HISTORICAL EVOLUTION OF MYTH AND SCIENCE. 199 



myth, as we might naturally expect, since the Celts 

 belong to the Aryan stock ; Gwenn-Aran (albus 

 superus) was a supernatural being which issued like 

 lightning from a cloud. 



The more thoughtful Greeks did not limit the 

 Promethean myth to the idol and to anthropomorphic 

 fancies, but it passed into a moral conception, and we 

 have a proof of this transition in /Eschyms. 



In fact, as Silvestro Centofonti observes in a lecture 

 on the characteristics of Greek literature, the grand 

 figure of the ^Eschylean Prometheus is a poetic 

 personification of Thought, and of its mysterious fates 

 in the sphere of life as a whole. First, in its eternal 

 existence, as a primitive and organic force in the 

 system of the world; then in the order of human 

 things, fettered by the bonds of civilization, and sub- 

 ject to the necessities, lusts, and evils which constantly, 

 arise from the union of soul and matter in unsatisfied 

 mortals. Thought is itself the source of tormenting 

 cares in this earthly slavery, yet the sense of power 

 makes it invincible, firm in its purpose to endure all 

 sufferings, to be superior to all events; assured of 

 future freedom, and always on the way to achieve it 

 by reverting to the grandeur of its innate perfection ; 

 finally attaining to this happy state, by shaking off all 

 the enslaving bonds and anxious cares of the kingdom 

 of Zeus, and by obtaining a perfect life through the 

 inspirations of wisdom, when the revolutions of the 

 heavens should fill the earth with divine power, and 



