnings of logic, 



2) the beginnings of psychology, 



3) the beginnings of natural philosophy, 



4) the beginnings of ethics. 



Primitive logic, he writes, knows no abstract ideas, and knows 

 general ideas only in the most limited sense. The pine, the elm, the 

 oak, are known, but not the tree. Knowledge is of concrete and indi- 

 vidual character. Primitive thinking is also entirely objective. Savages 

 relate the most atrocious tales of battle and chase, without the least 

 allusion to any feelings on the part of anybody. The verb hardly exists 

 in really primitive tongues; words represent things and their properties; 

 speech is very childlike. The deepest principle of knowledge is that whatever 

 is given in sense-perception is directly certain just as it is given. To sense- 

 perceptions we must add some few fantastic ideas based on a long 

 experience of nature. Movements and changes of objects are next in 

 reality to the objects themselves. Out of the very regularity of natural 

 movements and changes springs an interest in irregular happenings, 

 and as these happenings affect the weal and woe of men, the great why ? 

 of science may be said to be born thereof. Such in briefest outline is 

 this great expert's summary of the tap-root of logic. 



Turning to primitive psychology he begins by showing that psychic 

 life is nothing separated from the bodily life; both belong together. 



