) The incident of
the ogre's keen scent is found in a Nam-
aqua tale, in which the elephant takes the
part.
the ogre's keen scent is found in a Nam-
aqua tale, in which the elephant takes the
part.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v26 to v30 - Tur to Zor and Index
Lanyon, another of Dr.
Jekyll's
At length a strange plague comes upon lawyer friends, to whom he has revealed
the people. Daniel obtains the privilege the secret and who is killed by the shock
of taking the place of Father Dalby, the of the discovery, the strange facts are
Irish priest. He effects many cures, and exposed. Utterson breaks into Jekyll's
at last dies of the pestilence, after the laboratory, only to find Hyde, who has
office of deemster made vacant by his just taken his own life; and Jekyll is
uncle's death has been offered to him as
gone forever. It was the first of Ste-
a reward for his services. Like all of venson's books to become widely pop-
Hall Caine's work, it is sombre and op- ular. Its date is 1886.
pressive, but its delineation of Manx
character is striking and convincing. Li
ittle Minister, The, by J. M. Barrie.
It was published in 1877. A drama- (Published in 1891. ) A love story,
tization has been produced by Wilson the scene of which is laid in the little
Barrett under the title (Ben-Ma-Chree. ) Scotch weaving village of Thrums at
about the middle of the present century.
Donal Grant, a novel by George Mac-
Aside from its intrinsic interest, there
donald, was published in 1883, when
is much skillful portrayal of the com-
he was fifty-nine. It is a modern story;
plexities of Scotch character, and much
the hero, Donal Grant, being one of the
muscular and intellectual young Scotch-
sympathy with the homely lives of the
men whom Macdonald loves to describe.
poverty-stricken weavers, whose narrow
creed may make them cruel, but never
Introduced as a poor student seeking a
dishonorable. The hero, Gavin Dishart,
situation, he reaches the town of Auchars,
is a boy preacher of twenty-one, small
where he meets a spiritually minded cob-
bler and his wife with whom he lodges.
of stature but great in authority, and
given to innocent frolic in exuberant
In Auchars he finds a field of work, and
moments. Grouped about him are his
the story deals with the effect produced on
people, who watch him with lynx-eyed
careless and selfish characters by contact
vigilance, ready to adore, criticize, and
with an upright and generous nature.
interfere ; while all-pervasive in-
The plot involves a forced marriage, and
fluence is the mother love and worship
other well-known incidents; but the book
of «soft-faced » Margaret Dishart.
shows all Macdonald's familiar quali-
Across the narrow path of the Little
ties, though it is less eventful and more
Minister, and straight into his orthodox
didactic than many of his stories.
life, dances Babbie the Egyptian, in a
·Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert wild gipsy frock, with red rowans in
Louis Stevenson, is a psychologic her hair. Against the persuasiveness
romance illustrating the complex quality of her beautiful eyes and her madcap
of man's nature. The scene is London. pranks, even three scathing sermons
Dr. Jekyll is a physician of position against Woman, preached by Gavin in
and good character, a portly, kindly self-defense, are of no avail; and the
In his youth, however, he showed reader follows with absorbed interest his
that he had strong capacities for evil, romantic meetings with the reprehensible
which he succeeded in suppressing for Babbie, and the gossip of the scandal-
years. His professional tastes lead him ized community. The rapid unfolding
to experiment in drugs, and he hits on of the story reveals Babbie's sorrow-
one whereby he is changed physically ful and unselfish renunciation of Gavin,
so that his lower nature receives ex- and her identity as the promised bride
ternal dress. He becomes Mr. Hyde, of Lord Rintoul, who is many years her
a pale, misshapen, repulsive creature of senior. A false report of Gavin's death
evil and violent passions. Again and brings the lovers together again on the
again Dr. Jekyll effects this change, eve of Babbie's marriage. Fearing pur-
and gives his bad side more and more suit, she consents to a hasty gipsy
power. His friend Utterson, a lawyer, is marriage with Gavin in the woods; and
puzzled by Jekyll's will in favor of Hyde, the climax is reached when a flash of
and seeks to unravel the mystery. The lightning reveals the ceremony to Lord
brutal murder of Sir Danvers Carew, Rintoul, two stern elders of the Kirk,
which is traced to Hyde, who of course and Rob Dow, who is seeking to save
disappears, adds to the mystery and the Little Minister from his wrathful
an
man.
H
## p. 55 (#91) ##############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
55
W
cur-
own
people by killing the Egyptian. In the beasts in Æsop's fables, those of the
food that follows, the chief actors in Jungle Books) are not men in hides
this dramatic scene are scattered; but and on all fours discussing human prob-
Gavin and Babbie, after many advent- lems. Kipling's genius represents them
ures, are reunited, a deed of heroism on thinking and behaving, each according
the part of the Little Minister having to his own peculiar beastly habit and
reinstated him in the love of his people. experience, with such dramatic skill that
The story is recounted by Dominie one is almost forced to believe that he
Ogilvy, who is at last revealed as the has intimately dwelt among them as
father of Gavin. It is lighted by Mowgli did. The stories were published
touches of quaint humor that soften in St. Nicholas, and collected into two
what might otherwise seem stern and volumes in 1894 and 1895.
forbidding in the picture. An instance
in point is that of Tibbie Craik, who
Fairy Tales. The stories of Cinderella,
would be fine pleased with any bride Beauty and the Beast, Hop o' my
that the minister. might choose, because Thumb, Sleeping Beauty, and others, so
she “had a magenta silk, and so was fascinating to children and to peasants,
jealous of no one. )
were looked on merely as amusing tales,
In 1897 the book was dramatized, with until the efforts of Grimm and his suc-
a violent wrenching of the plot to meet cessors drew back, as it were, a
dramatic necessities.
tain, and disclosed another fairy region
of almost limitless perspective, whose
Jungle Books, The, by Rudyard Kip- vanishing-point may be nearly identical
ling. The central figure in these with the origin of the human race. For
books is the boy Mowgli, who, straying by the study of comparative mythology,
from his village home when an infant, it was discovered that these tales are not
had been lost in the forest, and there restricted to Europe alone, but are to be
sheltered and nursed with her
found, in varying forms, among almost
cubs by a mother-wolf, and the hairy all nations. Comparative philology then
Orson. Joined to this element of human showed the original union of the Teu-
interest, and with the coloring of high tonic, Celtic, Latin, Greek, Persian, and
romance, these stories picture the per- Hindu races in the primitive Aryan race,
sonal characteristics and social and po- whose home has been variously fixed in
litical life of the gaunt wolf-family in Western Central Asia, in Europe, and
their cave and the free republic of wolves, even in Africa; from which they broke
assembled in the Pack; the snarling away in prehistoric dispersions. This
Bengal tiger, Shere Khan, who, though was discovered by tracing words through
fearful, like the other beasts, of man's the German, Latin, Greek, and Persian
superior wit, roams boastfully for prey, forms up to the Sanskrit, the oldest lit-
attended by his obsequious but mischief- erary form of all; their identity proves
making jackal servant, Tabaqui, the their descent from a common stock. Thus
Dish-Licker; they tell about Baloo, the most of our popular tales date from the
sleepy brown bear who teaches the wolf- days when the primitive Aryan took his
cubs the Law of the Jungle, which is evening meal of yava, and sipped his
the reproof of human codes in its com- fermented mead, while the Laplander was
prehensive justice ); the black panther, master of Europe, and the dark-skinned
Bagheera; Kaa, the big rock python; Sudra roamed through the Punjab. ”
and many others, including the monkey The survival of popular tales is due to
people, filthy chatterers despised by all their being unconscious growths, to
the rest. They describe also how Mow- the strict adherence to form shown by
gli's coming disturbed these forest creat- illiterate and savage people in recitals,
ures; how his human will proved more proved also by a child's insistence on
powerful than Shere Khan's jaws and accuracy, and to the laws of the perma-
claws; and how the brown bear and nence of culture. All these make the
other friends rescued him with some science of folk-lore possible.
trouble when he had been carried off There are several theories in regard
through the tree-tops by the monkey to the origin of folk-tales. The oldest
people; and how he finally went back is the Oriental theory, which traces all
to ve among men, but with a better back to a common origin in the Vedas,
knowledge of beasts. Unlike the talking the Sanskrit sacred books of Buddhism.
