Myth and Science | Page 2

of old superstitions, to whatever people
and class they may belong; and it will continue to exist as an innate
function of the intelligence, if not with respect to the substance, which
may alter, at any rate in the mode of its acts and proceedings.
I fear that this opinion will appear at first sight to be paradoxical and
chimerical, since it is well known that the mythical conception of the
world and its origin is gradually disappearing among civilized nations,
and it is supposed to be altogether extinct among men of culture and
intelligence. Yet I flatter myself, perhaps too rashly, that by the time he
reaches the end of this work, the reader will be convinced of the truth
of my assertion, since it is proved by so many facts, and the psychical

law from, which it results is so clear.
It must not, however, be forgotten that, in addition to the mythical
faculty of our minds, there exists the scientific faculty, the other factor
of a perfect intellectual life; the latter is most powerful in certain races,
and must in time prevail over the former, which in its objective form
precedes it; yet they are subjectively combined in practice and are
indissolubly united through life.
Undoubtedly neither the mythical nor the scientific faculty is equal and
identical in all peoples, any more than they are equal and identical in
individuals; but they subsist together, while varying in intensity and
degree, since they are both necessary functions of the intelligence.
Whether we content ourselves with studying the mental and social
conditions in the lower types of modern peoples, or go back to the
earliest times, we find men everywhere and always possessed of the
power of speech, and holding mythical superstitions, it may be of the
rudest and most elementary kind; so also do we find men possessed of
rational ideas, although they may be very simple and empirical. They
have some knowledge of the causes of things, of periods in the
phenomena of nature, which they know how to apply to the habits and
necessities of their social and individual lives.
No one, for example, would deny that many mythical superstitions, and
fanciful beliefs in invisible powers, existed among the now extinct
Tasmanians, and are now found among the Andaman islanders, the
Fuegians, the Australians, the Cingalese Veddahs, and other rude and
uncultured savages. On the other hand, those who are acquainted with
their mode of life find that savages are not absolutely devoid of
intellectual activity of an empirical kind, since they partly understand
the natural causes of some phenomena, and are able, in a rational, not
an arbitrary manner, to ascribe to laws and the necessities of things
many facts relating to the individual and to society. They are, therefore,
not without the scientific as well as the mythical faculty making due
allowance for their intellectual condition; and these primitive and
natural instincts are due to the physical and intellectual organism of
human nature.

In order to pursue this important inquiry into the first and final cause of
the origin of myth, it is evidently not enough to make a laborious and
varied collection of myths, and of the primitive superstitions of all
peoples, so as to exhaust the immense field of modern ethnography.
Nor is it enough to consider the various normal and abnormal
conditions of psychical phenomena, nor to undertake the comparative
study of languages, to ascertain how far their speech will reveal the
primitive beliefs of various races, and the obscure metaphorical sayings
which gave birth to many myths. It is also necessary to subject to
careful examination the simplest elementary acts of the mind, in their
physical and psychical complexity, in order to discover in their
spontaneous action the transcendental fact which inevitably involves
the genesis of the same myth, the primary source whence it is diffused
by subsequent reflex efforts in various times and varying forms.
In speaking of the transcendental fact, it must not be supposed that I
allude to certain well-known a priori speculations, which are opposed
to my temper of mind and to my mode of teaching. I only use the term
transcendental because this is actually the primitive condition of the
fact in its inevitable beginning, whatever form the mythical
representation may subsequently take. This fact is not peculiar to any
individual, people, or race, but it is manifested as an essential organism
of the human character, which is in all cases universal, permanent, and
uniform.
In order to give a clear explanation of my estimate of the a priori idea,
which also takes its place as the factor of experimental and positive
teaching, I must observe that for those who belong to the historical and
evolutionary school, a priori, so far as respects any organism, habit,
and