THE WORLD'S LITERATURE. THE MYTH-MAKING AGE. CHAPTER I. The Origin of the Myth. How we came to be what we are is one of the most important lessons literature can teach us. Introduction. decide what we shall be is one of the most important judgments growing out of that lesson. "A being satisfied with the world of sense, unconscious of its finite nature, undisturbed by the limited or negative nature of sense perception, would perhaps be incapable of any religious conception," says Max Müller. In the same sense, the student of literature who cares only to prepare for an examination or to have an extensive knowledge of authors and their works, would perhaps be undisturbed by the limited. and negative nature of literature when considered merely as fine writing. The student who is conscious of the emptiness of Literature, except as it opens up the education of the race, the emptiness of all words except as a revelation of the saving relation of man to man, the student who cares for the growth of our thought and our ing Age. language, for the development of reverence and worship, for the foundation of sciences, the beginnings of philosophy, the first attempts at regulating The Myth-mak family life, and the origin of government, will look with reverent and searching eyes into the pages of history and literature which interpret the Myth-making Age. No apology necessary for the ology. Mythology is an expression of the thought of the race in its infancy. It would be as foolish to apologize for presenting it to the student of Literature, study of Myth- as it would be foolish in a father to apologize for noticing the first words lisped by his babe and seeking through them to assure himself of the intelligence back of them, or what intellectual vigor they prophesied for the future; as foolish as it would be for the physical scientist to apologize for presenting the germination of the plant as a study before presenting another phase of its life dependent on germination. Nay, the apology would be due if Mythology were ignored and the student left to fall into the absurdity of trying to account for the lines of thought springing from Mythology without reference to their source. The reverence with which great writers have approached this subject and the irreverence with which meaner writers treat it, are of themselves not only a wonderful study of the race, in its Myth-making Age, as seen through the eyes of great and of mean people, but also of man; in one case of man, undeveloped in thought; in the other case, of man at his best, man as a scientist, working out with great veneration the question, "What is truth?" John Ruskin, in his Queen of the Air, compels our admiration for himself as a searcher for truth as surely as he rivets our interest to the subject of the origin of the myth. Here we realize Ruskin John Ruskin's reverence for Mythology. the man while we learn to recognize the majesty of the spirit of the goddess of wisdom. "I will not ask your pardon for endeavoring to interest you in the subject of Greek Mythology; but I must ask your permission to approach it in a temper differing from that in which it is frequently treated. We can not justly interpret the religion of any people, unless we are prepared to admit that we ourselves, as well as they, are liable to error in matters of faith; and that the convictions of others, however singular, may in some points have been well founded, while our own, however reasonable, may in some particulars be mistaken. You must forgive me, therefore, for not alway distinctively calling the creeds of the past 'superstition' and the creeds of the present day 'religion'; as well as for assuming that a faith now confessed may sometimes be superficial, and that a faith long forgotten may once have been sincere. is the task of the Divine to condemn the errors of antiquity and of the Philologist to account for them. I will only pray you to read with patience, and human sympathy, the thoughts of men who lived without blame in a darkness they could not dispel; and to remember that, whatever charge of folly may justly attach to the saying, "There is no God,' the folly is prouder, deeper, and less pardonable, in saying, "There is no God but for me.' The origin of the Myth according to Ruskin. It A Myth, in its simplest definition, is a story with a meaning attached to it, other than it seems to have at first, and the fact that it has such a meaning is generally marked by some of its circumstances being extraordinary, or, in the common use of the word, unnatural. Thus, if I tell you that Hercules killed a water-serpent in the lake of Lerna, and if I mean, and you understand, nothing more than that fact, the story, whether true or false, is not a myth. But if by telling you this, I mean that Hercules purified the stagnation of many streams from deadly miasmata, my story, however simple, is a true myth. If I left the story in that simplicity, you would probably believe it and look for nothing beyond, so it would be wise in me to add some singular circumstances to surprise your attention; for instance, that the water-snake had several heads, which revived as fast as they were killed, and |