om it? And what were the clouds that floated across it like huge
birds or strange, gigantic creatures? Even the lush grass of the
spring-time seemed full of a hidden life. Everywhere was force and
will--the power for good and harm.

Perhaps only an imaginative child, or an adult with something of the
poet's gift, can appreciate vividly the type of world in which these
early men found themselves. The city-dweller of to-day lives in a
subdued {14} and mechanically controlled region whose every clank and
rattle speaks of routine and order. The myth-making faculty of the
street-urchin has little to feed upon--all is so obvious and open to
inspection. The ordinary lad, again, is so soon filled with the
conventionalized views of his elders that the hand of fancy soon ceases
to write upon his soul or give a touch of wonder to familiar things.
There can be no doubt, therefore, that a conscious effort is required
before a man of to-day can give even a fleeting glimpse at the
capricious, magical, animated, and intensely personal world of his
distant ancestors. And yet the guesses and surmises of these earlier
men were the source of more of his beliefs than he would care to admit.
In these pages we shall see how much of mythology still lingers with us.

Mythology is a product of the social group, of clans and tribes and
peoples, and is of slow growth. Story added itself to story, this
feature to that. Hence it was often a work of art, though of
unconscious art. It was an expression of the life of groups who had
gods and totems. It was inextricably bound up with the whole savage
outlook upon nature; and yet only recently has this setting been
adequately appreciated. Until the middle of the nineteenth century,
knowledge of mythology was practically limited to the poetized
mythology of the Greeks and Romans. And so, because it was found in
the poets, it was thought of as an artificial product, as a series of
stories invented and embroidered by the fancy of bards and narrators.

But the wider knowledge due to exploration changed this narrow
approach. The discoveries of travelers in the Americas, Africa, and
Oceania gave pause to this too {15} civilized and superficial theory of
myth. Gradually, a more realistic view arose. The idea of evolution
gave a genetic way of approach and made investigators aware of the
slowness of human advance. The next steps followed quickly. Social
psychology replaced the individualistic