2 ON THE CHARACTER AND ORIGIN OF THE ANCIENT MYTHOLOGIES

There are few subjects on which the opinions of learned men so widely differ as on the question of the origin of the ancient mythologies.
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This is to be attributed partly to the nature of the inquiry itself, which does not proceed on the ordinary ground of historical evidence, but involves all those difficulties and perplexities which beset our path when we would advance beyond the limits which separate the ages of history from those of fable; and partly too, perhaps, to the influence which preconceived notions and peculiar habits of mind have exercised upon their judgment. The question is difficult not only from the paucity of the evidence but also from the contradictory character of that which we do possess. Very few of the ancient writers agree in the representations on this subject, even though living in the country whose opinions they profess to relate. And when we compare the statements which have been transmitted by Greek and Roman writers on the religious opinions of nations with which they were less immediately connected, we meet on every hand with discrepancies so great that the attempt to reconcile them is a hopeless task, those who have written much upon the subject generally having started with some theory of their own to which they have endeavored to bend the facts they met with. The attempt to reduce to some single principle the various and discordant relations of mythology is however little likely to meet with any success if we may judge from the past. Such attempts are however not without their use. From a comparison of the results, conducted with as little partiality as possible, we shall be more likely to obtain just ideas, and so arrive at the truth, than by following any other course.