Excerpt from Grecian and Roman Mythology
A myth is not a fable, neither is mythology the history of fables regarded as mere creations of the imagination, or as introduced merely to supply the chasms which are found in all the early historical records of the human race. It may, on the other hand, be truly said, that this branch of knowledge, extravagant and unsatisfactory as it may seem to some, does actually offer more important truth to the contemplative mind than is often furnished by the most accurate annals belonging to later periods of national life. It is very plausibly contended by some, that modern history, and, above all, that of our own country or period, should have the first place assigned to it in all our institutions of learning, and especially in our common schools. The more modern, on this very account the more valuable. The dullest chapter of recent history, repeating ever the same trite page of hollow diplomacy, and corrupt political intrigue, or stale revolutionary demagoguism, is deemed of more account than that rich nursery of ideas, the old Scandinavian Mythology. The history of the annexation of Texas, or of the Mexican war, is of far more importance, it is thought, and should occupy a far larger space in our historical school books, than those wondrous and eventful periods in the worlds life, the early heroic ages of Greece and Rome. And this simply because it is modern - because it is our own history-irrespective of the great end of the study as a means of mental culture, and as suggestive of those views which have regard to humanity in its most instructive and most interesting relations.
We cannot stop to controvert these positions, or to maintain by argument those that are opposed to them. The mere statement of the different grounds assumed is enough for any thinking mind. Nothing, we contend, presents a more rich and suggestive field of thought, than the earliest ideas entertained by men in respect to natural and supernatural, moral and theological truth.
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