42 PROFESSOR BLACKIE ON INTERPRETATION OF POPULAR MYTHS, 



III. In the theological and moral myth, the idea is the principal thing, the 

 narrative only the medium ; in the historical and physical myth, the fact is the 

 principal thing ; what goes beyond the fact is mere scenic decoration or imagi- 

 native exaggeration.* 



IV. A myth intended to convey an idea is distinguished from an allegory or 

 parable by the consciousness of purpose with which allegories and parables 

 strictly so called are put forth and received. 



V. As it has been well said of popular proverbs, that they are the wisdom 

 of many and the wit of one, so theological and moral myths grew up in the 

 popular imagination, and were nursed there till in happy season they received a 

 definite shape from some one representative man, whose inspiration led him to 

 express in a striking form what all felt to be true and all were willing to 

 believe. 



VI. The first framers of myths were, no doubt, perfectly aware of the real 

 significance of these myths ; but they were aware as poets, not as analysts. 

 It is not, therefore, necessary to suppose that in framing these legends they 

 proceeded with the full consciousness which belongs to the framers of fables, 

 allegories, and parables. A myth is always a gradual, half-conscious, half- 

 unconscious growth ; a parable is the conscious creation of the moment. 



VII. During a certain early stage of national life, which cannot be accurately 

 defined, but which always precedes the creation of a regular written literature, 

 the popular myth — like a tree or a plant — becomes subject to a process of growth 

 and expansion, in the course of which it not only receives a rich embellishment, 

 but may be so transformed by the vivid action of a fertile imagination, and by 

 the ingrafting of new elements, that its original intention may be altogether 

 obscured and forgotten. How far this first significance may in after times be 

 rightly apprehended, depends partly on the degree of its original obviousness 

 partly on the amount of kindred culture possessed by the persons to whom it is 

 addressed. 



VIII. As of essentially popular origin and growth the myth cannot, in the 

 proper sense, be said to have been the creation of any poet, however distin- 

 guished. Much less could a popular minstrel, like Homer, using a highly 

 polished language, and who manifestly had many predecessors, be said to have 



* Sometimes, however, a historical person, like Faust, may be seized on by the people, merely as 

 a convenient vehicle for embodying a floating mass of mythological notions. In this case tbe person 

 is really a secondary consideration : a real person he remains, no doubt ; but, for a legendary nucleus, 

 any other person would have done as well. 



