ABSTRACT
One consequence of the symbolist development in literature has been an increasing respect for the symbolism of primitive man, and specifically for the myths and legends through which he characteristically expresses himself. Vico conjectured that language first began with gesture, then developed through the stages of myth and figurative language to the clarified and ordered language of modern polite societies. The philosopher of our day who has pushed furthest the concern for the origin of language, the laws that govern the development of primitive ritual and myth is Ernst Cassirer. Cassirer makes it plain that the “pure” feeling that art expresses is merely the personal emotions of the poet. The fact that Urban ventures such a solution throws some light on our general problem. The autonomy that is conferred upon poetry by a doctrine of symbolic forms is bought at a high price if it leaves that autonomous realm quite isolated from other autonomous realms such as that of science.
