THE MODERN MIND 339
lations in which men are organized; third, natural objects and forces as they are shaped and controlled by man for his own convenience and comfort, i.e., all the artificial arrange ments with which we have surrounded ourselves.
If we consider the changes which have taken place in the conditions of human life in the last few centuries we must be struck with the fact that there has been a complete re versal of the relative importance of the natural and the human factors of man s environment.
I. Let us consider the primitive situation, bearing in mind that we are using the word primitive not strictly in the absolute sense, as referring exclusively to the beginnings of human life in the world; but with reference to rude and un developed civilization in general, such as that which pre vailed in Europe during the Middle Ages and prevails now in lands where life has not been transformed by Western culture.
i. Under primitive conditions the natural environment is by far the more important, and gives direction to the thoughts of men and determines their mental attitudes. Men are surrounded by nature unmodified or, at most, but slightly modified by human effort. Its vastness and wild- ness impress them. Its mighty forces are uncontrollable by human power; and within its mysterious realms lurk dangers which they can not surely anticipate and against which they can not guard themselves. At times smiling and beneficent; at times frowning and maleficent, it blesses or blasts men, seemingly by caprice ; and they strive with little success to find the clue to its apparent changes of mood. They have no science of natural forms, forces and processes. They are without the very concept of natural law. Nature does not seem to them one and consistent, but to be ani mated by many different and contradictory purposes. Only within narrow limits have they perceived the threads of uni formity which bind together natural phenomena. At best, nature seems a vast, discordant synthesis of minor har monies.
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