ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 129 



nomena to be explained, for the fundamental postulate in 

 mythology is " some one does it," such being the essential 

 characteristic of subjunctive reasoning. As peoples pass 

 from one stage of culture to another, the change is made by 

 developing a new sociology with all its institutions, by the 

 development of new arts, by evolution of language, and in 

 a degree no less by a change in philosophy ; but the old 

 philosophy is not supplanted. The change is made by in- 

 ternal growth and external accretion. 



Fragments of the older are found in the newer. This 

 older material in the newer philosophy is often used for 

 curious purposes by many scholars. One such use I wish to 

 mention here. The nomenclature which has survived from 

 the earlier state is supposed to be deeply and occultly sym- 

 bolic and the mythic narratives to be deeply and occultly 

 allegoric. In this way search is made for some profoundly 

 metaphysic cosmogonj^, some ancient beginning of the myth- 

 ology is sought in which mystery is wisdom and wisdom is 

 mystery. 



The objective or scientific method of studying a mythol- 

 ogy is to collect and collate its phenomena simply as it is 

 stated and understood by the people to whom it belongs. In 

 tracing back the threads of its historical development the 

 student should expect to find it more simple and child-like 

 in every stage of his progress. 



It- is vain to search for truth in mythologic philosophy, 

 but it is important to search for veritable philosophies that 

 they may be properly compared and that the products of 

 the human mind in its various stages of culture may be 

 known, important in the reconstruction of the history of 

 philosophy and important in -furnishing necessary data to 

 psychology. No labor can be more fruitless than the search 

 in mythology for true philosophy and the efforts to build up 

 from the terminology and narratives of mythologies an 

 occult symbolism and sj r stem of allegory is but to create a 

 new and fictitious body of mythology. 



There is a symbolism inherent in language and found in 

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