154 THE BIRTHPLACE OP ANCIENT 



botli in fanciful speculations and in artificial observances. The final 

 means of escape, therefore, from the conclusion which sends us to a 

 common cradle of the whole human race is that afforded by calling in 

 question the truth of the above statement of Faber's. Can it be proved 

 that the learned author of the Origin of Idolatry manufactured resem- 

 blances which did not exist, magnified mere accidental coincidences 

 into identity of plan, or wilfully distorted facts to suit a preconceived 

 theory ? Far from it. There are instances, doubtless, in which he and 

 others who have dealt with the same subject have allowed their general 

 conviction to bias their judgment in particular cases of suspected agree- 

 ment ; but these are so few, compared with the large number of cases 

 of indisputable connection, that they do not in the least invalidate the 

 position which these writers have taken. 



I propose, first of all, to glance briefly at a few of the connections 

 and statements of connection which justify Faber's premise that there 

 is " a manifest accordance among the various systems of Heathen 

 Mythology." The myths best known at the present time, and indeed 

 till a comparatively recent period the only ones with which English- 

 speaking people were conversant, are those of the Greeks. It is 

 interesting to notice Bacon's judgment upon the origin of Greek 

 Mythology : " Many of these fables by no means appear to have been 

 invented by the persons who relate and divulge them, whether Homer, 

 Hesiod or others; for if I were assured that they first flowed from 

 these later times and authors that transmitted them to us, I should 

 never expect anything singularly great or noble from such an origin. 

 But whoever attentively considers the thing, will find that these fables 

 are delivered down and related by those writers, not as matters then 

 first invented and proposed, but as things received and embraced in 

 earlier ages. Besides, as they are differently related by writers nearly 

 of the same ages, it is easily perceived that the relaters drew from the 

 common stock of ancient tradition, and varied but in point of embel- 

 lishment, which is their own. And this principally raises my esteem 

 of these fables, Avhich I receive not as the product of the age, or 

 invention of the poets, but as sacred relics, gentle whispers and the 

 breath of better times, that, from the traditions of more ancient nations, 

 came at length into the flutes and trumpets of the Greeks." ^ Herodotus 

 is very explicit in regard to the origin of Greek divinities : " Almost 

 all the names of the gods came into Greece from Egypt. My inquiries 



8 Bacon, Wisdom of the Ancients ; preface. 



