threads: the savage donnee, the civilised and poetic modification
of the savage donnee, the version of the original fable which survives
in popular tales and in the "sacred chapters" of local priesthoods. A
critical study of these three stages in myth is in accordance with the
recognised practice of science. Indeed, the whole system is only an
application to this particular province, mythology, of the method by
which the development either of organisms or of human institutions is
traced. As the anomalies and apparently useless and accidental features
in the human or in other animal organisms may be explained as stunted or
rudimentary survivals of organs useful in a previous stage of life, so
the anomalous and irrational myths of civilised races may be explained
as survivals of stories which, in an earlier state of thought and
knowledge, seemed natural enough. The persistence of the myths
is accounted for by the well-known conservatism of the religious
sentiment--a conservatism noticed even by Eusebius. "In later days, when
they became ashamed of the religious beliefs of their ancestors, they
invented private and respectful interpretations, each to suit himself.
For no one dared to shake the ancestral beliefs, as they honoured at a
very high rate the sacredness and antiquity of old associations, and of
the teaching they had received in childhood."(1)

(1) Praep. E., ii. 6, 19.

Thus the method which we propose to employ is in harmony both with
modern scientific procedure and with the views of a clear-sighted Father
of the Church. Consequently no system could well be less "heretical" and
"unorthodox".

The last advantage of our hypothesis which need here be mentioned is
that it helps to explain the DIFFUSION no less than the ORIGIN of the
wild and crazy element in myth. We seek for the origin of the savage
factor of myth in one aspect of the intellectual condition of savages.
We say "in one aspect" expressly; to guard against the suggestion that
the savage intellect has no aspect but this, and no saner ideas than
those of myth. The DIFFUSION of stories practically identical in every
quarter of the globe may be (provisionally) regarded as the result of
the prevalence in every quarter, at one time or another, of similar
mental habits and ideas. This explanation must not be pressed too hard
nor too far. If we find all over the world a belief that men can change
themselves and their neighbours into beasts, that belief w