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Let me explain. Assyria was a great nation, an intelligent 
nation, and a learned nation, that fought great battles, and was 
in every sense, a carnivorous, fighting, and hunting nation. Now 
look at the Assyrian god. He has the head of a man, a fine in- 
telligent head, full bearded and full browed, with fine eyes and a 
generally masterful expression. He has the body of a lion, 
strength in every limb, force, and the carnivorous, flesh-eating, 
hunting instinct in every muscle. Lastly, he has the wings of an 
eagle, swiftness, a soaring power, a pouncing and seizing power, 
and the whole constitutes the main great central abstract ideal 
which was to be feared and worshipped, because it summed up 
in one monster, the hopes, aims, and aspirations, as well as the 
glory of the nation, which had no higher aims than these. 
And so the god was evolved, clothed with flesh, and became to 
them a real being. But the higher the race goes in civilization, 
the less it has todo with monsters. We find that after a period 
of time, the monsters depart and men take their place altogether, 
thus in Greece and Rome we find nearly all the star gods 
evolved into beautiful men and women, now and then with a 
faint trace of the beast as in Mercury for instance, with winged 
feet, emblematical of speed and swiftness of flight, as the Centaur 
with the body of a horse and the upper portion of a man as a 
head. ‘To those people in those times, undoubtedly those legen- 
dary beings were real, and were believed in, just as much as 
people now-a-days believe in ghosts. Speaking of ghosts, goblins, 
etc., reminds me that a great effort is being made now-a-days, to 
raise ¢hese poor old played out mythical monsters into active work 
again. Just when the “ Bogie Man” that came and snatched 
away little children had died a natural death, up he comes again 
as full of terroras ever. Mr. de Smythe, who never did any- 
thing in his life worth mentioning, is dragged from space to 
knock on a table or throw plates off a rack in the pantry ; the 
curious part of it all, being that the people who are clothing these 
horrors of the imagination with flesh and making them appear as 
though they were real beings, are not gentlemen who run about 
in Central Africa, wearing a bead or two and a look of mild sur- 
prise, but men who have studied science and know all about the 
properties of matter, and therefore ought to known better. 
There is one monster which is ever popular with us, will 
always be firmly believed in by one party and ridiculed by the 
other, and that regularly appears when Her Majesty’s faithful 
Commons are not occupied in their arduous labours. I refer to 
the sea serpent. No sooner do I mention that enterprising and 
useful gentleman's name, than my audience is divided into two 
parties ;—for and against. I have read authentic stories (says 
one perhaps in his mind), and I know it is true that there is sucha 
