entries in his chronicle at the bidding
of the emperor (as in the case of the historiographers of Ch'i in
547 B.C.), indicates a type of mind which would require some very
strong stimulus to cause it to soar very far into the hazy realms of
fanciful imagination.

Chinese Rigidity

A further cause, already hinted at above, for the arrest of
intellectual progress is to be found in the growth of the nation
in size during many centuries of isolation from the main stream
of world-civilization, without that increase in heterogeneity
which comes from the moulding by forces external to itself. "As
iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his
friend." Consequently we find China what is known to sociology as an
'aggregate of the first order,' which during its evolution has parted
with its internal life-heat without absorbing enough from external
sources to enable it to retain the plastic condition necessary to
further, or at least rapid, development. It is in a state of rigidity,
a state recognized and understood by the sociologist in his study of
the evolution of nations.

The Prerequisites to Myth

But the mere increase of constructive imagination is not sufficient
to produce myth. If it were, it would be reasonable to argue that
as intellectual progress goes on myths become more numerous, and the
greater the progress the greater the number of myths. This we do not
find. In fact, if constructive imagination went on increasing without
the intervention of any further factor, there need not necessarily be
any myth at all. We might almost say that the reverse is the case. We
connect myth with primitive folk, not with the greatest philosophers
or the most advanced nations--not, that is, with the most advanced
stages of national progress wherein constructive imagination makes
the nation great and strong. In these stages the philosopher studies
or criticizes myth, he does not make it.

In order that there may be myth, three further conditions must be
fulfilled. There must, as we have seen, be constructive imagination,
but, nevertheless, there must not be too much of it. As stated above,
mythology, or rather myth, is the _unscientific_ man's explanation. If
the constructive imagination is so great that it becomes self-critical,
if the story-teller doubts his own story, if, in short, his mind is
scientific enough to see that his explanation is no explanation at all,
then there can be no myth properly so c