...monotheism, but also traces the origin of all religion to its rudiment, in that 'universal tendency among mankind to conceive all beings like themselves, and to transfer to every object those qualities with which they are familiarly acquainted, and of which they are intimately conscious?'1 The greater...

..." To answer that is no part of our business ; for us it is enough to trace myth, or a certain large element in myth, to a demonstrable and actual stage...of magical and supernatural powers, which they do 1 See Appendix B. VOL. I. L not, of course, possess. These powers of effecting metamorphosis, of "...

...there is another consideration which has to be added to these. Men have the general tendency to think all beings like themselves, and to transfer to every object those qualities of which they are conscious in themselves. Thus we find human faces in the moon, and armies in the clouds, and thus do...

...them of human passions — is clearly indicated. "There is an universal tendency," he says, " amongst mankind to conceive all beings like themselves, and to transfer to every object those qualities with which they are familiarly acquainted, and of which they are intimately conscious. We find human...

...found there. Here, for instance, is the ' fetichist ' stage : ' There is a universal tendency amongst mankind to conceive all beings like themselves, and to transfer to every object those qualities with which they are familiarly acquainted, and of which they are intimately conscious.' Here is the...

...minds, projected out of themselves by their imaginations:— " There is an universal tendency among mankind to conceive all beings like themselves, and to transfer to every object those qualities with which they are familiarly acquainted, and of which they are intimately conscious. . . . The unknown...

...his Natural History of Religion, published in 1757. He says: "There is an universal tendency among mankind to conceive all beings like themselves, and to transfer to every object those qualities with which they are familiarly acquainted, and of which they are intimately conscious. . . . The unknown...

...mental stage, again, is reflected in the nature-myths, many of which are merely " aetiological," — assign a cause, that is, for phenomena, and satisfy...qualities ... of which they are intimately conscious "-1 Now they believe themselves to be conscious of magical and supernatural powers, which they do not,...

...formulated by David Hume in his Natural History of Religion: " There is an universal tendency among mankind to conceive all beings like themselves, and to transfer to every object those qualities with which they are familiarly acquainted, and of which they are intimately conscious" (Essays and...

...animistic " principle in such a sentence as the following: "There is a universal tendency among men to conceive all beings like themselves, and to transfer...qualities of which they are intimately conscious." 3 Through 1 Works, iv. p. 419. 2 Ibid. iv. p. 420. 3 Ibid. iv. p. 429. this principle, with the help...