If the theory that I have advocated is correct, these myths had to do at
first with merely natural occurrences, the advent and departure of the
daylight, the winds, the storm and the rains. The beneficent and injurious
results of these phenomena were attributed to their personifications.
Especially was the dispersal of darkness by the light regarded as the
transaction of all most favorable to man. The facilities that it gave him
were imputed to the goodness of the personified Spirit of Light, and by a
natural association of ideas, the benevolent emotions and affections
developed by improving social intercourse were also brought into relation
to this kindly Being. They came to be regarded as his behests, and, in the
national mind, he grew into a teacher of the friendly relations of man to
man, and an ideal of those powers which "make for righteousness." Priests
and chieftains favored the acceptance of these views, because they felt
their intrinsic wisdom, and hence the moral evolution of the nation
proceeded steadily from its mythology. That the results achieved were
similar to those taught by the best religions of the eastern world should
not excite any surprise, for the basic principles of ethics are the same
everywhere and in all time.
THE END.
INDEXES.
I. INDEX OF AUTHORS.
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