St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-02-01
to see that innate as they are In the Friendly
Edition they are all put back where they
ought to be,

| OuRnI W De,
''In the hemisphere
| Advanced, and made a constellation there" =
NEW VIEW OF MYPHs.
In ''Custom aud Myth" also published by
the house of Harper & Bros, Mr., Andrew
Lang proposes to look into a few of the pop
ular myths, and see If our standard methods
of dealing with and accounting for them are
not quite as mythical as the handled myths
themselves. Mr.. Lang has the pluck and
courage of his convictions, and is entitled to
his DAY in COURT His proposition
is that the method by which myths
have been heretofore interpreted, viz. :
to hunt for their keys in the nomenclature
employed. And having identified the char
acters or res gestas of the myth, its material,
to decide pre-e mptorily that the myth was
the crude or rudimentary expression of some
truth known to certain peoples using the
root particle extracted from or discovered in
the name, whose descendants have wan
dered, intermarried, ETC., ETC., is calow,
vicious and false. For a long time prior to
Mr.. Lang's appearance in the field, we think
the vicious nature of this myth-iuterpreta-
ton had begun to lurk in our suspicious, 10
reduce it to an absurdity it has never been
| more than necessary to take fact, such as
the life aud career of Napoleon or Washing
ton or Gladstone, and by diversions use
their names to find the ''solar myths which
the story of their careers is meant TO EN-
body. How simple was the process of re-
ducng Napoleon to fiction. Archbishop
Whately, found it convenient, in exposing
ho fol nd "a,
Miracles, to demonstrate. Hume having laid
it down as an inevitable axiom, that
miracles were impossible because they were
Improbable, our archbishop proceeded TO
show that the career of Napoleon Bonaparte
read In biblical diction and pariphrases-
was extremely improbable, and hence, ac-
cording to Hume, impossible. But see how
simple the step further becomes, which will
make Napoleon the French version of the
story of Apollo sun myth. First, the name
Napoleon is a corruption Of Apollo, both
being evidently from the Greek verb apoIleo,
to destroy. The n (Which was the imperial
signet, being Maj, i. {. true, was prefxed to
show that this was the trse Apollo, the de-
stroyer. .Hala pars, the bad part. was what
early astronomers called the night. Hence
Bona parS, the good part, was the day, the
sun. Napoleon was born on an island be-
longing to, b 1t not part Of, France. Apollo
was born in Delos, an island belonging to,
but not a part of, Greece. Pausanias tells us
that Apollo was worshlpped in Egypt, Ma
poleon Bonaparte is tabled to have
conquered Egypt Apollo's mother
was Leto. Napoleon Bonaparte's
mother was Lactitia. Both these
names mean JOY, /. e. dawn, sunrise Qatin,
lletior, to rejoice. and So on, until it is evil
dent to the meanest capacity that the myth of
Apollo when Gallicized is the complete story
OF Napoleon, the consulate and the empire.
Against a process Of Interpretation which
when reversed leads TO such absurdi-
ties as this, Mr.. Lang proposes to
rebel Instead he substitutes this
dictum, 'Sio.Rar conditions of mind produce
similar practices, apIrt from identity Of race
borrowing of idsIs All nsIHRers." Let US look,
in other words, not for a common myth but
a common cause OF myth. Many nations
and tribes may gaze upon tue same comet.
The brook sees but single moon, but the
moon looks upon many brooks. This dictum
selected, Mr.. Lang, by its aid, examines the
myths and crouus of Cupid and Psyche, of
the ''Sun Frog" Apollo and the Mouse, of
Jason, Of the Devining Rod, and certain
others in the volume before US, and reduces
them to the required formula. As study in
myth and Folk lore the book is fresh and alb
sorbing, whether or not the reader be borne
along by the writer's demonstrations. 1t
must be confessed that the clear method
though capable Of ludicrous treatment, has
developed most Of whatever In mythology
has proved useful in the explosion of errors
and the detection of photographic canards
aud false lights, but whether Mr. Laug's
processes be accepted as final or merely ten
tAtve he has written genuinely interesting
and absorbing book, full of fancy and humor
as we'll as Of serious proposition and agree
ment.
PREscoTT's FERDINAND AND ISABELLA,
in two 12-mo. volumes, uniform with Mr..
John B. Alden's edition OF Guizot's France,
has been added by that enterprsiug gentle
man to his list OF inexpensive (but by no
means cheap editions OF standard and ele-
CANT literature Mr.. Alden is just now not
only furnishing the people with good books
at minimum prices, but is laying up treasures
for himself; for, should the annually threat
ened bill for an international copyright be-
come law, he would not only have costly set
OF volumes on hand, but, by means of his
plates, could easily make friends with the
unrighteous man mon Of English bookmen,
and be in a most enviable position for the
future. But all this, we suppose, Mr.. Alden
has devised and discounted long ago.
THE BOOK LOVERS ROSARY.
We must not omit mention Of this pretty
little l6-mo. also OF Mr.. Alden's, whose
eighty pages are 4 ciain of all the
best things ever said about books
All, that is, except one. For We
note the omission Of what a N IN who
probably himself possessed fewer books to
read than any writer who ever lived-William
Shakespeare once was moved TO say about
books and reading:
Let's be no stoics or no stocks, I pray
or 50 devote TO Aristotle's checks
As ovid be outcast quite anJnred.
Baik logic With acquaintance that y1u have
AID pra tice rhetoric in your common talk.
Mrsic and poesie are to quicken you.
The maths mates and the metaphysics
Fall to them a. Won find your stomach servesyou.
No proat grows where IL no pleasure taken
In brief, sir; study what you most Affect.
ART NOTE.
The Messrs. Prang, Of Boston, assure US
that their artists, in preparing for the yaleu-
tine market, have been instructed 10 remit
their efforts to depict the annual bloodshed
made by cupid on CORY hearts, and do some
thing rich. unique, and in the line Of true
art We shall await the result Of these in-
strsctious with appetite.