## p. 56 (#92) ##############################################
56
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
mer.
dating probably from 2000 B. C. It is
true that the germs of most tales are
found in the Vedas, but proofs of the
Indian origin of stories are lack
the discovery of tales in Egypt which
were written down in the period of the
early empire are objections to its accept-
ance, and the idea of diffusion will not
account for similar tales found in Aus-
tralia, New Zealand, and America. The
Aryan theory, supported by Max Müller,
Grimm, and others, gives as their origin
the explanation of natural phenomena,
as the sun's daily course, the change of
day and night, dawn, winter, and sum-
These nature-myths must not be
regarded as originally metaphors; they
were primitive man's philosophy of na-
ture, in the days when he could not dis-
tinguish between it and his personality;
when there was no supernatural, because
it was not yet discovered that there was
such a thing as nature”; and so every
object was endowed with a personal life.
This view is supported by the proper
names in myths having been originally
names of natural phenomena. The sav-
age myths of to-day explain the myth-
making of old: instance the New Zealand
tale of "The Children of Heaven and
Earth) in Grey's Polynesian Mythol-
ogy,' connected with the Sanskrit Dyaus-
pitar (Jupiter ), Heaven-father, and
Prithivi-mâtar, Earth-mother, in the Ve-
das. Folk-lore is “the débris brought
down by the streams of tradition from
the distant highlands of ancient mythol-
ogy," and the survivals which are unin-
telligible singly must be explained by
comparing them with others. The tales
have enough likeness to show that they
come from the same source, and enough
difference to show they were not copied
from each other. Müller says, Nursery
tales are generally the last things to be
adopted by one nation from another. »
The danger is that too many may be
assigned to nature-myths. Even the
(Song of Sixpence) has been claimed as
one: the pie representing earth and sky;
the birds, the twenty-four hours; the
opened pie, the daybreak, with sing-
ing birds; the king, the sun, with his
money, sunshine; the queen, the moon;
the maid, dawn, hanging out the clothes,
clouds, is frightened away by the black-
bird, sunrise. Another theory, supported
by Tylor and Lang, traces the origin
of folk-lore to a far earlier source than
the Aryan, — the customs and practices
of early man: such as totemism, descent
from animals or things, which were at
last worshiped; and curious taboos or
prohibitions, which ca be explained by
similar savage customs of the present.
Thus tales become valuable both for the
anthropologist and the mythologist. But
late authorities declare that it is use-
less to seek any common origin of folk-
tales; since the incidents, which are few,
and the persons, who are types, are
based on ideas that might occur to un-
civilized races anywhere.
Our popular fairy-tales, or contes, have
been, in the main, handed down orally.
However, some of their elements or vari-
ants at least have come down through
literary collections in the following suc-
cession: The Vedas, the Sanskrit sacred
books; the Persian Zend-Avesta; the
Jatakas of about the fifth century B. C. ;
from some lost Sanskrit books came the
Panchatantra,' a book of fables earlier
than 550 A. D. , of which the Hitopadeça
is a compilation; a Pahlavi version of
the same period; an Arabic version be-
fore the tenth century; and a Persian of
about 1100 A. D. ; the “Syntipas,' a Greek
version, belongs to the eleventh century.
Then followed translations into several
European languages. The earliest col-
lection of European tales was made by
Straparola, who published at Venice in
1550 his Notti Piacevola,' which was
translated into French, and was prob-
ably the origin of the Contes des Fées. )
It contains the tale of Puss in Boots,
and elements of some others. The best
early collection is · Basile's, the (Penta-
merone, published at Naples in 1637.
In 1696 there appeared in the Recueil,
a magazine published by Moetjens at
The Hague, the story (La Belle au Bois
Dormant) (our (Sleeping Beauty'), by
Charles Perrault; and in 1697 appeared
seven others: Little Red Riding Hood,'
(Bluebeard,' (Puss in Boots,' (The Fairy,'
"Cinderella, (Riquet of the Tuft,' and
(Hop o' My Thumb. )
These were pub-
lished in 1697 under the title (Contes du
Temps Passé, Avec des Moralités,' by
P. Darmancour, Perrault's son, for whom
he wrote them down from a nurse's
stories. These fairy-tales became part of
the world's literature; and in England
at least, where scarcely any tales existed
in literary form except Jack the Giant-
Killer,' they superseded all the national
versions. Within this century the inves-
tigations of Jacob and William Grimm,
>
## p. 57 (#93) ##############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
57
and their successors in this field, have
reduced to written form the tales of
nearly all nations, revealing the same
characters and incidents under countless
names and shapes. The method used by
them has been to take down the tales
from the recitals of the common people,
- generally of the old women who have
been the chief conservers of stories,-
exactly as given, rough or uncouth as
the narrative may be.
For in some ap-
parently absurd feature may be a sur-
vival of ancient custom or myth of great
historic interest; and the germs of these
universal stories, in becoming part of a
nation's folk-lore, take a local form and
so become valuable to the ethnologist.
Thus the beautiful myths of the South
in the Northern forms, where winter's
rigor alters the conditions of life, have
an entirely different setting. We must
include in the comparison of stories the
Greek myths; as the Odyssey is now
conceded to be a mass of popular tales
(Gerland's (Altgriechische Märchen in
der Odyssee,'—'Old Greek Tales in the
Odyssey. ') To these we must add the
tales of ancient Egypt; those narrated
by Herodotus, and other travelers and
historians; the beautiful story of Cupid
and Psyche,' given by Apuleius in his
Metamorphoses) of the second century
A. D. , which also was taken from a popu-
lar myth, as we shall see, very widely
distributed. Spreading all these before
us, with the wealth of Eastern lore, and
that gathered recently from every Euro-
pean nation, and from the savage or
barbarian tribes of Asia, Africa, Amer-
ica, and Polynesia, we shall find running
through them all the same germ, either
in varying form, or simply in detached
features, to our astonishment and de-
delight. We shall examine in detail the
most familiar of the popular fairy-tales,
noting the principal variants or recurring
incidents, what survival of nature-myth
they contain, what ancient custom or
religious rite, and their possible links
with Oriental literary collections; show-
ing thus in a limited way the basis on
which the before-mentioned theories of
their origin rest. Taking Perrault's
(Tales) as the best versions, we shall
find that actual fairies appear but sel-
dom, as is the case generally in tradi-
tional fairy stories; in Cinderella' and
(The Sleeping Beauty) the fairies are of
the genuine traditional type, but in other
tales we find merely the magical key or
the fairy (Seven-League Boots. ) Yet the
fairies have so identified themselves with
popular tales by giving them their titles,
that we may find it interesting to look
up their origin. The derivation of the
word is given from fatare, to enchant,
faé or fé, meaning enchanted, and run-
ning into the varying forms of fée, fata,
hada, feen, fay, and fairy; or with more
probability from fatum, what is spoken,
and Fata, the Fates, who speak, Faunus
or Fatuus, the god, and his sister 01
wife Fatua. This points to the primi
tive personification of natural phenom-
ena: all localities and objects were be-
lieved to be inhabited by spirits. Simi-
lar beings are found in the legend-lore
of all nations; as the Nereids of Greece,
the Apsaras of India, the Slavonic Wilis,
the Melanesian Vius, the Scotch fairies
or Good Ladies – as they are termed,
just as the daughter of Faunus was not
known by her real name, but as the
Good Goddess (“Bona Dea »). Their
mediæval connection with the nether-
world and the dead may possibly point
to their origin as ancestral ghosts. We
shall find that “the story of the heroes
of Teutonic and Hindu folk-lore, the
stories of Boots) and (Cinderella,' of
Logedas Rajah and Surya Bai, are the
story also of Achilleus and Oidipous,
of Perseus and Theseus, of Helen and
Odysseus, of Baldur and Rustem and
Sigurd. Everywhere there is the search
for the bright maiden who has been
stolen away, everywhere the long strug-
gle to reclaim her. ” (Cox. )
SLEEPING BEAUTY. —This story is re-
garded by mythologists as nature-
myth, founded on nature's long sleep
in winter. The Earth-goddess pricked
by winter's dart falls into a deep sleep,
from which she is aroused by the prince,
the Sun, who searches far for her. We
may find a slight parallel in Demeter's
search for her lost daughter, Proserpine
in the Greek myth; but a much more
evident resemblance is seen in the sleep
of Brynhild, stung to her sleep by the
sleep-thorn. 'The Two Brothers,' found
in an Egyptian papyrus of the Nine-
teenth Dynasty,— the time of Seti II. ,
- had several incidents similar to those
of (The Sleeping Beauty. ) The Hathors
who pronounce the fate of the prince
correspond to the old fairy, and both
tales show the impossibility of escaping
fate. The spindle whose prick causes
the long slumber is a counterpart of the
a
## p. 58 (#94) ##############################################
58
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
en-
arrow that wounds Achilles, the thorn incident occurs in the myth of Kronos
that pricks Sigurd, and the mistletoe swallowing his children; in the Maori
fatal to Baldur. In (Surya Bai? (from legend in which Ihani, the New Zealand
(Old Deccan Days') the mischief is cosmic hero, tries to creep through his
done by the poisoned nail of a demon. ancestress, Great-Woman or Night; in a
In the Greek myth of Orpheus, Eurydice Zulu version a princess is swallowed
is stung by the serpent of darkness. by a monster which becomes in a Karen
The hedge that surrounds the palace ap- tale a snake. We find it also in the
pears in the flames encircling Brynhild Algonkin legend repeated in Hiawatha';
on the Glittering Heath, and the seven among the Bushmen, Kaffirs, Zulus; and
coils of the dragon; also in the Hindu in Melanesia, where the monster is night,
tale of Panch Phul Ranee, in which showing quite plainly a savage nature-
the heroine is surrounded by seven myth. The story has been compared
ditches, surmounted by seven hedges of to the Sanskrit Vartika, rescued by the
spears.
