ANIMISM • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Animism

... to conclusions varying from those of such students as Mr. Tylor and Mr. Spencer, and these conclusions should be stated, before they are applied to the Myth of Apollo. I am not inclined, like them, to accept "Animism," or "The Ghost Theory," as the master-key to the origin of religion, though Animism is a great tributary stream. To myself it now appears that among the lowest known races we find present a fluid mass of beliefs both high and low, from the belief in a moral creative ...

— The Homeric Hymns - A New Prose Translation; and Essays, Literary and Mythological • Andrew Lang