634 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



that in Homer she is a light-goddess, or when, because no one denies 

 that Phoibos is a light-name, therefore the Apollo of Homer was the 

 Sun, then indeed, not etymology, but the misuse of etymology, 

 hinders and misleads us. In a question of etymology, however, I 

 shall no more measure swords with Mr. Max Miiller than with Mr. 

 Huxley in a matter of natui-al science, and this for the simple reason 

 that my sword is but a lath. I therefore surrender to the mercy of 

 this great philologist the derivation of dine and diner from dejeuner ; 

 which may have been suggested by the use of the word dine in our 

 Bible (as John xxi. 12) for breakfasting ; a sense expressed by La 

 Bruyere (xi.) in the words, Cliton ii'a jamais eii, toute sa vie, que deux 

 affaires, qui sont de diner le matin, et de soufper le soir. 



But, Mr. Max Miiller says, I have offended against the fundamental 

 principles of comparative mythology {N. C. p. 919). How, where, 

 and why, have I thus tumbled into mortal sin ? By attacking solar- 

 ism. But what have I attacked, and what has he defended ? I have 

 attacked nothing but the exclusive use of the solar theory to solve all 

 the problems of the Aryan religions ; and it is to this monopolizing 

 pretension that I seek to ajiply the name of solarism, while admitting 

 that " the solar theory has a most important place " in solving such 

 problems {N. C. p. 704). But my vis-d-vis, whom I really can not call 

 my opponent, declares {N, C. p. 919) that the solarism I denounce is 

 not his solarism at all ; and he only seeks to prove that " certain por- 

 tions of ancient mythology have a directly solar origin." So it 

 proves that I attack only what he repudiates, and I defend what he de- 

 fends. That is, I humbly subscribe to a doctrine, which he has made 

 famous throughout the civilized world. 



It is only when a yoke is put upon Homer's neck, that I presume 

 to cry "hands off." The Olympian system, of which Homer is the 

 great architect, is a marvelous and splendid structure. Following the 

 guidance of ethnological affinities and memories, it incorporates in it- 

 self the most diversified traditions, and binds them into an unity by 

 the plastic power of an unsurpassed creative imagination. Its domi- 

 nating spirit is intensely human. It is therefore of necessity thorough- 

 ly anti-elemental. Yet, when the stones of this magnificent fabric are 

 singly eyed by the observer, they bear obvious marks of having been 

 appropriated from elsewhere by the sovereign prerogative of genius ; of 

 having had an anterior place in other systems ; of having belonged to 

 Nature-worship, and in some cases to Sun-worship ; of having been 

 drawn from many quarters, and among them from those which Mr. 

 Max Mullcr excludes (p. 921) : from Egypt, and either from Palestine, 

 or from the same traditional source, to which Palestine itself was in- 

 debted. But this is not the present question. As to the solar theory, 

 I hope I have shown either that our positions are now identical, or that, 

 if there be a rift between them, it is so narrow tliat we may conveni- 

 ently shake hands across it. — Nineteenth Centura/. 