In the northern form of the Açvins (the Vedic Dioscuri) from the
story an interesting feature is the pres- wolf's throat. Vartika is the Quail,
ence of the ivy, the one plant that can the bird that returns at evening; and
endure the winter's numbing touch. In the Greek word for quail is ortyx, allied
a Transylvanian variant a maiden spins possibly to Ortygia, the old name for
her golden hair in a cavern, from which Delos, birthplace of Apollo.
she is rescued by a man who undergoes BLUEBEARN. —
- This tale had been re-
an hour of torture for three nights. garded by some as partly historic, of
The awakening by a kiss corresponds to which the original was Gilles de Laval,
Sigurd's rousing Brynhild by his magic Baron de Retz, who was burned in 1440
sword; but the kiss may be a survival for his cruelty to children. It is, how-
of an ancient form of worship, thus sug- ever, really a märchen, and the leading
gesting that the princess in the earlier idea of curiosity punished is world-wide.
forms of the tradition may have been a The forbidden chamber is a counterpart
local goddess, which would support the of the treasure-house of Ixion, on
anthropological theory. The version most tering which the intruder was destroyed,
closely resembling Perrault's is Grimm's or betrayed by the gold or blood that
(Little Briar Rose,' which is however clung to him; also of Pandora's box, as
without the other's ending about the well as of Proserpine's pyx that Psyche
cruel mother-in-law. A few incidents opened in spite of the prohibition. There
are found in the Pentamerone,) and several parallels among the Ger-
a beautiful modern version is found in
fairy-tales collected by Grimm;
Tennyson's Day-Dream. '
and one feature at least is found in the
LITTLE RED RIDING-Hood. - In this Kaffir tale of the Ox (Callaway's Nurs-
story we may detect a myth of day and ery Tales of the Zulus'). Variants are
night. Red Riding-Hood, the Evening found in Russia, and among Gaelic pop-
Sun, goes to see her grandmother, the ular tales; and in the Sanskrit collection
Earth, who is the first to be swallowed Katha Sarit Sagara,' the hero Saktideva
by the wolf of Night or Darkness. The breaks the taboo, and like Bluebeard's
red cloak is the twilight glow. In the wife, is confronted with the horrible
German versions the wolf is cut open sight of dead women. Possibly in the
by the hunter, and both set free; here the punishment following the breaking of
hunter may stand for the rising sun that the taboo may be a survival of some
rescues all from night. The Russian ancient religious prohibition: among the
version in the tale of (Vasihassa) hints Australians, Greeks, and Labrador Ind-
at a nature-myth in the incident of the ians, such an error was regarded as the
white, red, and black horses, represent- means by which death came into the
ing the changing day. The German ver- world.
sion contains a widely spread incident, – Puss IN BOOTS. - Perrault's version of
the restoration of persons from mon- this popular and wide-spread tale was
sters who have swallowed them. We probably taken from Straparola's Pia-
find parallels in the Aryan story of the cevoli Notti. ? The story is found in a
dragon swallowing the sun, and killed Norse version in Lord Peter,' and in
by the sun-god Indra; here it is inter- the Swedish (Palace with Pillars of Gold,
esting to note that the Sanskrit word for in which the cat befriends a girl, whose
evening means mouth of night. ” The adventures are similar to those of the
are
man
## p. 59 (#95) ##############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
59
Marquis of Carabas. In a Sicilian ver-
sion is found the first hint of a moral
which is lacking in the above-mentioned
tales; that is, the ingratitude of the man.
This moral appears more plainly in a
popular French version, where man's in-
gratitude is contrasted with the gratitude
of a beast. This occurs likewise in
the versions of the Avars and the Rus-
sians. Cosguin imagined from the moral
that its origin was Buddhistic, for the
story could only have arisen in a com-
paratively civilized community; but the
only Hindoo version, the Match-Making
Jackal, which was not discovered until
about 1884 in Bengal, has no moral at
all. The most complete moral is found
in Zanzibar, in the Swahili tale of (Sul-
tan Darai,' in which the beneficent beast
is a gazelle: the ingratitude of the man
is punished by the loss of all that he
had gained; the gazelle, which dies of
neglect, is honored by a public funeral.
An Arab tribe honors all dead gazelles
with public mourning; from which may
be inferred a primitive idea that the
tribal origin was from a gazelle stock, --
a hint of totemism. Variants of Puss
in Boots) are found among the Finns,
Bulgarians, Scotch, Siberians, and in
modern Hindustani stories; and some
features are found in Grimm, and in the
adventures of the Zulu hero Uhlakan-
yana.
TOADS AND DIAMONDS. — This story of
the good sister who was rewarded, and
the bad who was punished, is found in
many forms. Several variants are met
in Grimm's tales; it is found in the col-
lection of Mademoiselle L'Heritier dat-
ing from 1696; and again is met among
the Zulus, Kaffirs, Norse, and Scotch. In
many cases the story runs into the tale
of the substituted bride, - an example of
the curious combinations of the limited
number of incidents in popular lore.
CINDERELLA. — This fairy-tale, in the
majority of the variants, contains sev-
eral incidents which may be perhaps the
remains of totemism and of a very old
social custom. The position of Cinder-
ella in most versions as a stepchild may
without much difficulty be supposed to
have been that of the youngest, who by
(junior's right) would have been the
heir; the myth of ill-treatment would
be natural if it arose when the custom
was slipping away. By that older law
of inheritance, the hearth-place was the
share of the youngest; so that Cinder-
ella's position by it, and her consequent
blackened condition, would be quite in
keeping with this theory. This right
of the youngest is met in Hesiod, who
makes Zeus the youngest child of Kro-
nos; it is also found in Hungary, among
Slavic communities, in Central Asia, in
parts of China, in Germany and Celtic
lands; and it is alluded to in the Edda.
A similar custom among the Zulus is
shown in one of Callaway's (Zulu Nurs-
ery Tales. The fragment of totemism
is shown in the cases when the agent
is a friendly beast or tree, which has
some mystic connection with the hero-
ine's dead mother. The most striking
instance occurs in the Russian tale
of "The Wonderful Birch,' in which the
mother is changed by a witch into a
sheep, killed and buried by the daugh-
ter, and becomes a tree, that confers
the magical gifts. The two features of
a beast and a tree are found in the old
Egyptian tale (Two Brothers); and the
beast alone is seen in Servian, Mod-
ern Greek, Gaelic, and Lowland Scotch
variants. In two versions of barbarous
tribes, (The Wonderful Horns) of the
Kaffirs, and a tale of the Santals, a hill-
tribe of India, the girl's place is taken
by a boy whose adventures are similar
to Cinderella's, but the agents are an
ox and a cow. In Perrault's tale, the
more refined fairy godmother takes the
place of these beasts, which are in every
case domesticated animals.
