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of thought peculiar to the heathen nations of Scandinavia ; and to show in 
what respect they had learned, spontaneously, as one may say, the axioms 
of moral wisdom, and in what respects their condition left them, with much 
of this quality to receive from the Gospel.” 
I have been much struck in noticing how the Scandinavian mythology 
and cosmogony corresponds in many points— some of which have been pointed 
out by Mr. Gosse, and some of which have not — with the truths of Revela- 
tion. “ Learned spontaneously ” was hardly, I think, the phrase to use in 
describing the means by which the Scandinavian people obtained those 
ideas. It seems to me more probable that these traditions had their source 
in the early knowledge, possessed by their ancestors, of matters revealed in 
Holy Scripture. It is doubtful where the present race of Norsemen came 
from, as there is no accurate history before the seventh century ; but if the 
common opinion be true, — and it is an opinion supported by the great 
authority of Munch, in his “ Det Norske Folks-Historie,” that the tribes 
who drove out the Laps and the aboriginal people of Norway, came from 
Asia, under Odin, it would tend to confirm my theory. Coming from 
Asia, they would be more likely to be acquainted with Revelation than if they 
had existed imuiemorially in the distant lands of Scandinavia. 
A Member. — I have listened with very much interest to this paper, 
having studied Scandinavian mythology to a great extent. There is one 
point in the paper, with regard to the temporary destruction of fine art in 
Scandinavia, upon which I should like to say a word or two. All I can say of 
European art generally, seems to my mind to apply to art in Scandinavia. 
The decadence of art, Scandinavian, Teutonic, or Latin, sets in when 
a cataclysm sets in in regard to the religious feelings of the people themselves. 
We have had a pre-Christian art in Rome, and a Christian art, and there is 
no disruption in the whole line, Pagan or Christian ; and indeed there is 
a continuity in art from the earliest times, which is carried out by those 
links which adapt themselves to the requirements of particular times and 
phases of civilization. Mr. Gosse says : — 
“ All of us in our graver moments would confess it is Luther and not 
Rafaelle, Wickliffe and not Chaucer, for whom, as men and as Christians, we 
have to thank God most.” 
I must say I think we may thank God for art as well as for its appreciation. 
Coming back to the philosophic consideration, we find the Latin races imbued 
with the Roman Catholic form of Christianity. That was a Christian ideality 
and symbolism. In order to give a tangible idea to their religion, they appealed 
to the senses of the people. They attracted to religion by means of beautiful 
works of art, and pictures which have tended so much to the development of 
art and civilization. Rut as we know the ideality in time became so much 
impregnated with errors, that the people lost their hold upon the aesthetic 
portion of religion, and gave themselves up more to considerations of personal 
ambitions than to those considerations which religion placed before them. 
So we have decadence in art, and decadence to a great extent, but not 
decadence for ever. We find this true of the Puritanical reign in England, 
VOL. IX. I 
