IMAGES AND NAMES, 117 



are distinctly visible/'^ is probably such a sculptured rock. 

 Thirdly, there are such mere shapeless holes as those to which 

 most or all of the Old World myths seem to be attached. 

 'Now the difficulty in working out the problem of the origin of 

 these myths is this, that if the prints are real fossil ones, or 

 good sculptures, stories of the beings that made them might 

 grow up ii;dependently anywhere; but one can hardly fancy 

 men in many different places coming separately upon the 

 quaint notion of mere hollows, six feet long, being monstrous 

 footprints, unless the notion of monstrous footprints being 

 found elsewhere were already current. At the foot of the 

 page are references to some passages relating to the subject.^ 



It has just been remarked that there is a certain process of 

 the human mind through which, among men at a low level of 

 education, the use of images leads to gross superstition and 

 delusion. No one will deny that there is an evident connexion 

 between an object, and an image or picture of it ; but we ci- 

 vilized men know well that this connexion is only subjective, 

 that is, in the mind of the observer, while there is no objective 

 connexion between them. By an objective connexion, I mean 

 such a connexion as there is between the bucket in the well 

 and the hand that draws it up, — when the hand stops, the 

 bucket stops too ; or between a man and his shadow, — when 

 the man moves, the shadow moves too; or between an electro- 

 magnet and the iron filings near it, — when the current passes 

 through the coil, a change takes place in the condition of the 

 iron filings. These are, of course, crude examples ; but if 

 more nicety is necessary, it might be said that the connexion 

 is in some degree what a mathematician expresses in saying 

 that y is a function of £b, when, if x changes, y changes too. 

 The connexion between a man and his portrait is not objec- 

 tive, for what is done to the man has no effect upon the portrait, 

 and vice versa. 



' C. J. Andersson, Lake Ngami, etc., p. 327. 



2 Lyell, Second Visit to U. S. ; London, 1850, vol. ii. p. 313. C. Hamilton Smith, 

 Nat. Hist, of Human Species ; Edinburgh, 1848, p. 35. Schoolcraft, part iii. p. 74. 

 Burton, ' Central Africa ;' vol. i. p. 288. Squier and Davis, Anct. Mon. of Mssi. 

 Valley, vol. i. of Smithsonian Coutr. ; Washington, 1848, p. 293. Kawlinson, 

 Herodotus; book ii. 91. iv. 82. 



