The Arkansaw traveler., 1883-02-17

between the incidents narrated of the conflict of David and Goliath, and the Gaulish battle in which T. Manlias Tor cuatus figured. Abraham WAS turned into the Hindu Brahma. who was com pelled to fly from l. dia to csrape the re- | lgious ssiifes he had helped 10 kindle The proof brought forward to suppor; thts opin.on, was the similarity in the names of both the principal personages, and oi theit wives. Sarah and Sarasvati. Joshua was made 10 borrow his words and his ideas when he bad the sun to stand still on that memorable day of slaughter from Homer where Agamemnon eAclaims. /" 0 Zeus le; not the sun go down. etc. This mode of interpretation or rather misinter- pretation Is followed even now by un- ' skillful visionaries-
 In the lndo-European races we have legendary heroes who possess miraea- lous powers of endurance and wonderful strength. They are the champions of the helpless. the protectors of the guilt Z less and the slayers of the wrong doers. And these personages, the mythologists say. are not human, are moi real. but are only personifications of the sun in the sky. bringing light and heat and abun- dance, or destruction and death. De sorip,ions of the sun,the varying phcnom- ena of day and night, thunder and light ming, and cloud and storm. which eS- pressed his notions and impressions eon- corning them. and which contained and described, as was natural, some of the at tributes belonging to himself, were con- founded by succeeding people with some particular persons who had been facc,~ dentallj endowed with extraordinary strength. Samson. in like manner was tumbled down from the Semitic pedestal upon which he had remained too long unchalienged, and whom, lev Christian and Mohammedan have volun- tarily united 10 keep from being unseated. In regard to this person, the mode only in which he is unseaicd Is questionable. But this IS not all : no, eonien, with tras- estying that account which we all have been taught to venerate as sacred and as ! sacrilegious to doubt, they have accused the Jews of the grossest plagiarisms from their more rehned and poetical, civ,l- ized and philosophical neighbors, the Hamites. Hindus and Greeks.
 In the eaiiy ages of mans life, the mythical was inextrcabiy mixed up with the religious elements, and often one has been mistaken for the other. Religion grew up from mythology. The most re- hgious races upon the globe have first passed through this middle region or stage of undeveloped thought where mans relations to the external world were understood only upon the belief that all animated nature possessed human feelings, passions and will. The laws which controlled the growth and devel- cpmcnt of lndo-European races, and which have been established beyond question, must apply as well to the 1ur anian and Semitic races. Human thought. whether called into exercise by an inds- European. TuranIan or Semitic people. has begun, developed and progressed in exactly the same channels, assumed the same phases, and carried along with t the same psyehologie conditions and characteristics. We readily admit the physiological Tn the histories of all the non-Semitic races. and of all the Semitic races except the Hebrews, but as soon as we approach the inspired singers oi ls- rael, we are told that the laws which gov ern the development, of other people z [ tion whatever to this favored race.
 The myths that arise in peoples life and history, and the mythical phrases which grow up to adorn their literature, are influenced by the character of the surroundings in which the race is located. An original myth separately developed by people inhabiting regions, the climate of which is widely different, would as. sume many unlike forms. Those forces of nature which are strongly and keenly felt, whether heat or cold, moisture or dryness, bright or tempestuous skies, would be likely to exercise a more potent influence upon their thought, than those powers which are not so extreme in their action.
 Renan maintains that the Semites had no mythology. His opinion has been upheld by other writers, both upon eth nologic and linguistic grounds. His statements and arguments have ex- ercised considerable influence over the Christian world, not from any cogeney of his reasoning, or any truth m his prem ises, but because 1t suits the popular taste to believe ;aa: she Hebrew race was miraculously endowed with the mos, elevated religious instincts.
 in his theory of the origin of language, Renan fell into what the philologists call an absurd error, in which he maintains that primitive man expressed his ideas with a language that contained the whole array of determinatives and in perfec, unity, that synthesis IS the primitive and natural form of the human mind, and that analysis comes after synthesis. 4 like error confronis him in his develop ment of Semitic monotheism. He as crlbes to the Semitic intellect powers which are not shared in common by other races fully as civilized. He main tains that monotheism was no, arriyed at through process of growth and devei- opmcnt, bu, itcwas one of the hrs, and original conceptions Of the Semitic mind. This is, in fact. as Prof Whitney says. turning topsy-turvey the history of both linguistic and religious development. Nevertheless, Renan is convinced of the unity of the psychologic constitution of the human race