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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. Different Theories of the Myth. There are many theories concerning the origin and meaning of the myths. Taking the preceding chapters Ruskin-s the- as data from which to reason, we find that ory. the Nature, - 1 ., -, - . theory and the Ruskm has accounted for them on the sup- Allegorieal the- ory comhined, position that they have a physical basis, or that they are nature stories; that the operations of nature were explained by comparing them with the actions of men, and so were personified; and so were realized through the imagination, and finally took on moral significance. If this is the allegorical theory, it must be remembered that the myth, at its beginning, was not an allegory, for the allegory comes only with developed intelligence. In order to comprehend a problem so complex as that which is offered by mythology, says J. Addington Symonds, we must not be satisfied to approach it from one point of view, but must sift opinion, submit our theory to the crucible in more than one experiment, and, after all our labor, be content to find that much remains unexplained. In order to understand the question, we must make a demand upon our imagination, and endeaver to return, in thought at least, to the conditions of a people in the myth-forming age? the age, that is to say. in which not only were myths naturally made, but all the thinking of a nation took the form of myths. We must go back to a time when there were no written records, when there were no systems of thought, when language had not been subjected to analysis of any kind, when science had notbegun to exist, when abstract notions were unknown, when history was impossible, and when the whole world was a land of miracles. There was no check then laid upon fancy, because nothing ...
| ISBN-13 | 9780217404532 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10 | 0217404537 |
| Weight | 0.88 Pounds |
| Dimensions | 9.00 x 6.00 x 0.61 In |
| List Price | $20.21 |
| Format | Paperback |
|---|---|
| Pages | 268 pages |
| Publisher | |
| Published On | 2009-08-01 |
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