Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 7, 1896.djvu/312

286 Mythology is, for the savage, at the same tune theology, metaphysics, science, and religion; but this mythological religion has no connection with morality. The latter is developed in proportion as societies become more complex. Gods are moral when men are moral. It is only at a comparatively recent period that the laws and customs that regulate the relations of men among themselves have mounted up to heaven, borne by the spirits of the dead, in order to descend reclothed with the new authority of divine command. The ancient myth persists because it is the vehicle of the religious sentiment; and it will survive until it is replaced by another.

When science arose it furnished new explanations of the occurrences and phenomena which metaphysics attempted to explain. Metaphysics is, at the same time, an anticipation of experiment and a general survey, certainly arbitrary and hypothetical, but not in every point inexact. Science and metaphysics thus divide the immense field which formerly belonged solely to mythology. Mythology, however, still vigorously persists, because myths are the natural symbols of the religious sentiment. Religious emotion has been for so long intimately associated with old mythological legends that even at the present day many are incapable of disassociating the one from the other.

Myths thus persist among us, not because, as formerly, they contained responses to questions we ask concerning the universe; but because, transformed into symbols, they constitute the language by which we express to ourselves our religious emotions. They thus bear within themselves a reason for their indefinite duration. M. Marillier, indeed, holds that they are destined to bear a yet more important part in the religious life, and for this reason. In the course of their evolution science and metaphysics differentiated away from religion, which became more closely associated with morality; and these reacted on each other. Spirits and gods, formerly explanations of cosmic phenomena, have become the guardians of the laws of human action, the judges of conduct, and the life after death has been "moralised."

Morality without religion, or a religion without morality, is now inconceivable to most people. Morality constitutes the external form of religion, as religion is the soul of morality. The part played by the ancient mythical symbols is necessarily reduced, and is gradually replaced by new symbols, by more abstract