Excerpt from Contributions to the Science of Mythology, Vol. 1 of 2 I have hesitated for a long time before making up my mind to publish these two volumes on the Science of Mythology. I was sorry, no doubt, that I should have to leave this gap in the work of my life as I had planned it many years ago, namely an exposition, however imperfect, of the four Sciences of Language, Mythology, Religion, and Thought, following each other in natural succession, and comprehending the whole sphere of activity of the human mind from the earliest period within the reach of our knowledge to the present day. There is nothing more ancient in the world than language. The history of man begins, not with rude flints, rock temples or pyramids, but with language. The second stage is represented by myths as the first attempts at translating the phenomena. Of nature into thought. The third stage is that of religion or the recognition of moral powers, and in the end of One Moral Power behind and above all nature. The fourth and last is philosophy, or a critique of the powers of reason in their legitimate working on the data of experience. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.