The slip-
per is a feature that is found in the
whole cycle of tales. In the Greek myth
of (Rhodope, the slipper is carried off
by an eagle, and dropped in the lap of
the King of Egypt, who seeks and mar-
ries the owner. In the Hindu tale, the
Rajah's daughter loses her slipper in
a forest, where it is found by a prince,
on whom it makes the usual impression.
Here we find the false bride, which is
usually a part of these tales, but is
omitted by Perrault; and in most cases
the warning is given by a bird. In
several instances the recognition is ef-
fected by a lock of hair, which acts the
part of the glass slipper – which should
be fur (vair) according to some
thorities; this is found in the Egyptian
tale of the (Two Brothers, and reappears
in the Santal version and in the popu-
lar tales of Bengal. It occurs likewise
in an entirely different cycle, in the lock
of Iseult's hair which a swallow carries
to King Mark of Cornwall. We can
au-
## p. 60 (#96) ##############################################
60
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
also trace a slight resemblance in the
search of Orpheus for Eurydice, and
the Vedic myth of Mitra, the Sun-god,
as well as the beautiful Deccan tale of
(Sodewa Bai. If we search for indi-
cations of a nature-myth in the story of
Cinderella, we shall find that it belongs
to the myths of the Sun and the Dawn.
The maiden is the Dawn, dull and gray,
away from the brightness of the Sun;
the sisters are the clouds, that screen
and overshadow the Dawn, and the step-
mother takes the part of Night. The
Dawn fades away from the Sun, the
prince, who after a long search finds
her at last in her glorious robes of sun-
set. Max Müller gives the same mean-
ing to the Vedic myth of Urvasi, whose
name (“great-desires ») seems to imply a
search for something lost.
Hop o' MY THUMB. —A mythic theory
of this tale has been given, by which
the forest represents the night; the peb-
bles, the stars; and the ogre, the devour-
ing sun. The idea of cannibalism which
it contains may possibly be a survival
of an early savage state; and thus the
story very obligingly supports two of the
schools of mythic interpretation. It con-
tains traces of very great antiquity, and
the main features are frequently met
with. We find them, for instance, in
the Indian story of Surya Bai,' where a
handful of grain is scattered; in the Ger-
man counterpart, Hänsel and Gretel);
in the Kaffir tale, in which the girl drops
ashes; and that is found again in a story
in the Pentamerone.
) The incident of
the ogre's keen scent is found in a Nam-
aqua tale, in which the elephant takes the
part. In a Zulu story an ogress smells
the hero Uzembeni, and the same feature
is seen in Polynesian myths, and even
among the Canadian Indians. In Per-
rault's tale Hop o' My Thumb makes the
ogre kill his own children; but in many
forms the captor is either cooked, or forced
to eat some of his relatives, by means
generally of some trick. The substitution
of the ogre's daughters is suggested by
the story of Athamas and Themisto, whose
children are dressed by her orders in
white, while those of her rival are clad
in black; then by a reversal of the plan,
she murders her own. In most variants
the flight of the brothers is magically
helped; but Perrault uses only the Seven-
League Boots, which are no doubt iden-
tical with the sandals of Hermes and
Loki's magic shoes.
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. -This ancient
story is very evidently a myth of the Sun
and the Dawn. In all the variants the
hero and the heroine cannot behold each
other without misfortune. Generally the
bride is forbidden to look upon her hus-
band, who is enchanted under the form of
a monster. The breaking of the taboo
results in separation, but they are finally
reunited after many adventures. The
anthropological school of myth interpret-
ers see in this feature a primitive mar-
riage custom, which still exists among
many savage races of the present day.
One of the earliest forms of the story is
the Vedic myth of Urvasî and Purûra-
vas. ) Another is the Sanskrit Bheki, who
mårries on condition she shall never see
water; thus typifying the dawn, vanish-
ing in the clouds of sunset. Müller gives
an interesting philological explanation of
this myth. Bhekî means frog, and stands
for the rising or setting sun, which like
amphibious creatures appears to pass
from clouds or water. But in its Greek
form Bhekî means seaweed which is red,
thus giving dark red; and the Latin
for toad means “the red one,» hence
the term represents the dawn-glow or
gloaming, which is quenched in water.
In Greek myths we find a resemblance
in some features of Orpheus and Eury-
dice); and the name of Orpheus in its
Sanskrit form of Arbhu, meaning the
sun, hints quite plainly at a solar origin
of this cycle of tales. A more marked
likeness exists in the myth of Eros and
Psyche by Apuleius, and in the Scandi-
navian tale of the Land East of the
Sun and West of the Moon. ) More or
less striking parallels are seen in the
Celtic (Battle of the Birds); in the “Soar-
ing Lark,' by Grimm; in the Kaffir (Story
of Five Heads); in Gaelic, Sicilian, and
Bengal folk-lore; and even in as remote
a quarter as Chili. The investigation of
minor fairy-tales, nursery rhymes, and
detached features running through many
myths, will yield an abundance of in-
teresting information. For instance, the
swan-maidens and werewolves, the bean-
stalk (which is probably a form of the
sacred ash of the Eddas, Yggdrasil, the
heaven-tree of many myths), can
found in ever-varying combinations.
We can allude to only a portion of the
voluminous literature on this subject. In
the general works on mythology, the
Aryan theory is maintained by Müller in
his Essay on Comparative Mythology
be
## p. 61 (#97) ##############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
61
new
(1856), and “Chips from a German Work.
shop' (1867–75); by Sir G. W. Cox in
Mythology of the Aryan Nations) (1870),
(Introduction to the Science of Compara-
tive Mythology and Folk-Lore' (1881), and
Popular Romances of the Middle Ages);
by Grimm in his «Teutonic Mythology)
('Deutsche Mythologie, translated by
Stallybrass) (1880–88); by A. Kuhn in
his (Teutonic Mythology, and the De-
scent of Fire (1872); and by W. Schwartz
in (Origin of Myths) (“Ursprung der
Mythe); 1860).
The most important works on the basis
of the anthropological theory are E. B.
Tylor's Primitive Culture) (1871); An-
drew Lang's Custom and Myth' (1885);
his Myth Ritual and Religion (1887);
and John Fiske's Myths and Myth-Mak-
ers) (1872); as well as J. G. Frazer's
(Golden Bough' (1890). W. A. Clouston
in Popular Tales and Fictions) (1887)
supports the Indian theory. The best
works directly bearing on Fairy Tales
are J. Ritson's Fairy Tales) (1831): T.
Keightley's Fairy Mythology) (1833),
both somewhat antiquated; J. T. Bunce's
(Fairy Tales, their Origin and Meaning)
(1878); J. O. Halliwell-Phillips's Popular
Rhymes and Nursery Tales (1849);
R. Koehler's European Popular Tales)
(1865), and his Essays on Fairy Tales
and Popular Songs) (1894); E. S. Hart-
land's Science of Fairy Tales' (1891);
Andrew Lang's Edition of Perrault's
Popular Tales) (1888); W. Adlington's
Most Pleasant and Delectable Tale of
the Marriage of Cupid and Psyche,' with
(Discourse on Fable) by A. Lang (1887);
and Joseph Bedier's Fables) (Les Fa-
bliaux') (1893).
The most notėworthy collections of
the folk-tales of individual nations are
Dasent's Popular Norse Tales) (1862);
Campbell's “Tales of the West Highlands';
Frere's (Old Deccan Days'; Steel and
Temple's Wide-Awake Stories) (1884);
L. B. Day's (Folk Tales of Bengal (1883);
Callaway's 'Zulu Nursery Tales) (1866);
Theal's Kaffir Folk Lore); Cosguin's
Popular Tales of Lorraine) (1886); Mas-
pero's "Tales of Ancient Egypt, 2d ed.
(1889).
Physiologus (The Naturalist). A very
remarkable book of animal allego-
ries, some fifty or sixty in number, pro-
duced originally in Greek at Alexandria,
as early probably as the final comple-
tion of the New Testament, or before
200 A. D. , and in circulation for many
centuries, in many languages, as a kind
of natural Bible of the common people;
more universally known, and more pop-
ularly regarded, than the Bible even,
because so familiar in the memories of
the masses, and not dependent upon
written copies.
So entirely was it a book of tales
and traditions of the uneducated mass,
more often told to hearers than copied
out and read, that any one who made
a written copy varied the text at will,
enlarging or abridging, and inserting
ideas or Scripture quotations at
pleasure. It was in this respect a re-
flection of the literary method of the
Græco-Hebrew writers of the time of
Christ, and of the Greek Christians of
the New Testament age, 50–150 A. D.
