{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/wikisource_The_Age_of_Fable_Preface/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/wikisource_The_Age_of_Fable_Preface","id":"wikisource_The_Age_of_Fable_Preface","license":"Public Domain / CC-BY-SA (see source)","rights_basis":"wikisource_site_inclusion_policy","source":"wikisource","source_url":"https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Age_of_Fable/Preface","summary":null,"tags":["Headers_applying_DefaultSort_key","Subpages"],"text":"PREFACE\n\nIf no other knowledge deserves to be called useful but that which\nhelps to enlarge our possessions or to raise our station in\nsociety, then Mythology has no claim to the appellation. But if\nthat which tends to make us happier and better can be called\nuseful, then we claim that epithet for our subject. For Mythology\nis the handmaid of literature; and literature is one of the best\nallies of virtue and promoters of happiness.\n\nWithout a knowledge of mythology much of the elegant literature of\nour own language cannot be understood and appreciated. When Byron\ncalls Rome \"the Niobe of nations,\" or says of Venice, \"She looks a Sea-Cybele fresh from ocean,\" he calls up to the mind of one familiar with our subject, illustrations more vivid and striking\nthan the pencil could furnish, but which are lost to the reader\nignorant of mythology. Milton abounds in similar allusions. The\nshort poem \"Comus\" contains more than thirty such, and the ode \"On\nthe Morning of the Nativity\" half as many. Through \"Paradise Lost\"\nthey are scattered profusely. This is one reason why we often hear\npersons by no means illiterate say that they cannot enjoy Milton.\nBut were these persons to add to their more solid acquirements the\neasy learning of this little volume, much of the poetry of Milton\nwhich has appeared to them \"harsh and crabbed\" would be found\n\"musical as is Apollo's lute.\" Our citations, taken from more than\ntwenty-five poets, from Spenser to Longfellow, will show how\ngeneral has been the practice of borrowing illustrations from\nmythology.\n\nThe prose writers also avail themselves of the same source of\nelegant and suggestive illustration. One can hardly take up a\nnumber of the \"Edinburgh\" or \"Quarterly Review\" without meeting\nwith instances. In Macaulay's article on Milton there are twenty such.\n\nBut how is mythology to be taught to one who does not learn it\nthrough the medium of the languages of Greece and Rome? To devote\nstudy to a species of learning which relates wholly to false\nmarvels and obsolete faiths is not to be expected of the general\nreader in a practical age like this. The time even of the young is\nclaimed by so many sciences of facts and things that little can be\nspared for set treatises on a science of mere fancy.\n\nBut may not the requisite knowledge of the subject be acquired by\nreading the ancient poets in translations? We reply, the field is\ntoo extensive for a preparatory course; and these very\ntranslations require some previous knowledge of the subject to\nmake them intelligible. Let any one who doubts it read the first\npage of the \"\u00c6neid,\" and see what he can make of \"the hatred of\nJuno,\" the \"decree of the Parcae,\" the \"judgment of Paris,\" and\nthe \"honors of Ganymede,\" without this knowledge.\n\nShall we be told that answers to such queries may be found in\nnotes, or by a reference to the Classical Dictionary? We reply,\nthe interruption of one's reading by either process is so annoying\nthat most readers prefer to let an allusion pass unapprehended\nrather than submit to it. Moreover, such sources give us only the\ndry facts without any of the charm of the original narrative; and\nwhat is a poetical myth when stripped of its poetry? The story of\nCe\u00ffx and Halcyone, which fills a chapter in our book, occupies but\neight lines in the best (Smith's) Classical Dictionary; and so of\nothers.\n\nOur work is an attempt to solve this problem, by telling the\nstories of mythology in such a manner as to make them a source of\namusement. We have endeavored to tell them correctly, according to\nthe ancient authorities, so that when the reader finds them\nreferred to he may not be at a loss to recognize the reference.\nThus we hope to teach mythology not as a study, but as a\nrelaxation from study; to give our work the charm of a story-book,\nyet by means of it to impart a knowledge of an important branch of\neducation. The index at the end will adapt it to the purposes of\nreference, and make it a Classical Dictionary for the parlor.\n\nMost of the classical legends in \"Stories of Gods and Heroes\" are\nderived from Ovid and Virgil. They are not literally translated,\nfor, in the author's opinion, poetry translated into literal prose\nis very unattractive reading. Neither are they in verse, as well\nfor other reasons as from a conviction that to translate\nfaithfully under all the embarrassments of rhyme and measure is\nimpossible. The attempt has been made to tell the stories in\nprose, preserving so much of the poetry as resides in the thoughts\nand is separable from the language itself, and omitting those\namplifications which are not suited to the altered form.\n\nThe Northern mythological stories are copied with some abridgment\nfrom Mallet's \"Northern Antiquities.\" These chapters, with those\non Oriental and Egyptian mythology, seemed necessary to complete\nthe subject, though it is believed these topics have not usually\nbeen presented in the same volume with the classical fables.\n\nThe poetical citations so freely introduced are expected to answer\nseveral valuable purposes. They will tend to fix in memory the\nleading fact of each story, they will help to the attainment of a\ncorrect pronunciation of the proper names, and they will enrich\nthe memory with many gems of poetry, some of them such as are most\nfrequently quoted or alluded to in reading and conversation.