The times., 1899-03-19
III d 'il<|1Il ) Ittil [.t j

7
hind is another stone, somewhat smaller whic
leans forward in the posture of person hasten
ing eagerly. Both are white and shining; the
have The appearance oi quartz rock. These wer
tno sisters fastening, rushing away to escap
the coming change. When they reached tn
points where they are standing at present III
foremost sister looked toward the east and say
smoke; the second did not look. but she hear
the distant barking of dogs which came iron
tie place where the smoke was; both wcr
changed into stone that same instant.
The exquisite postry of this colcep. iol
might not be understood by the child, bu
that is myth which he could never out
grow because ii is a symbol of universe
truth. The trouble with the theoiog.
which has dominated our own litera tur,
for several centuries is that it is not
true Cutgrowth of the life OF any one pao
pie. Ii is a combination of Jewish an(
Greek ideas superimposed upon the Saxo;
mind and translated by brain which
combined the qualities of the Saxon, The
; Kelt, the Gaul. and the Briton. In its
transition to America it has mixed itseli
up with prevailing social and politica
, ideas, and the result is a strange and
weird combination. Science has dis arded
the whole affair In lump, and gone back
TO the beginnings of things, and slowly we
| are coming to understand that while es-
| sentials to truth may be the same, the
| Dy lfIlH IS
to different rations are as infinite in num-
ber as the stars, and must sometimes
contradict one another. When one learns
to understand the theology of a primitive
people il is always true to LIE. Moreover,
| the same thoughts are to certain extent
| common to them all. After this period OF
| creation, according to the Indian belief.
there comes another period in which light
and darkness. heat and cold winds, sun
| and stars, appear as actors; and in this
| cycle of myths appears the idea, common
| to all religions, of demigod, savior
of the race. Mr.. Curtin says:
This group Of myths is TO the Indian very sa-
cred in many tribss revered beyond any
others. In the simplest version Of this
| myth earth maiden, through being looked at
by the sun. becomes mother, gives birth 10 4
great hero, the chief bcneiactor of Indians. This
hero gives the all gifts which support ex-
istence, and ii is through him that men live and
prosper. Under whatever name he appears this
benefaetor is really that warm light which we
sec quiverinS, waving, and dancing above the
Garth in fine weather. He is the of the vir-
gin Garth, of that mother who has never known
consort the one who looked from the
height of heaven upon ler.
The Indians have also a clear notion of
the way in which this mass Of traditions
has been given. Here and there very Old
| tree or large stone is regarded as an
oracle, and it is said that the first medi-
cine men received their stories OF the crea-
tion of the world from these oracles.
The Indian myths are among the very
few ethnic religions of which we know any
thing; and they indicate that primitive
man was capable of forming. on the whole,
very philosophical ideas of the world in
which he lived. AS the priest class arose,
these essentially pure conceptions were
garbled with ideas introduced by the crafty
among the priests for their own ends; con-
quering races imposed their religion on the
conquered, and all real poetry in creation
myths was obscured.
An odd thing which may be noticed in
the nomenclature of the characters in these
myth tales is that the names bear often a
curious resemblance to Japanese and Rus
sian words. They seem, in fact, to be a
mixture of Russian. Japanese and Aztec
sounds. This fact suggests that at some
time the North American continent was
peopled from Eastern Asia, and that the
rigorous climate and dense forests pre-
vented the population from becoming very
great in North America, SO that primitive
conditions continued there, and the origi-
nal tongue was preserved in its purity.
This is only speculation, but it is reason
able. Boston: Little, Brown G. Co. s2.50.)
New Launcelot and Guenevcre.
1t Is rather daring for anyone to at
tempt an epic OF the court of King Arthur,
after the "Idylls of the King" and that is
what all the critics said when Richard
Hovey put forth "The Marriage of Guene-
we're and THE Quest of Merlin" in one
slender volume, several years ago. Now
new drama, The Birth of Galahad,'' has
been added to the other two, and the tril-
ogy is issued in three tiny books. Each
is complete in itself, yet the three supple
ment one another as Tennyson's Arthurian
legends do. AS Mr.. Hovey has challenged
the comparison by his choice of subject, it
is inevitable that his work should be con-
sidered in its relation to that of the great
English master.
In reading Tennyson's sternly virtcous
account of the love OF Launcelot and
Guenevere, it is probable that nine readers
out of ten have felt that there was seri-
Gus lack in il somewhere. In spite of the
sumptueus imagery and exquisite poetic
beauty of the narrative, and the mastery
character drawing which is to be found in
many of the poems, the story somehow
lacks backbone. Were it reduced to prose
the plot would be nowhere. The weak.
ness, whatever it is, is so cunningly dis
guised by the music of the cadence and the
loveliness of the wordpictures that one
has some difficulty in finding II. But il
is Enthusiastically there.
p Tennyson made the same mistake In this
work as did Milton in Paradise Lost
when he made his Satan, unwittingly, the
hero of the epic. The sympathy of the
reader is not where the author intended it
TO be. In spite of the manifold perfections
OF Arthur and the late repentance of Guen-
0f ba to
teach great moral lesson, ones heart goes
out to the unhappy lovers, and, like Guene-
we're, seeks warmth and color to be found
in Launcelot. The erring knight is the
highest type because he is the most human
The conception of the king belongs to that
period in English literature in which Phil
istinism and Mr.. Gladstone reigned su-
preme. Tennyson's sensitive brain was i'm
pressed by the spirit of the age, instead of
dominating ii. II Browning had written
that romance the world would have had
a different picture.
1t must be remembered that Guenevere
is not tickle woman, choosing the king
and then tiring OF him. She is a woman
of mediaeyal times, betrothed to a man
whom she has never seen, and married
without any will OF her own. Seeing
Launcelot, and thinking him the king, she
learns to love him unawares. And there
lies the tragedy of it all. The world today
has learned more charity than to call such
woman as this an irreclaimable sinner.
Launcelot,. courteous to all women" low
ing but one, conquered only by fate. is
still the hero of the Idylls. This fact is a
remarkably clear illustration of the way in
which truth will out. At the time when
Tennyson wrote the Idylls 1t would have
been impossible TO win an English audience
to anything but condemnation of Guene-
we're. The nation was tenacious of the