It was the lesson only of the story,
not its exact text, which was regarded;
facts were of less account than the truth
meant to be conveyed. Some of the
animals of the stories were imaginary;
and with animals were included the
diamond, the magnet, the fire-flint, the
carbuncle, the Indian stone, and such
trees as the sycamore and one called
peridexion.
The facts in each story
were not those of science, given by Ar-
istotle or any other authority; but those
of folk-lore, of popular tradition and
fable, and of frequent touches of the im-
agination. It mattered little as to the
facts, if they were of startling interest:
the important thing was the spiritual
lesson. Thus the one horn of the uni-
corn signifies that Christ is one with the
Father; the wonderfully sweet odor of
the panther's breath, attracting all other
animals except the serpent, signifies
Christ drawing all unto him except the
Devil. The riot of legend and fable,
which under «Physiologus says,"
took the popular fancy in proportion as
it was wild; and credulity thus stimu.
lat
th
strongest belief. The
ideas thus taught passed into all the lit.
eratures of Europe, and found incessant
expression in art, and in emblems carved
upon churches and even upon furniture.
The Greek text of Physiologus,' and
versions in great variety, have been
printed; and in the Geschichte des
Physiologus, by F. Lauchert, 1889, a full
account of the origin, character, and dif.
fusion of the work is given, with the
Greek original and a Ge an transla
tion.
ran
was
## p. 62 (#98) ##############################################
62
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
a
its pursuit of the ideal. Apuleius excels
every other ancient writer in catching the
changing aspects of nature and of hu-
man comedy; and with all liis fantastic
imaginative power, he is as realistic as
Zola, and sometimes as offensive.
He
describes, for instance, the agony of a
broken-down horse tortured by swarms
of ants, with the same precision that he
uses to relate the gayety of a rustic
breakfast, or a battle between wolves
and dogs. On the other hand, he puts
in no claim to be a moralist, and is
much more concerned about the exte.
riors of his characters than about their
souls.
sees
Golde
olden Ass, The, by Apuleius. A
collection of stories divided into
eleven books, and written in Carthage,
not later than 197 A. D. It is usually
described as an imitation of The Ass)
of Lucian; the author himself tells us
that it is a (tissue woven out of the
tales of Miletus »; but probably both
works are based on the same earlier
originals. The plot is of the thinnest.
A young man
an old sorceress
transform herself into a bird after drink-
ing a philter. He wishes to undergo a
similar metamorphosis, but mistakes the
vial and is turned into an ass. To be-
come a man again, he must eat a certain
species of roses, and the pilgrimage of
the donkey in search of them is the au-
thor's excuse for stringing together a
number of romantic episodes and stories:
stories of robbers, such as “The Brigand
for Love,' where a youth becomes a ban-
dit to deliver his betrothed; (The Three
Brothers, where the three sons of a
wealthy peasant are massacred by a fero-
cious squire and his servants; and (The
Bear of Platæa,' where a heroic robber
lets dogs devour him in the bearskin in
which he has hidden himself. Then come
ghost stories: The Spectre,' where the
phantom of a girl penetrates in full noon-
day into a miller's yard, and carries off
the miller to a room where he hangs
himself; Telephron,' where a poor man
falls asleep, and supposes himself to
awaken dead; The Three Goat-Skins,
where the witch Pamphile inadvert-
ently throws some goats' hair into her
crucible, instead of the red hair of her
fat Boeotian lover, thus bringing back to
life in place of him the goats to whom
the hairs belonged. But the prettiest and
most finely chiseled of these tales are
those that paint domestic life: (The San-
dals,' where a gallant devises a very
ingenious stratagem to get out of an un-
pleasant predicament and regain posses-
sion of his sandals, forgotten one night
at the house of a decurion; and sev-
eral of the same kind. Many others are
real dramas of village life. The most
famous of all is (The Loves of Psyche. )
It occupies two entire books, and has
inspired poets, painters, and sculptors, in
all ages and countries; though perhaps
the author would have been rather as-
tonished to learn that the moderns had
discovered in the sufferings of his hero-
a profound metaphysical allegory,
symbolizing the tortures of the soul in
Daphnis and Chloe, by Longus. This
charming pastoral romance was writ-
ten in Greek during the fourth century
of our era. It was first translated into
a modern language by Amyot, who pub-
lished a French version in 1559. Other
renderings were soon made, and had
great influence on European literature.
Many English, French, and Italian pas-
torals were suggested by this work; but
the one derived most directly from this
source is Saint-Pierre's Paul and Vir-
ginia,' which is almost a parallel story,
with Christian instead of pagan ethics.
On the island of Lesbos, a goatherd
named Lamon finds one of his goats suck-
ling a fine baby boy, evidently exposed
by his parents. The good man adopts
him as his own child, calling him Daph-
nis, and brings him up to herd his goats.
The year after he was found, a neigh-
bor, Dryas, discovers a baby girl nour-
ished by a ewe in the grotto of the
nymphs. She is adopted under the name
of Chloe, and trained to tend the sheep.
The two young people pasture their
herds in common, and are bound by an
innocent and childlike affection. Eventu-
ally, this feeling ripens on both sides to
something deeper; but in their innocence
they know not the meaning of love, even
when they learn that the little god has
them in his especial keeping. After a
winter of forced separation, which only
inflames their passion, Daphnis sues for
the hand of Chloe. In spite of his hum-
ble station, he is accepted by her foster-
parents; but the marriage is deferred till
after the vintage, when Lamon's master
is coming On his arrival the goatherci
describes the finding of the child, and ex-
hibits the tokens found with him. Here-
upon he is recognized as the son of the
## p. 63 (#99) ##############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
63
master of the estate, and restored to his
real position. By the aid of Daphnis's
parents, Chloe is soon identified as the
daughter of a wealthy Lesbian, who in a
time of poverty had intrusted her to the
nymphs. The young people are married
with great pomp, but return to their pas-
toral life, in which they find idyllic happi-
ness.
Golden Fleece, Conquest of the
("Argonautica'), an epic poem in
four cantos, by Apollonius of Rhodes, a
contemporary of Ptolemy Philadelphus.
Apollonius found all the elements of his
poem in the legendary traditions of the
Greeks; the expedition of the Argonauts
being, next to the siege of Troy, the
most famous event of the heroic ages,
and the most celebrated poets having
sung some one or other of its heroes.
The first two cantos contain an expla-
nation of the motives of the expedition,
the election of Jason as commander-in-
chief, the preparations for departure, and
a narrative of the incidents that marked
the voyage from Chalcis. The third
describes the conquest of the Golden
Fleece, and the beginning of Medea's love
for Jason, the development of which forms
the finest portion of the poem. Her hesi-
tations and interior struggles supplied
Virgil with some of his best material for
the fourth book of the Æneid. In the
fourth canto, Medea leaves her father to
follow Jason. This book is full of inci-
dent. The Argonauts go through the
most surprising adventures, and encounter
perils of every description, before they
are able to reach the port from which
they started. These various events have
allowed the poet to introduce brilliant
mythological pictures, such as his account
of the Garden of the Hesperides. The
work has been frequently translated into
almost every modern language, and is ad-
mittedly the masterpiece of Alexandrian
literature. The Argonautica) of Vale-
rius Flaccus is an imitation of that of
Apollonius, while the style is that of Vir-
gil. Quintilian and other contemporaries
of the author considered the imitation
superior to the original. Most modern
scholars, however, regard it as without
originality or invention, and as a mere
tasteless display of erudition.
Mahābhārata of Krishna-Dwaipayana
Vyasa, The. This great Indian
epic has been compared to a national
bank of unlimited resources, upon which
all the poets and dramatists of succeed-
ing ages have freely drawn, so that
scarcely a Sanskrit play or song lacks
references to it. As the compilation
of long series of poets, it contains not
only the original story of the Kaurava-
Pandava feud, but also a vast number
of more or less relevant episodes : it is
a storehouse of quaint and curious sto-
ries. It tells of the mental and moral
philosophy of the ancient Rishis, their
discoveries in science, their remarkable
notions of astronomy, their computations
of time, their laws for the conduct of
life, private and public, their grasp of
political truths worthy of Machiavelli.
