PHASE OF MIND ACTIVITY IN EARLY CIVILIZATION.
A survey of the literary remains of the past gives conclusive proof that the characteristic phase of mind activity in the dawning periods of civilization is the imaginative or mythical. The earliest literary product of every people is the epic, whose chief elements are legends, myths and the heroic, and whose authorship is not individual but of the race itself. Such a product, not the creation of any one mind, but slowly fashioned through the centuries by the poetic genius of the race, however trivial it may seem, has strong claims on our deepest veneration. It should receive most careful study and consideration.
These epic remains come from the innermost life of a people. They are the expression of this life. They are eloquent witnesses of a strong imagination dealing with the mysteries of earth, of sky, and of life itself. They tell of the morning of history, when man was close to nature—a part of nature. The earth, trees, waters, animals—all forms, animate and inanimate, had voices for him. He communed with them. He treated them as of equal rank with himself.