Excerpt from Morals in Evolution, Vol. 2: A Study in Comparative Ethics The spirit being thus materialized appears to enjoy an independent existence of its own. Here we touch the central contradiction of Animism. What at first appears as merely the animating principle of a material body turns out to be itself quasi-substantial and capable of existence apart from that body. We must not press Animism for a logical solution of the question how this can be, for Animism remains Animism precisely because the difficulty has not been faced. The soul of Animism is clearly a Conception formed to unify and in a manner Gxplain the visible functions and processes of the body. It underlies the sensible and material, and sets out to explain them. But it turns out to be itself just such another visible and material thing - only thinner and less palpable - a mere double of the appearances which it should explain. For the primitive mind cannot grasp an object of thought with out transforming it into an object of sense. It needs a principle, connecting things that it can see or hear, and by a confusion of categories it makes of it merely another thing that it can see and hear. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.