314 



NATURE MYTHS AND ALLEGORIES 



use which two of our greatest English painters, Mr. Watts 

 and Mr. Burne-Jones, have made of this material. I think it 

 will be admitted that if we look for ideality in contemporary 

 English painting, we shall find this mainly in the work of 

 these two masters. And it is in the region of the myth and 

 allegory that both have brought their poetic qualities con- 

 spicuously to view. Mr. Burne-Jones, in particular, has 

 proved that it is possible to treat legends so familiar as that 

 of Perseus or the Sleeping Beauty, allegories so old as thai 

 of the Days of Creation, mythical tales so trite as that ol 

 Pan and Syrinx, with freshness and originality, evolving from 

 their kernel something which is vitally in sympathy with 

 modern thought. 



VIII 



The line of thought which I have followed in this essay 

 would have appeared preposterous and paradoxical a century 

 ago, when mythology was treated from the point of view of 

 Lempriere, and when the artistic handling of allegorical 

 themes proceeded upon imitation of Graeco-Roman or late 

 Renaissance work. It will probably find but scanty accept- 

 ance even now. Yet there are present conditions favourable 

 to its reception by tolerant minds which were lacking in the 

 immediate past. The revolution effected by the romantic 

 movement has delivered us from pseudo-classicism. At the 

 same time spirituality has been restored to the material 

 universe by science, which forces us to regard the cosmos 

 as a single whole, penetrated throughout with life-producing 

 energy. 



