As Goethe remarks,
"Man never knows how anthropomorphic he is." Our minds instinctively
seek an explanation of the cause or causes of the different phenomena
constantly occurring around us, but instinct does not supply the
solution. Only by patient watching and consideration can this be arrived
at; but in former ages scientific methods of investigation were either
not known, or not cared for, and so men were satisfied with merely
guessing at the causes of natural phenomena, and these guesses were made
from the standpoint of their own human passionate intelligence.
Alongside the intelligence everywhere observable in the operations of
nature they placed their own passionate humanity, they projected
themselves into the universe and anthropomorphised nature. Thus came men
to regard natural phenomena as manifestations of supernatural agency;
as expressions of the wrath or pleasure of good or evil genii, and
although in our day we have made great advances in our knowledge of
natural phenomena, the majority of men still regard the ways of
providence from a false standpoint, a standpoint erected in the
interests of ecclesiasticism.
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