More than this: the teachings of the severest science tell us that Matter is, in its last analysis, Motion, and that motion is nought else than Mind[90]; and who dare deny that in their unconscious functions our minds may catch some overtones, as it were, from the harmonies of the Universal Intelligence thus demonstrated by inductive research, and vibrate in unison therewith?
Primitive Religious Expression: in the Word.
CONTENTS:—An Echo Myth—The Power of Words—Their Magical Potency—The Curse—Power Independent of Meaning—The Name as an Attribute—The Sacred Names—The Ineffable Name—“Myrionomous” Gods—“Theophorous” Names—Suggestion and Repetition as Stimulants—I. The Word _to_ the gods: Prayer—Its Forms, Contents, and Aims—II. The Word _from_ the gods: The Law and the Prophecy—The Ceremonial Law, or _tabu_—Examples—Divination and Prediction—III. The Word _concerning_ the gods: The Myths—Their Sources chiefly Psychic—Some from Language—Examples—Transference—Similarities—The Universal Mythical Cycles: 1. The Cosmical Concepts; 2. The Sacred Numbers; 3. The Drama of the Universe; Creation and Deluge Myths; 4. The Earthly Paradise; 5. The Conflict of Nature; 6. The Returning Saviour; 7. The Journey of the Soul—Conclusion as to these Identities.
There is a pleasant myth told by the inhabitants of the island of Mangaia in the South Pacific. When the Creator of all things had ordered the solid land to rise from the primeval waters, he walked abroad to survey his work. “It is good,” said he aloud to himself. “Good,” answered an echo from a neighbouring hill. “What!” exclaimed the Creator. “Is some one here already? Am not I first?” “I first,” answered the echo. Therefore the Mangaians assert that earliest of all existences is the bodiless Voice.[91] It is their way of saying, “In the beginning was the Word.”
Not only may we call it the first, it is also the mightiest of the unseen agencies which mould man and his destinies.
“Power over men,” remarks Count Tolstoï in one of his essays, “lies not in material force, but in thought and its clear expression.” Disraeli, that subtlest of diplomats, once said, “We govern men with—words.”
No idea can be clearly conveyed to another unless there is a word to express it. Inward thought and outward utterance are the correlated conditions of intelligent advancement. The spoken word evokes in the mind of the hearer the picture, the emotion, the reasoning, which is occupying our own. A thousand minds are brought instantly to bear on the same thought by the words in the mouth of one. I cannot place too high the instant and magical effect of the word.