$54 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2''d S. V. 117., Mar. 27. ".58. 



is not the only key, but it is the chief one : for as 

 Poetry preceded Prose, and "as Hieroglyphics pre- 

 ceded Letters, so Parables were more ancient than 

 Arguments," and Allegory preceded History. " In 

 Ancient times," observes Jones of Nayland, "Sen- 

 timents and Science were expressed by wise men 

 of all professions under Signs and Symbols."* 

 In fact, the whole World is one vast Parable, and 

 we all are taught more or less by Symbols. But, 

 cries Mr. Carlyle, " Men never risked their life on 

 Allegories ! " In reply to this and other like ob- 

 jections, I shall make a few remarks. 



There seem to be Three Periods of Mythology : 

 The First in which Traditions and Truths of va- 

 rious kinds were taught by and mixed iip with 

 Symbols and Figures. Here we must remember 

 that the Basis of all Heathen Theology is Mono- 

 theism. — 2nd. When the Breath of Better Times 

 became corrupted, and the Functions and Attri- 

 butes of God became separated from Him, and 

 deified : viz. when the Signs and Symbols, Figures 

 and Allegories (or the outward part), were taken 

 literally, and the inner meaning or thing signified 

 was lost sight of. Men have a strong tendency to 

 bring everything within the reach of their Senses ; 

 they are impatient of Faith, and like Sight ; they 

 strive to embody or materialise the Spiritual, to 

 make visible what is unseen, and tangible what is 

 impalpable ; to substitute the outward sign or ap- 

 pearance — quod slat super — for the inner, hidden, 

 and spiritual Substance — quod stat suiter — which 

 underlies the superficies of Nature. Hence Su- 

 perstition, Idols, Symbols, Hieroglyphs, Myths, 

 Allegories, and Parables, &c. — 3rd Period. When 

 Christianity gave the key-note to the Heathen, 

 unlocking the Hidden Wisdom of their Allegories, 

 which had been lost. Undoubtedly the early 

 Fathers and Christian Platonists often pushed this 

 too far. In explaining the Heathen Mythology, 

 they often 



" Struck life into its speech, and shewed much more 

 Their own conceiving." 



In their zeal to convert the Heathen in this 

 way they proved too much for their purpose, and 

 gave a handle to those bitter enemies of the Gos- 

 pel, the Alexandrian Platonists, — in fact, they 

 caught a Tartar. 



Let me quote in conclusion a valuable passage 

 from Dean Trench's work on the Parables : — 



" The Parable is diflferent from the Mythxis, inasmuch 

 as in the Mythus the truth and that which is only the 

 vehicle of the truth are wholly blended together: and 

 the consciousness that there is any distinction between 

 them, that it is possible to separate the one from the 

 other, belongs only to a later and more reflective age 

 than that in which the Mythus itself had birth, or those 

 in which it was heartily believed. The M3'thic narra- 

 tive presents itself not merely as the vehicle of truth, but 



* See his Lecture on The Symbolical Form common to 

 the Wisdom of Antiquity, Profane as well as Sacred. 



as itself being the truth: Avhile in the-Pavable there is 

 a perfect consciousness in all minds of the distinctness 

 between form and essence, shell and kernel. There is 

 also the Mythus of another class, the artiticial product of 

 a later self-conscious age, of which many inimitable spe- 

 cimens are to be found in Plato, devised with distinct 

 intention of embodying some important spiritual truth, 

 of giving an outward subsistence to an idea. . . . The 

 same is the case when, upon some old Legend or Myth 

 that has long been current, there is thrust some spiritual 

 significance, clearly by an afterthought; in which case 

 it perishes in the letter that it may live in the Spirit. . . . 

 To such a process, as is well known, the later Platonists 

 submitted the old Mythology of Greece. For instance, 

 Narcissus falling in love with his own image in the water- 

 brook, and pining there, was the symbol of Man casting 

 himself forth into the World of shews and appearances, 

 and expecting to find the good that would auswer to his 

 nature there, but indeed finding only disappointment and 

 death. It was their meaning hereby to vindicate that 

 Mj'thology from charges of absurdity or immorality, to 

 put a moral life into it, whereby it should maintain its 

 ground against the new life of Christianitj' ; though in- 

 deed they were only thus hastening the destruction of 

 whatever lingering faith in it there might yet survive in 

 the minds of men." — Pp. 5 — 6. 



But even here we may ask, was this Myth of 

 Narcissus invented by the Heathen Poets, " the 

 chief Doctors and Fathers of their Church," and 

 no meaning attached to it? Truly we may say 

 with Lord Bacon : — 



" The Wisdom of the Ancients was either Great or 

 Happy : Great, if these Figures and Tropes were invented 

 by Study and Premeditation ; Happy, if they (intending 

 nothing less) gave Matter and Occasion to so many worthy 

 Meditations." 



EiRIONNACH. 



March 9, 1858. 



TASSO AND JOHN BARCLAY. 



If you could find room for the following addi- 

 tion to a collection of parallel passages in^difFerent 

 authors, it may cause a little attention to be di- 

 rected to an old book which is worthy of more 

 notice than it receives. John Barclay, in his Ar- 

 genis (vol. i. p. 183., edit. 1664), has this simile : — 



" An nescis qua arte segris pueris medicamina concili- 

 entur? Ubi medicum cum poculo vident, fastidiunt vale- 

 tudinem qu£e tanti emenda est. Sed qui setatem illam 

 curant, vel mitibus succis vim domant acerbi saporis, vel 

 proemiis invitant ad salutem, deceptisque pulchritudine 

 poculi oculis, non videre, non scire patiuntur, quid hauri- 

 enduni sit." 



Or to follow the translation of Sir Thomas Id 

 Grys, Knt. (edit. 1628, p. 131.) : — 



" Knowest thou not with what cunning, children, when 

 they are sicke, must be brought to endure their Physicke? 

 As soon as they espie the Physicion with the cup, they 

 loath their health, which must be bought at that rate. 

 But they which haue charge of them, doe either with 

 sweete syrrups take away the taste of the bitter licour, or 

 with gifts entice them to take that which should cur 

 them ; and deceiuing them with a fine cup, not permit 

 them to see nor know what it is they must drinke." 



I need scarcely mention the similar passage in 



