The Solar Theory of Myths, 



71 



would question the existence of Charlemagne as a historical 

 character, and it is no proof of his non-existence that we 

 find him gifted with all the paraphernalia of the solar heroes, 

 and in the barbarous Latin of many a bulky chronicle, the 

 leader of crusades which set out centuries after his death. 

 Barbarossa is a full fledged sun-warrior, but this is no 

 proof against his real existence, and, on the other hand, 

 such examples do not in the least exclude the belief that 

 the various myths have plainly one common origin, which 

 is the course of the sun. That the crop of heroes and demi- 

 gods, which among barbarous peoples grows afresh every 

 generation, may have men as its basis does not show that 

 the divinities whose forms are unaltered by the lapse of 

 ages, whose attributes are stolen to clothe the meaner 

 creations, have the same original as their counterfeits. We 

 are forced to the inevitable conclusion that mythology and 

 history can mutually neither support nor destroy each other ; 

 that, in whatever form they may be fused together, they 

 must be treated as distinct and independent. That Christ- 

 mas is celebrated at the winter solstice is no proof that 

 Christ was never born, but that the simple people found 

 it the easier to remember the fact by the use of a long 

 established holiday. The resurrection of our Saviour is 

 neither proven nor falsified because Easter, occurring near 

 the spring equinox, corresponds with an ancient heathen 

 festival. That St. John's day, at the summer solstice, 

 was thus placed in opposition to Christmas in chance ac- 

 cordance with the text " He must increase, but I must de- 

 crease,"^ proves as little in regard to St. John the Baptist 

 as does the Jewish j^ew Year, at the autumnal equinox, 

 for or against the development theory. 



It may now be plainly seen that the prophets of the 

 old testament and the Saviour of the new, may have been 

 converted into solar heroes, without shaking the founda- 

 tions of Christianity, and at present the chief exponents 



» New Testament, John 3 : 30. 