Stories and histories, poems and ballads,
nursery tales and profound discourses on
art, science, daily conduct, and religion,
are all sung in sonorous verse. Written
in the sacred language of India, it is the
Bible of the Hindus, being held in such
veneration that the reading of a single
Parva or Book was thought sufficient to
cleanse from sin. It has been translated
into English prose by Kisari Mohan
Ganguli, and published in fifteen octavo
volumes. Sir Edwin Arnold has trans-
lated the last two of the eighteen parvas
into blank verse; and in his preface he
gives a succinct analysis of the epic
which has been called “the Fifth Veda. "
To ordinary readers much of the fig-
urative language of the Mahābhārata'
seems grotesque, and the descriptions are
often absurd; but no one can help being
amazed at its enormous range of sub-
jects, the beauty of many of the stories
it enshrines, and the loftiness of the mo-
rality it inculcates. In grandeur it may
well be compared to the awe-inspiring
heights of the Himalayas.
تیری تربیت کے لیے عالي - ملا ق کر کے تے مولا علی
Gol
ulistan, or Rose Garden, by Sa'di.
(The Sheikh Muslih-ud-din was his
real name. ) He was born about 1193 at
Shiraz; and after many years of travel
(once captured by the Christian Crusa.
ders he was fighting), and visiting all
the chief countries and cities of Asia, he
settled down in a hermitage at Shiraz,
and wrote many works, including the
(Gulistan. He has been called "The
Nightingale of Shiraz,) and his works
«the salt-cellar of poets. ) Emerson so
admired him that he frequently used his
name as an alias in his poems. Sa'di's
daughter married the poet Hafiz. The
(Gulistan) is a poetical work, and con-
sists of fascinating stories or anecdotes,
## p. 64 (#100) #############################################
64
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
son.
to
as
with a moral, like the parables of the
Bible. They are replete with homely
wisdom and life experience; the prose
portions are interspersed with verses out
of Sa'di's wide experience of the man-
ners and customs of many men. Their
great charm can only be known by
reading them. Delicacy, simplicity, and
bonhomie are the chief features of Sa'di's
style.
Heimskringla, The, by Snorri Sturla-
This chronicle of the kings of
Norway (from the earliest times down
1177), sometimes known the
(Younger Edda) or the Mythic Ring
of the World,' was originally written in
Icelandic, in the early part of the thir-
teenth century. It has always been a
household word in the home of every
peasant in Iceland, and is entertaining
reading to those who read for mere
amusement, as well as to the student of
history; being full of incident and anec-
dote, told with racy simplicity, and giv-
ing an accurate picture of island life at
that early day. Short pieces of scaldic
poetry originally recited by bards are in-
terspersed, being quoted by Snorri as his
authorities for the facts he tells. The
writer, born in Iceland in 1178, was ed-
ucated by a grandson of Sæmund Sig-
fusson, author of the Elder Edda,' who
doubtless turned his pupil's thoughts in
the direction of this book. A descendant
of the early kings, he would naturally
like to study their history. He became
chief magistrate of Iceland, took
active part in politics, and was murdered
in 1241 by his two sons-in-law, at the
instigation of King Hakon. His book
was first printed in 1697, in a Latin
translation, having been inculcated in
manuscript, or by word of mouth, up to
that time. It was afterwards translated
into Danish and English, and may be
regarded as a classic work.
Chanson de Roland. This is the cul-
mination of a cycle of Chansons de
Geste) or Songs of Valor, celebrating the
heroic achievements of Charlemagne, and
inspired especially by the joy and pride
of the triumph of Christian arms over the
Mohammedan invasion, which, through
the gate opened by the Moors of Spain,
threatened to subdue all Europe. The
Song of Roland or of Roncesvalles cele-
brates the valor of Roland, a Count Pal-
adin of Charlemagne, who, on the retreat
of the King from an expedition against
the Moors in Spain, is cut off with the
rear-guard of the army in the pass of
Roncevaux; and, fatally wounded in the
last desperate struggle, crawls away to
die beneath the shelter of a rock, against
which he strikes in vain his sword Du-
randal, in the effort to break it so that
it may not fall into the hands of his en-
emy: -
"Be no man your master who shall know the
fear of man:
Long were you in the hands of a captain
Whose like shall not be seen in France set
free!
The French text of the "Chanson) was
first published in Paris by M. Francisque
Michel in 1837, and afterward in 1850 by
M. F. Genin. The original form of the
lines above quoted is as follows: –
« Ne vos ait hume ki pur altre feiet !
Mult bon vassal vos ad lung tens tenue :
Jamais u'ert tel in France la solue. "
Around this incident have grown a
multitude of heroic and romantic tales,
which have taken form in all the mediæ-
val literature of Europe; but especially in
Italy, — where however the hero appears
with little more than the name to iden-
tify him,- in the Orlando Furioso) of
Ariosto, and the Orlando Innamorato)
of Boiardo. Tyrwhitt, in his edition of
Chaucer, was the first to call the atten-
tion of English readers to the (Chanson);
but English tradition has it that the
song was sung by the Norman Taillefer
just before the battle of Hastings. The
best and oldest French MS. , called the
«Digby,” is preserved in the Bodleian
library at Oxford.
The French poem
contains 6,000 lines. A Fragment of
1,049 lines, translated in Middle English
from what is known as the Lansdowne
MS. , is published by the Early English
Text Society.
Ogier the Dane.
This story of the
paladin of Charlemagne has ap-
peared in many different forms; but the
earliest manuscript is a chanson de geste,
or epic poem, written by Raimbert de
Paris in the twelfth century. The sub-
ject is still older, and Raimbert is thought
to have collected songs which had been
sung in battle years before. The first
part is entitled “The Anger of Ogier,'
and is descriptive of the feudal life of
the barons of Charlemagne. In a quar-
rel over a game of chess, Charlot, the
son of Charlemagne, kills Beaudoin, the
son of Ogier. Ogier demands the death
an
## p. 65 (#101) #############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
65
of with the
Che past 1
oded in
uck agais
Tod is
is of his e
a" koca
Frant
))
Tarsos!
France
. in 1 1
fo:
of Charlot, but is exiled by Charlemagne,
whom Ogier would have killed but for
the protection afforded by the barons.
Ogier flies to Italy, and Charlemagne de-
clares war against his harborer. Ogier
shuts himself up in Castelfort, and with-
stands a siege of seven years; at the
end of which time, all his followers hav-
ing died, he makes his way to the camp
of Charlemagne and enters the tent of
Charlot. Throwing his spear at the bed
where he supposes Charlot to be asleep,
he escapes into the darkness, crying de-
fiance to Charlemagne. Afterwards he
is captured while sleeping, but by the
entreaties of Charlot the sentence of
death is changed to that of imprison-
ment. The country is invaded by Bra-
hier, a Saracen giant, seventeen feet tall
and of great strength. Ogier is the only
man fit to cope with him, and he refuses
to leave his prison unless Charlot is
delivered up to his vengeance. Charle-
magne accedes, but Charlot's life is saved
by the miraculous interposition of Saint
Michael. The poem ends with Ogier's
combat with the giant, who is conquered
and put to death. Among the tales in
which Ogier figures there is a romance
called Roger le Danois,' the Orlando
Furioso) of Ariosto, and the Earthly
Paradise) of William Morris.
In the fourth lecture he considered the
Hero as Priest, singling out Luther and
the Reformation, and Knox and Puri-
tanism. << These two men we will ac-
count our best priests, inasmuch as they
were our best reformers. )
The Hero as Man of Letters, with
Johnson, Rousseau, and Burns as his
types, forms the subject of Carlyle's fifth
lecture. «I call them all three genuine
Men, more or less; faithfully, for the
most part unconsciously, struggling to be
genuine, and plant themselves on the
everlasting truth of things. ”
Finally, for the Hero as King he se-
lects as the subject of his sixth lect-
ure Cromwell and Napoleon, together
with the modern Revolutionism which
they typify.
« The commander
- he is
practically the summary for us of all
the various figures of Heroism; Priest,
Teacher, whatever of earthly or of spirit-
ual dignity we can fancy to reside in a
man, embodies itself here. ))
Carlyle eulogizes his heroes for the
work that they have done in the world.
His tone, however, is that of fraterniz-
ing with them rather than of adoring
them. He holds up his typical heroes
as patterns for other men of heroic mold
to imitate, and he makes it clear that he
expects the unheroic masses to adore
them. The style of Hero-Worship) is
clearer than that in most of the other
masterpieces of Carlyle, and on this ac-
count is much more agreeable to the
average reader.
