The Arkansaw traveler., 1883-02-17

whose habits, life and geographical poa- tion tended to foster their religious spur II. n ~
 The Semitex as weiaaS the lndo-E Euro pean races, witnessed the period when all by lheiI sensuous perceptions. and when their language contained no words but names of objects, and when no abs,rac, conceptions had been formed or any words tc represent them At this stage man has not reached such 8 degree ot ] developmen; that he can completely dif- fercn,iate himself from the objects of an- ;rnatcd nature Whatever moves and lives. whatcver phenomena possess force. ] pos CT, whether for good or evil, appear to him as being actuated by the same or like influences that control and direct his own acf;ol lS He has no ahstrac, conccp tons and ao words in express them. He has physical impressions only. The tree that fiounshes possesses lite, the ~tnd that rushes through the fores, ard tears down his rude hu, IS endowed with a strong ann- Physical phenomena hrss terms to represent these would first arise, ! derived from their quaiis,cs and asaa- butes. and these could be formed only bs such vocables as in a measure repre- sented his own individuality. The wind and the sun would be spoken of as the strong ones Things would become per- sonihed, and personihcation leads to my thology. People who are unaequainted with the laws that govern physical phe- nomena, and who have no; yet evolved the idea of an oyerruling power, look upon them as the activities of agents like them selves. The phenomena of nature and his senses furnished early man with all his ideas. His language at this period i represents physical things, and goes no farther than his ideas have been awak- ened. He observes and experiences. and his language corresponds with the meas ure and value of his observations and eN- periences. In process of time he begins 10 generaii,e and to acquire abstract con captions. The words to represent his ab- straetionS are all derived from words which denoted sensuous perceptions. His abstract conceptions, metaphysical and supersensuous ideas are all eyolutons ] from physical ones and must in an early stage have been intimately associated with one another. The mind must reach considerable degree of cultivation be- fore il can grasp the purely metaphy ys,oal ideas. They are with primitive man, so I far as he can represent them. expressed in terms ofthc concrete and physical. Ills I primitive ideas of the world about hum. with all Its sarled phenomena. expressed ] by his crude language made up almost entirely of names of physical objects, are l bound up with and pcrvadc his more ab- stract speculations by the very terms ln which they are represented, and ,n winch | hls abstract ideas arc conceived. II IS impossible for man a, this stage oi his mental growth to grasp and comprehend i the easiest of abstraC, notions and meta ] physical ideas without connecting them sith or using the very terms which rep resen, only concrete or physical impres- sions.
 The languages of the most cHili1ed races contain m themselves the unmis- takable proofs of having passed through condition in which the phenomena of the world were spoken of AS Irving and ao- tive agents. In Sanskri, the god Agni IS a deitoation of aeai. fire. and one of his cpithets Is he who IS born of himself. Agni never bee anne a deiiy, ,ha; is fire never became dcitied until many of the useful and beneheeny p, rposes To which ] il could be adapted had become known to the anoicn, Hindus. The qualities and attributes tha, belong to fire were i transferred to the deited person hut this dciho ation took place long after the dis oovery of ire. when man had become de- veloped sufficiently 10 form abstract and general ideas The mind of man ws a fa6nia ,asa Tn the beginning he pos sessed nothing but the faculty to develop i What ideas he obtained were gwen to him by the world around hIm through his senses. His language began. afei the primitive exclamations as signs oi pain, Joy. surprise or fear. and the vooa- bles to distinguish persons, with names for these tangible objects, and especially for those which would naturally attract his curiosity and attention. The objects and phenomena received namesfrom some quality or attribute inherent in them which had already been observed, and for which names had been given. All animate objects would in measure bt named, or conceived of as in possession of- Os tb0OW~a ~tth HHahAa%' Nh1 ~ss''
 bu,es which man had. IL was really bu' a step to personihcation from this stage If all races, in developing. pass through the same or like psychologist conditions the Hebrew race then is not exemp, from the possession of myths and mythology We shall endeavor 10 prove this from ar examination of the actions and character of one Of the persons in Hebrew history namely. samson. This name in Hebrew is lSh,msAos. solar. or ike the sun th. Arabic equivalent being .Sham5. If ws were dealing with lndo-Earopeaa speech and came upon an antie14i character ~ith a name exactly like the name Of the sun in that language. with the attributes of tho sun, we would TO, hesitate to call t a mythological one. We ind words IT Hebrew evidently used in derivatiye ana metaphorical sense because they diselos< Ky their grammatical and phonetic rela' tion, iheir original physical meaning and derivzsion. These terms also denote ar underlying fctishism in the older beliefs ! The name Eiizur which means the roci ! is my god frou1 Eli and frnS. refer,