78 Science Religion and Reality 



magic but to any form of social power or social claim. It is used 

 always to account for extraordinary privileges or duties, for great 

 social inequalities, for severe burdens of rank, whether this be very 

 high or very low. Also the beliefs and powefs of religion are 

 traced to their sources by mythological accounts. Religious myth, 

 however, is rather an explicit dogma, the belief in the nether 

 world, in creation, in the nature of divinities, spun out into a story. 

 Sociological myth, on the other hand, especially in primitive 

 cultures, is usually blended with legends about the sources of 

 magical power. It can be said without exaggeration that the 

 most typical, most highly developed, mythology in primitive 

 societies is that of magic, and the function of myth is not to explain 

 but to vouch for, not to satisfy curiosity but to give confidence in 

 power, not to spin out yarns but to establish the validity of belief. 

 The deep connection between myth and cult, the pragmatic 

 function of myth in enforcing belief, has been so persistently 

 overlooked in favour of the aetiological or explanatory theory of 

 myth that it was necessary to dwell on this point. 



5. Magic and Science 



We have had to make a digression on mythology since we found 

 that myth is engendered by the real or imaginary success of witch- 

 craft. But what about its failures ? With all the strength which 

 magic draws from the spontaneous belief and spontaneous ritual of 

 intense desire or thwarted emotion, with all the force given it by 

 the personal prestige, the social power and success common in the 

 magician and practitioner — still there are failures and breakdowns, 

 and we should vastly underrate the savage's intelligence, logic, and 

 grasp of experience if we assumed that he is not aware of it and 

 that he fails to account for it. 



First of all, magic is surrounded by strict conditions : exact 

 remembrance of a spell, unimpeachable performance of the rite, 

 unswerving adhesion to the taboos and observances which shackle 

 the magician. If any one of these is neglected, failure of 

 magic follows. And then, even if magic be done in the most 

 perfect manner, its effects can be equally well undone : for 

 against every magic there can be also counter-magic. If magic, as 

 we have shown, is begotten by the union of man's steadfast desire 

 with the wayward whim of chance, then every desire, positive or 

 negative, may — nay, must — have its magic. Now in all his social 



