Alger, although he is also mistaken as to the true causes of myth in general, expresses himself better when he asserts that the brain of a savage is always dominated by the idea that all objects whatsoever have a soul precisely similar to that of man.  The custom of burning and burying various things with the dead body was, he thinks, in many cases prompted by the belief that every such object had its manes.[12]

In fact, the innate psychical and organic constitution of the intelligence, both animal and human, is such that it spontaneously and necessarily projects itself into every object of nature and perception, animating and personifying it by this special law, and not by a reflective hypothesis, such as would be the conscious and deliberate solution of a given problem.  Such a solution cannot be made by animals, since as we have shown they are without the faculty of making a deliberate research into any subject; nor can it be effected by the primitive man, in whom the reasoning faculty with which he is endowed is still undeveloped.

The real origin of reflection is not to be found in what may be called the mythical creation of nature, which is the necessary result of the spontaneity of the intelligence, both in man and animals; it is developed after long duration of barbarism and ignorance.  M’Lennan and others have shown how the era of reflection and hypothesis begins in the evolution of human intelligence.  Sekesa, an intelligent Kaffir, said to Arbrousset,[13] “For twelve years I have shepherded my flock.  It was dark, and I sat down upon a rock and asked myself such questions as these, sad questions, since I was unable to answer them.  Who made the stars?  What supports them?  Do the waters never grow weary of flowing from morning to evening, from evening to morning, and where do they find rest?  Whence come the clouds, which pass and re-pass, and dissolve in rain?  Who sends them?  Our diviners certainly do not send rain, since they have no means of making it, nor do I see them with my eyes going up to heaven to seek it.  I cannot see the wind, and know not what it is.  Who guides and causes it to blow, to rage, and overwhelm us?  Nor do I know how the corn grows.  Yesterday there was not a blade of grass in my field, and to-day it is green; who gave to the earth the wisdom and power to bring forth?” Again, there is a passage in the Rig-Veda, in which it is said, “Where do the fixed stars of heaven which we see by night go by day?”

It is in this intellectual condition that ignorant and savage man really begins the spontaneous yet reflective research into the causes of things, and it is in this condition only that he hypothetically interprets the order of phenomena through myths, which have then become secondary, and are no longer primitive.  The true origin of the primitive myth which animates and personifies the universe is not to be found in this condition; its origin is of much earlier date in the history of man, and indeed it has its roots, as we have shown, in animal life.