MYTHOLOGICAL IDEAS. 35$ 



condition to another, and what is now a living and a 

 breathing creature, or a delicate and sweetly-scented 

 flower, has been a portion of the amorphous mass which 

 once lay in the darkness of the deep ocean, and it will 

 jigain, in the progress of time, pass into that condition 

 where no evidences of organization can be found, again, 

 perhaps, to arise clothed with more exalted powers than 

 even man enjoys. 



When man places himself in contrast with the Intelli- 

 gences beyond him, he feels his weakness ; and the 

 extent of power which he can discover at work, guided 

 by a mysterious law, is such, that he is dwarfed by its 

 immensity. But looking on the past, sun-eying the 

 progress of matter through the inorganic forms up to 

 the higher organizations, until at length man stands 

 revealed as the chief figure in the foreground of the 

 picture, the monarch of a world on which such elaborate 

 care has been bestowed, and the absolute ruler of all 

 things around him, he rises like a giant in the conscious 

 strength of his far-searching mind. That so great, 

 so noble a being, should suffer himself to be degraded by 

 the sensualities of life to a level with the creeping things, 

 upon which he has the power to tread, is a lamentable 

 spectacle, over which angels must weep. 



The curious connection between the superstitions of 

 races, the traditionary tales of remote tribes, and the 

 developments of the truths of science, are often of a 

 very marked character, and they cannot but be regarded 

 as instructive. In the wonders of " olden time" fiction 

 has ever delighted ; and a thousand pictures have been 

 produced of a period when beings lived and breathed 

 .upon the earth which have no existence now. 



Hydras, harpies, and sea-monsters, figure in the myths 

 of antiquity. In the mythology of the northern races 

 of Europe we have fiery flying dragons, and Poetry has 

 placed these as the guardians of the " hoarded spirit" 

 and protectors of the enchanted gold. 



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