Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-11-22


who not of the elect, is given the blessed
privilege of belief and belief in the four cardinal
myths is the Archimedean lever that has moved the
world since prehistoric began to walk
erect. To hitch wagon to STAR to build airy
castles in Spain, ever to pursue the unattainable-
these not the idle and Improbable pastimes of
the weak and foolish, but the inspired emp1oyments
of those who have imbibed most deeply Of the wis
dom of the ages. For the dreamer of one age is
the prophet of the next; and mag nation has re-
veaed truths than the explorers of science ever
The myths of friendship of true love- of fame,
and of hidden fortune, these have been the real
mainsprngs of human action ever since some hairy
troglodyte first forsook the ready bone for the Sc
cret cache of his provident neighbor, forgot the
ungainy lady that shared his humble cave to bask
in the smiles of some siren affinity from afar Thus
born the myths of hidden treasure and of true
love; and doubtless the genesis of the myths of
fame and friendship was equally obscure. That all
are only myths each one has proved-or must some
day prove-from dear experience. But what of
that? Being myths, they are ubiquitous and i'm
mortal, unhampered by the limitations of time,
place, and circumstance that crcumscribe the in
fuence of uncompromlslng facts
Which of these four primal and eternal myths
fame, friendship love, or buried treasure-has con-
tributed most literally to the sum total of human
achievement, it would be vain to speculate. Had
any been eliminated from the divine plan, the
world would now present a very different aspect:
the art, science, politics. religion and all the ameni-
ties that make life tolerabe would be nonexistent.
Had all been omitted any approximation to civiliza-
ton would be unthnkable, and mankind could
never have become wholly differentiated from the
ancestral beast.
Nevertheless it can hardly be questioned that
the treasure myth has always appealed to the
greatest number. There are millions who have
been awakened from dreams of undyng love by
the discovery that their idols had feet of very COM
clay; and millions more who have found that
the fondest friends the first to betray. And
fame? Those who have pucked its richest fruits
pronounce them but Dead Sea apples, turning into
dust and ashes, which satisfy not. But when love
is dead, friendship forsworn and fame despised,
avarice still survives; and the heart that recog
nzes other passion still throbs the faster at
tale of lost or hidden stolen treasure: the hoard
of some self starved miser, the cask of Captain
Kidd, the golden cargo of a sunlen galleon, a lost
mine, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow
Everywhere, under an infnity of guises it is true,
but always appealing to mans master passion,
greed the treasure myth has lured men to fresh
adventures, to epochal discoveries, to daring ex-
porations, to wild hazards of life and honor and
fortune. Never yet, perhaps, have the chasers of
treasure myths found what they sought but their
self seeking has built well for those who came after
Myth of the Quivira
TWO of the most remarkable chapters in the his
tory Of American exploration deal solely with
the chase OF the treasure myth. In South America