and obliged to exercise themselves upon magic, myth and
legend. The very energy and subtlety of their intellects would lead
them into all sorts of phantasmagoria. Theosophy--and a large share of
what is called theology--is simply a refining and subtilizing of
mythology. The more difficult and abstract the thought, the more
significance {37} it is assumed to possess. The penetrative and
exploring power of mere untested speculation is taken for granted.
Words throw a spell over the mind because nothing of a more positive
character is before it to counteract their charm. Even to-day we all
know of people who like to employ such terms as force, and unity, and
spirit, and will. The very vagueness of the words exercises a
fascination which smothers the slight demand for explanation. Just as
the Jews of the Dispersion spoke of Wisdom as the first-born creature
of God and gave this abstraction an objective existence, so the Hindoo
poets and theosophists explained the world in terms which seem to the
scientifically trained mind subjective and irrelevant. For all its
apparent profundity, such an outlook represents a lower stage than that
which science has reached. Subtlety is not enough; it must be a
servant to the right methods of investigation. Dialectic and
imaginative vividness cannot give truth to ideas not adapted to explain
the sort of a world we live in.

Those creation stories developed by the Hebrews with the aid of the
Babylonians have had most influence on Western thought and, therefore,
deserve considerable attention. The motives and mental processes at
work are, however, essentially those which we have already examined.
Unfortunately, we have only hints here and there in the Old Testament
of the more primitive traditions which were worked over and built upon
by the priests and prophets. Moreover, the Yahweh religion seems to
have been adopted quite late and to have made easy a break with the
older tales. Probably few readers of the Bible, who have not made a
systematic study of Semitic literature, are aware that ancient strands
of {38} folk-lore are scattered through it. In Psalm 74, for instance,
there is a good instance of primitive views: "Thou didst divide the sea
by thy strength; Thou breakest the head of Leviathan in pieces....
Thou didst cleave fountain and flood." In Job, likewise, there are
references to these deeds of Yahweh in the far past. Very few casual
readers ask themselves who Rahab