372 FOOT-NOTES TO EVOLUTION. 
imperfectly stated. By processes of suggestion and 
conventionality the ideas of the individual become as- 
similated to those of the multitude. Thus tradition and 
myths arise to account for phenomena not clearly re- 
lated to the ordinary experiences of life. And the un- 
known in all mythology is ascribed not to natural forces, 
but to the action of the power that transcends Nature. 
It has been evident to man in all ages that there lie 
about him forces stronger than he, invisible and intan- 
gible, inscrutable as to their real nature, 
but none the less potent. He can not 
easily trace cause and effect in dealing 
with these forces, and it is natural that he should doubt 
the existence of causation in the phenomena they pro- 
duce. As the human will seems capricious because the 
springs of volition are hidden from our observation, 
so to the unknown will that limits our own has been 
ascribed an infinite caprice. All races of men capable 
of continued thought have come to believe in the exist- 
ence of something outside themselves, whose power is 
without human limitations. Through the imagination 
of great poets these forces become personified. The ex- 
istence of power seems to demand a will. The power 
is infinitely greater than ours, the sources of action in- 
scrutable; hence man has conceived the unknown First 
Cause as an infinite and unconditioned man. Anthropo- 
morphism in some degree is inevitable, because each 
man must think in terms of his own experience. Into 
his own universe all that he knows must come. 
Recognition of the hidden but gigantic forces in Na- 
ture leads men to fear them and to worship them. To 
think of them, either in fear or worship, is to give them 
human forms. To grant them the form of man is to 
give them “a local habitation and a name.” As man is 
a social animal, even in his hopes and fears, these feel- 
The forces out- 
side ourselves. 
