of the Fabulous History of Greece. 67 



fictitious being Mercurius, who had been made, as it were, their 

 personal representative. 



To return, however, to the fable of Perseus. I may just 

 remark, in further confirmation of the Medusa's head having 

 been a real coralline production, that Perseus is represented as 

 cutting down the coral with the apww, or sickle the very in- 

 strument which he is said to have been furnished with for the 

 express purpose of cutting off the Gorgon's head ; but which, 

 in truth, it is clear he had really provided himself with, with a 

 view to this coralline expedition. 



Many other instances might be adduced, in which an ana- 

 lytical investigation of the names of persons and things throws 

 light upon the history where it has been obscured beneath a 

 mass of fable. Such a view, indeed, of fabulous history, is 

 highly important. No doubt that which is called the fabulous 

 age of Grecian story is deeply involved in thick clouds of 

 obscurity ; yet here and there, through the breaks in the 

 gloom, we can dimly discern forms cast in the same mould with 

 ourselves. It will scarcely be denied, that most of the person- 

 ages which are spoken of as flourishing at that early period 

 did really then exist. The main body of the events in connexion 

 with which their names have been handed down to us, must 

 have had some foundation, in fact, more solid than the mere 

 imagination of the poet, or the fanciful story-telling of the 

 dealers in the marvellous. The early history of every people, 

 except that of the Jews, we find mingled with fable ; and this 

 has arisen, not merely from that love of the marvellous which 

 characterises a rude, untutored race, but also from the want of 

 those faithful records which, by presenting an accurate delinea- 

 tion of events, would, in a great measure, have corrected those 

 popular errors and delusions which have interwoven themselves 

 with the facts. Indeed, there exists at all times a class of 

 persons whose minds are prone to see everything under an 

 exaggerated form, and no less so to communicate their own 

 impressions with additional circumstances of exaggeration unto 

 others. Any person who is at all acquainted with the peasantry, 

 may have observed how distorted a form any more than 

 ordinary event will come to assume among them, as it is con- 

 reyed from mouth to mouth, even in the immediate neighbour- 



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