ABSTRACT
When we consider myths in their relation to the mentality of the social groups in which they originate, we are led to similar conclusions. It is even certain that these interest and intrigue the primitive's mind. Myths are the Biblical narrative of primitive peoples. The preponderance of mystic elements, however, in the group ideas of myths, is even greater than in our sacred history. In the earlier stage the dictum deduced from Hume's argument that "anything may produce anything", might have served as a motto for primitive mentality. Moreover, it is just as incompatible with "the laws of nature" that a corpse, whose tissues have become chemically incapable of sustaining life. Chinese scientific knowledge affords a striking example of this arrested development. India has known forms of intellectual activity more akin to our own. Undoubtedly it is thus that we should account for the so-called struggle of reason with itself, and for that which is real in its antinomies.