There is less exagger-
ation, less straining after epigram.
over
men
feiet
Alex
Sude'
e
(
(
antic
the
especie
eto a?
me 72
Furiani
Dham
5 adet
the
(Char
t that
Heroes,
ar
tings
calitate
e Buzz
each?
to
agte
de Es
Lars
oly Ego
Hero-Worship, and the He.
roic in History, On, by Thomas
Carlyle. Carlyle's Hero-Worship made
its first appearance as
a series of lect-
ures delivered orally in 1840, They
were well attended, and were so popular
that in book form they had considerable
success when published in 1841.
At length a strange plague comes upon lawyer friends, to whom he has revealed
the people. Daniel obtains the privilege the secret and who is killed by the shock
of taking the place of Father Dalby, the of the discovery, the strange facts are
Irish priest. He effects many cures, and exposed. Utterson breaks into Jekyll's
at last dies of the pestilence, after the laboratory, only to find Hyde, who has
office of deemster made vacant by his just taken his own life; and Jekyll is
uncle's death has been offered to him as
gone forever. It was the first of Ste-
a reward for his services. Like all of venson's books to become widely pop-
Hall Caine's work, it is sombre and op- ular. Its date is 1886.
pressive, but its delineation of Manx
character is striking and convincing. Li
ittle Minister, The, by J. M. Barrie.
It was published in 1877. A drama- (Published in 1891. ) A love story,
tization has been produced by Wilson the scene of which is laid in the little
Barrett under the title (Ben-Ma-Chree. ) Scotch weaving village of Thrums at
about the middle of the present century.
Donal Grant, a novel by George Mac-
Aside from its intrinsic interest, there
donald, was published in 1883, when
is much skillful portrayal of the com-
he was fifty-nine. It is a modern story;
plexities of Scotch character, and much
the hero, Donal Grant, being one of the
muscular and intellectual young Scotch-
sympathy with the homely lives of the
men whom Macdonald loves to describe.
poverty-stricken weavers, whose narrow
creed may make them cruel, but never
Introduced as a poor student seeking a
dishonorable. The hero, Gavin Dishart,
situation, he reaches the town of Auchars,
is a boy preacher of twenty-one, small
where he meets a spiritually minded cob-
bler and his wife with whom he lodges.
of stature but great in authority, and
given to innocent frolic in exuberant
In Auchars he finds a field of work, and
moments. Grouped about him are his
the story deals with the effect produced on
people, who watch him with lynx-eyed
careless and selfish characters by contact
vigilance, ready to adore, criticize, and
with an upright and generous nature.
interfere ; while all-pervasive in-
The plot involves a forced marriage, and
fluence is the mother love and worship
other well-known incidents; but the book
of «soft-faced » Margaret Dishart.
shows all Macdonald's familiar quali-
Across the narrow path of the Little
ties, though it is less eventful and more
Minister, and straight into his orthodox
didactic than many of his stories.
life, dances Babbie the Egyptian, in a
·Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert wild gipsy frock, with red rowans in
Louis Stevenson, is a psychologic her hair. Against the persuasiveness
romance illustrating the complex quality of her beautiful eyes and her madcap
of man's nature. The scene is London. pranks, even three scathing sermons
Dr. Jekyll is a physician of position against Woman, preached by Gavin in
and good character, a portly, kindly self-defense, are of no avail; and the
In his youth, however, he showed reader follows with absorbed interest his
that he had strong capacities for evil, romantic meetings with the reprehensible
which he succeeded in suppressing for Babbie, and the gossip of the scandal-
years. His professional tastes lead him ized community. The rapid unfolding
to experiment in drugs, and he hits on of the story reveals Babbie's sorrow-
one whereby he is changed physically ful and unselfish renunciation of Gavin,
so that his lower nature receives ex- and her identity as the promised bride
ternal dress. He becomes Mr. Hyde, of Lord Rintoul, who is many years her
a pale, misshapen, repulsive creature of senior. A false report of Gavin's death
evil and violent passions. Again and brings the lovers together again on the
again Dr. Jekyll effects this change, eve of Babbie's marriage. Fearing pur-
and gives his bad side more and more suit, she consents to a hasty gipsy
power. His friend Utterson, a lawyer, is marriage with Gavin in the woods; and
puzzled by Jekyll's will in favor of Hyde, the climax is reached when a flash of
and seeks to unravel the mystery. The lightning reveals the ceremony to Lord
brutal murder of Sir Danvers Carew, Rintoul, two stern elders of the Kirk,
which is traced to Hyde, who of course and Rob Dow, who is seeking to save
disappears, adds to the mystery and the Little Minister from his wrathful
an
man.
H
## p. 55 (#91) ##############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
55
W
cur-
own
people by killing the Egyptian. In the beasts in Æsop's fables, those of the
food that follows, the chief actors in Jungle Books) are not men in hides
this dramatic scene are scattered; but and on all fours discussing human prob-
Gavin and Babbie, after many advent- lems. Kipling's genius represents them
ures, are reunited, a deed of heroism on thinking and behaving, each according
the part of the Little Minister having to his own peculiar beastly habit and
reinstated him in the love of his people. experience, with such dramatic skill that
The story is recounted by Dominie one is almost forced to believe that he
Ogilvy, who is at last revealed as the has intimately dwelt among them as
father of Gavin. It is lighted by Mowgli did. The stories were published
touches of quaint humor that soften in St. Nicholas, and collected into two
what might otherwise seem stern and volumes in 1894 and 1895.
forbidding in the picture. An instance
in point is that of Tibbie Craik, who
Fairy Tales. The stories of Cinderella,
would be fine pleased with any bride Beauty and the Beast, Hop o' my
that the minister. might choose, because Thumb, Sleeping Beauty, and others, so
she “had a magenta silk, and so was fascinating to children and to peasants,
jealous of no one. )
were looked on merely as amusing tales,
In 1897 the book was dramatized, with until the efforts of Grimm and his suc-
a violent wrenching of the plot to meet cessors drew back, as it were, a
dramatic necessities.
tain, and disclosed another fairy region
of almost limitless perspective, whose
Jungle Books, The, by Rudyard Kip- vanishing-point may be nearly identical
ling. The central figure in these with the origin of the human race. For
books is the boy Mowgli, who, straying by the study of comparative mythology,
from his village home when an infant, it was discovered that these tales are not
had been lost in the forest, and there restricted to Europe alone, but are to be
sheltered and nursed with her
found, in varying forms, among almost
cubs by a mother-wolf, and the hairy all nations. Comparative philology then
Orson. Joined to this element of human showed the original union of the Teu-
interest, and with the coloring of high tonic, Celtic, Latin, Greek, Persian, and
romance, these stories picture the per- Hindu races in the primitive Aryan race,
sonal characteristics and social and po- whose home has been variously fixed in
litical life of the gaunt wolf-family in Western Central Asia, in Europe, and
their cave and the free republic of wolves, even in Africa; from which they broke
assembled in the Pack; the snarling away in prehistoric dispersions. This
Bengal tiger, Shere Khan, who, though was discovered by tracing words through
fearful, like the other beasts, of man's the German, Latin, Greek, and Persian
superior wit, roams boastfully for prey, forms up to the Sanskrit, the oldest lit-
attended by his obsequious but mischief- erary form of all; their identity proves
making jackal servant, Tabaqui, the their descent from a common stock. Thus
Dish-Licker; they tell about Baloo, the most of our popular tales date from the
sleepy brown bear who teaches the wolf- days when the primitive Aryan took his
cubs the Law of the Jungle, which is evening meal of yava, and sipped his
the reproof of human codes in its com- fermented mead, while the Laplander was
prehensive justice ); the black panther, master of Europe, and the dark-skinned
Bagheera; Kaa, the big rock python; Sudra roamed through the Punjab. ”
and many others, including the monkey The survival of popular tales is due to
people, filthy chatterers despised by all their being unconscious growths, to
the rest. They describe also how Mow- the strict adherence to form shown by
gli's coming disturbed these forest creat- illiterate and savage people in recitals,
ures; how his human will proved more proved also by a child's insistence on
powerful than Shere Khan's jaws and accuracy, and to the laws of the perma-
claws; and how the brown bear and nence of culture. All these make the
other friends rescued him with some science of folk-lore possible.
trouble when he had been carried off There are several theories in regard
through the tree-tops by the monkey to the origin of folk-tales. The oldest
people; and how he finally went back is the Oriental theory, which traces all
to ve among men, but with a better back to a common origin in the Vedas,
knowledge of beasts. Unlike the talking the Sanskrit sacred books of Buddhism.
