We moderns, on
the other hand, collect only the raw materials of biography and
history, "memoirs to serve for a history," which itself is but
materials to serve for a mythology. How many volumes folio would
the Life and Labors of Prometheus have filled, if perchance it
had fallen, as perchance it did first, in days of cheap printing!
Who knows what shape the fable of Columbus will at length assume,
to be confounded with that of Jason and the expedition of the
Argonauts. And Franklin,--there may be a line for him in the
future classical dictionary, recording what that demigod did, and
referring him to some new genealogy. "Son of----and----. He
aided the Americans to gain their independence, instructed
mankind in economy, and drew down lightning from the clouds."
The hidden significance of these fables which is sometimes
thought to have been detected, the ethics running parallel to the
poetry and history, are not so remarkable as the readiness with
which they may be made to express a variety of truths. As if
they were the skeletons of still older and more universal truths
than any whose flesh and blood they are for the time made to
wear.
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