man creators we pass to the
higher anthropomorphic forms, the great gods; there is increased
literary excellence, a molding and a remolding of the old crude stories,
with a combination of them into well-ordered histories; they are
constantly modified by the growing acquaintance with the laws of nature
and by the higher intellectual conceptions of the deity; and they are
more and more infused with ethical significance.

+822+. An examination of myths all over the world shows that the most of
them, especially those relating to creation and to the histories of the
gods, originated at a period when men stood intellectually and morally
on a very low plane.[1416] The first myth-makers were savages, with all
the well-known characteristics of savage life. Having next to no
knowledge of natural law, and holding to a practical identity of nature
among men, beasts, and physical things, they had no difficulty in
imagining all sorts of transformations and creative procedures. No limit
was conceived of for the power of beasts and men--there was no object in
heaven or earth which, according to the current ideas, could not have
been produced by some procedure which was similar to the procedures of
ordinary life. The ethical character of the creators and of the
introducers of general culture was that of the communities that imagined
them; naturally the stories were full of ethical barbarities and
violations of all the moral rules recognized at a later period; and, as
is remarked above, these stories continued into civilized times, and had
to be interpreted by various devices.

+823+. One of the most noteworthy facts in the history of mythology is
the general similarity of the myths that are found all over the world.
Allowing for continuous moral and intellectual progress and for local
differences of surroundings, it may be said that the theories of the
production of the earth and the heavenly bodies, of man and other
objects, of customs and institutions, show substantially the same types
everywhere. The question has been raised whether this virtual identity
is to be explained by the supposition of independent origination at
various points, or is to be attributed to a borrowing by one community
from another. The question of the migration of myths is a part of the
larger question of the migration of culture, and is attended with all
the difficulties that attach to this latter. It is not possible at
present to give an answer which shall e