THE IDEAS AND SOURCES OF MYTH. 11 



learned and extensive labours. In a more scientific 

 method, and divested of prejudice, we propose to trace 

 the sources of myth in general, and among various 

 peoples in particular. 



The science of languages, or comparative philology, 

 is the chief instrument required in such researches, and 

 much light has been acquired in our days, which has 

 led to surprising results, at least within the sphere 

 of the special races to which it has been applied. 

 The names of Kuhn, Weber, Sonne, Benfey, Grimm, 

 Schwartz, Hanusch, Maury, Breal, Pictet, 1'Ascoli, De 

 Gubernatis, and many others, are well known for 

 their marvellous discoveries in this new and arduous 

 field. They have not only fused into one ancient 

 and primitive image the various myths scattered in 

 different forms among the Ai\yan races, but they have 

 revealed the original conception, as it existed in the 

 earliest meaning of words before their dispersion. 

 Hence came the multiplicity of myths, developed in 

 brilliant anthropomorphic groups in different theo- 

 logies, gradually becoming more simple as time went 

 on, then uniting in the vague primitive personification 

 of the winds, the storms, the sun, the dawn; in short, 

 of astral and meteorological phenomena. 



On the other hand, Max Miiller, whose theory of 

 original myths is peculiar to himself, has made use 

 of this philological instrument to prove that the 

 Aryan myths may at any rate be referred to a single 

 source, namely to metaphor, or to the double meaning 



