Note 156-1 — Chapter V · THE MYTH AND THE MYTHICAL CYCLES.

In this definition the word apperception is used in the sense assigned it by Professor Lazarus—the perception modified by imagination and memory. “Mythologie ist eine Apperceptionsform der Natur und des Menschen.” (Zeitschrift für Völkerpsychologie, Bd. i., s. 44). Most recent mythologists omit the latter branch of the definition; for instance, “A myth is in its origin an explanation by the uncivilized mind of some natural phenomenon.” (John Fiske, Myths and Myth Makers, p. 21). This is to omit that which gives the myth its only claim to be a product of the religious sentiment. Schopenhauer, in calling dogmas and myths “the metaphysics of the people,” fell into the same error. Religion, as such, is always concrete.