\n\nHaving chosen mythology as connected with literature for our\nprovince, we have endeavored to omit nothing which the reader of\nelegant literature is likely to find occasion for. Such stories\nand parts of stories as are offensive to pure taste and good\nmorals are not given. But such stories are not often referred to,\nand if they occasionally should be, the English reader need feel\nno mortification in confessing his ignorance of them.\n\nOur book is not for the learned, nor for the theologian, nor for\nthe philosopher, but for the reader of English literature, of\neither sex, who wishes to comprehend the allusions so frequently\nmade by public speakers, lecturers, essayists, and poets, and\nthose which occur in polite conversation.\n\nIn the \"Stories of Gods and Heroes\" the compiler has endeavored to\nimpart the pleasures of classical learning to the English reader,\nby presenting the stories of Pagan mythology in a form adapted to\nmodern taste. In \"King Arthur and His Knights\" and \"The Mabinogeon\" the attempt has been made to treat in the same way the\nstories of the second \"age of fable,\" the age which witnessed the\ndawn of the several states of Modern Europe.\n\nIt is believed that this presentation of a literature which held\nunrivalled sway over the imaginations of our ancestors, for many\ncenturies, will not be without benefit to the reader, in addition\nto the amusement it may afford. The tales, though not to be\ntrusted for their facts, are worthy of all credit as pictures of\nmanners; and it is beginning to be held that the manners and modes\nof thinking of an age are a more important part of its history\nthan the conflicts of its peoples, generally leading to no result.\nBesides this, the literature of romance is a treasure-house of\npoetical material, to which modern poets frequently resort. The\nItalian poets, Dante and Ariosto, the English, Spenser, Scott, and\nTennyson, and our own Longfellow and Lowell, are examples of this.\n\nThese legends are so connected with each other, so consistently\nadapted to a group of characters strongly individualized in\nArthur, Launcelot, and their compeers, and so lighted up by the\nfires of imagination and invention, that they seem as well adapted\nto the poet's purpose as the legends of the Greek and Roman\nmythology. And if every well-educated young person is expected to\nknow the story of the Golden Fleece, why is the quest of the\nSangreal less worthy of his acquaintance? Or if an allusion to the\nshield of Achilles ought not to pass unapprehended, why should one\nto Excalibar, the famous sword of Arthur?\u2014\n\n\"Of Arthur, who, to upper light restored,\n\nWith that terrific sword,\n\nWhich yet he brandishes for future war,\n\nShall lift his country's fame above the polar star.\"\n\nIt is an additional recommendation of our subject, that it tends\nto cherish in our minds the idea of the source from which we\nsprung. We are entitled to our full share in the glories and\nrecollections of the land of our forefathers, down to the time of\ncolonization thence. The associations which spring from this\nsource must be fruitful of good influences; among which not the\nleast valuable is the increased enjoyment which such associations\nafford to the American traveller when he visits England, and sets his foot upon any of her renowned localities.\n\nThe Legends of Charlemagne and his peers are necessary to complete\nthe subject.\n\nIn an age when intellectual darkness enveloped Western Europe, a\nconstellation of brilliant writers arose in Italy. Of these, Pulci\n(born in 1432), Boiardo (1434), and Ariosto (1474) took for their\nsubjects the romantic fables which had for many ages been\ntransmitted in the lays of bards and the legends of monkish\nchroniclers. These fables they arranged in order, adorned with the\nembellishments of fancy, amplified from their own invention, and\nstamped with immortality. It may safely be asserted that as long\nas civilization shall endure these productions will retain their\nplace among the most cherished creations of human genius.\n\nIn \"Stories of Gods and Heroes,\" \"King Arthur and His Knights\" and\n\"The Mabinogeon\" the aim has been to supply to the modern reader\nsuch knowledge of the fables of classical and mediaeval literature\nas is needed to render intelligible the allusions which occur in\nreading and conversation. The \"Legends of Charlemagne\" is intended\nto carry out the same design. Like the earlier portions of the\nwork, it aspires to a higher character than that of a piece of\nmere amusement. It claims to be useful, in acquainting its readers\nwith the subjects of the productions of the great poets of Italy.\nSome knowledge of these is expected of every well-educated young\nperson.\n\nIn reading these romances, we cannot fail to observe how the\nprimitive inventions have been used, again and again, by\nsuccessive generations of fabulists. The Siren of Ulysses is the\nprototype of the Siren of Orlando, and the character of Circe\nreappears in Alcina. The fountains of Love and Hatred may be\ntraced to the story of Cupid and Psyche; and similar effects\nproduced by a magic draught appear in the tale of Tristram and\nIsoude, and, substituting a flower for the draught, in\nShakspeare's \"Midsummer Night's Dream.\" There are many other\ninstances of the same kind which the reader will recognize without\nour assistance.\n\nThe sources whence we derive these stories are, first, the Italian\npoets named above; next, the \"Romans de Chevalerie\" of the Comte\nde Tressan; lastly, certain German collections of popular tales.\nSome chapters have been borrowed from Leigh Hunt's Translations\nfrom the Italian Poets. It seemed unnecessary to do over again\nwhat he had already done so well; yet, on the other hand, those\nstories could not be omitted from the series without leaving it\nincomplete.\n\nThomas Bulfinch.","title":"The Age of Fable/Preface","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":1890}