d mostly be included by us under those terms. In
some countries myths are abundant, in others scarce. Why should this
be? Why should some peoples tell many and marvellous tales about their
gods and others say little about them, though they may say a great deal
to them? We recall the 'great' myths of Greece and Scandinavia. Other
races are 'poor' in myths. The difference is to be explained by the
mental characters of the peoples as moulded by their surroundings and
hereditary tendencies. The problem is of course a psychological one,
for it is, as already noted, in imagination that myths have their
root. Now imagination grows with each stage of intellectual progress,
for intellectual progress implies increasing representativeness of
thought. In the lower stages of human development imagination is feeble
and unproductive; in the highest stages it is strong and constructive.

The Chinese Intellect

The Chinese are not unimaginative, but their minds did not go on to the
construction of any myths which should be world-great and immortal;
and one reason why they did not construct such myths was that their
intellectual progress was arrested at a comparatively early stage. It
was arrested because there was not that contact and competition
with other peoples which demands brain-work of an active kind as the
alternative of subjugation, inferiority, or extinction, and because,
as we have already seen, the knowledge required of them was mainly
the parrot-like repetition of the old instead of the thinking-out of
the new [1]--a state of things rendered possible by the isolation
just referred to. Confucius discountenanced discussion about the
supernatural, and just as it is probable that the exhortations of Wen
Wang, the virtual founder of the Chou dynasty (1121-255 B.C.), against
drunkenness, in a time before tea was known to them, helped to make
the Chinese the sober people that they are, so it is probable--more
than probable--that this attitude of Confucius may have nipped in
the bud much that might have developed a vigorous mythology, though
for a reason to be stated later it may be doubted if he thereby
deprived the world of any beautiful and marvellous results of the
highest flights of poetical creativeness. There are times, such as
those of any great political upheaval, when human nature will assert
itself and break through its shackles in spite of all artificial
or conventional restraints. Considering the enormous influence