## p. 56 (#92) ##############################################
56
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
mer.
dating probably from 2000 B. C. It is
true that the germs of most tales are
found in the Vedas, but proofs of the
Indian origin of stories are lack
the discovery of tales in Egypt which
were written down in the period of the
early empire are objections to its accept-
ance, and the idea of diffusion will not
account for similar tales found in Aus-
tralia, New Zealand, and America. The
Aryan theory, supported by Max Müller,
Grimm, and others, gives as their origin
the explanation of natural phenomena,
as the sun's daily course, the change of
day and night, dawn, winter, and sum-
These nature-myths must not be
regarded as originally metaphors; they
were primitive man's philosophy of na-
ture, in the days when he could not dis-
tinguish between it and his personality;
when there was no supernatural, because
it was not yet discovered that there was
such a thing as nature”; and so every
object was endowed with a personal life.
This view is supported by the proper
names in myths having been originally
names of natural phenomena. The sav-
age myths of to-day explain the myth-
making of old: instance the New Zealand
tale of "The Children of Heaven and
Earth) in Grey's Polynesian Mythol-
ogy,' connected with the Sanskrit Dyaus-
pitar (Jupiter ), Heaven-father, and
Prithivi-mâtar, Earth-mother, in the Ve-
das. Folk-lore is “the débris brought
down by the streams of tradition from
the distant highlands of ancient mythol-
ogy," and the survivals which are unin-
telligible singly must be explained by
comparing them with others. The tales
have enough likeness to show that they
come from the same source, and enough
difference to show they were not copied
from each other. Müller says, Nursery
tales are generally the last things to be
adopted by one nation from another. »
The danger is that too many may be
assigned to nature-myths. Even the
(Song of Sixpence) has been claimed as
one: the pie representing earth and sky;
the birds, the twenty-four hours; the
opened pie, the daybreak, with sing-
ing birds; the king, the sun, with his
money, sunshine; the queen, the moon;
the maid, dawn, hanging out the clothes,
clouds, is frightened away by the black-
bird, sunrise. Another theory, supported
by Tylor and Lang, traces the origin
of folk-lore to a far earlier source than
the Aryan, — the customs and practices
of early man: such as totemism, descent
from animals or things, which were at
last worshiped; and curious taboos or
prohibitions, which ca be explained by
similar savage customs of the present.
Thus tales become valuable both for the
anthropologist and the mythologist. But
late authorities declare that it is use-
less to seek any common origin of folk-
tales; since the incidents, which are few,
and the persons, who are types, are
based on ideas that might occur to un-
civilized races anywhere.
Our popular fairy-tales, or contes, have
been, in the main, handed down orally.
However, some of their elements or vari-
ants at least have come down through
literary collections in the following suc-
cession: The Vedas, the Sanskrit sacred
books; the Persian Zend-Avesta; the
Jatakas of about the fifth century B. C. ;
from some lost Sanskrit books came the
Panchatantra,' a book of fables earlier
than 550 A. D. , of which the Hitopadeça
is a compilation; a Pahlavi version of
the same period; an Arabic version be-
fore the tenth century; and a Persian of
about 1100 A. D. ; the “Syntipas,' a Greek
version, belongs to the eleventh century.
Then followed translations into several
European languages. The earliest col-
lection of European tales was made by
Straparola, who published at Venice in
1550 his Notti Piacevola,' which was
translated into French, and was prob-
ably the origin of the Contes des Fées. )
It contains the tale of Puss in Boots,
and elements of some others. The best
early collection is · Basile's, the (Penta-
merone, published at Naples in 1637.
In 1696 there appeared in the Recueil,
a magazine published by Moetjens at
The Hague, the story (La Belle au Bois
Dormant) (our (Sleeping Beauty'), by
Charles Perrault; and in 1697 appeared
seven others: Little Red Riding Hood,'
(Bluebeard,' (Puss in Boots,' (The Fairy,'
"Cinderella, (Riquet of the Tuft,' and
(Hop o' My Thumb. )
These were pub-
lished in 1697 under the title (Contes du
Temps Passé, Avec des Moralités,' by
P. Darmancour, Perrault's son, for whom
he wrote them down from a nurse's
stories. These fairy-tales became part of
the world's literature; and in England
at least, where scarcely any tales existed
in literary form except Jack the Giant-
Killer,' they superseded all the national
versions. Within this century the inves-
tigations of Jacob and William Grimm,
>
## p. 57 (#93) ##############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
57
and their successors in this field, have
reduced to written form the tales of
nearly all nations, revealing the same
characters and incidents under countless
names and shapes. The method used by
them has been to take down the tales
from the recitals of the common people,
- generally of the old women who have
been the chief conservers of stories,-
exactly as given, rough or uncouth as
the narrative may be.
For in some ap-
parently absurd feature may be a sur-
vival of ancient custom or myth of great
historic interest; and the germs of these
universal stories, in becoming part of a
nation's folk-lore, take a local form and
so become valuable to the ethnologist.
Thus the beautiful myths of the South
in the Northern forms, where winter's
rigor alters the conditions of life, have
an entirely different setting. We must
include in the comparison of stories the
Greek myths; as the Odyssey is now
conceded to be a mass of popular tales
(Gerland's (Altgriechische Märchen in
der Odyssee,'—'Old Greek Tales in the
Odyssey. ') To these we must add the
tales of ancient Egypt; those narrated
by Herodotus, and other travelers and
historians; the beautiful story of Cupid
and Psyche,' given by Apuleius in his
Metamorphoses) of the second century
A. D. , which also was taken from a popu-
lar myth, as we shall see, very widely
distributed. Spreading all these before
us, with the wealth of Eastern lore, and
that gathered recently from every Euro-
pean nation, and from the savage or
barbarian tribes of Asia, Africa, Amer-
ica, and Polynesia, we shall find running
through them all the same germ, either
in varying form, or simply in detached
features, to our astonishment and de-
delight. We shall examine in detail the
most familiar of the popular fairy-tales,
noting the principal variants or recurring
incidents, what survival of nature-myth
they contain, what ancient custom or
religious rite, and their possible links
with Oriental literary collections; show-
ing thus in a limited way the basis on
which the before-mentioned theories of
their origin rest. Taking Perrault's
(Tales) as the best versions, we shall
find that actual fairies appear but sel-
dom, as is the case generally in tradi-
tional fairy stories; in Cinderella' and
(The Sleeping Beauty) the fairies are of
the genuine traditional type, but in other
tales we find merely the magical key or
the fairy (Seven-League Boots. ) Yet the
fairies have so identified themselves with
popular tales by giving them their titles,
that we may find it interesting to look
up their origin. The derivation of the
word is given from fatare, to enchant,
faé or fé, meaning enchanted, and run-
ning into the varying forms of fée, fata,
hada, feen, fay, and fairy; or with more
probability from fatum, what is spoken,
and Fata, the Fates, who speak, Faunus
or Fatuus, the god, and his sister 01
wife Fatua. This points to the primi
tive personification of natural phenom-
ena: all localities and objects were be-
lieved to be inhabited by spirits. Simi-
lar beings are found in the legend-lore
of all nations; as the Nereids of Greece,
the Apsaras of India, the Slavonic Wilis,
the Melanesian Vius, the Scotch fairies
or Good Ladies – as they are termed,
just as the daughter of Faunus was not
known by her real name, but as the
Good Goddess (“Bona Dea »). Their
mediæval connection with the nether-
world and the dead may possibly point
to their origin as ancestral ghosts. We
shall find that “the story of the heroes
of Teutonic and Hindu folk-lore, the
stories of Boots) and (Cinderella,' of
Logedas Rajah and Surya Bai, are the
story also of Achilleus and Oidipous,
of Perseus and Theseus, of Helen and
Odysseus, of Baldur and Rustem and
Sigurd. Everywhere there is the search
for the bright maiden who has been
stolen away, everywhere the long strug-
gle to reclaim her. ” (Cox. )
SLEEPING BEAUTY. —This story is re-
garded by mythologists as nature-
myth, founded on nature's long sleep
in winter. The Earth-goddess pricked
by winter's dart falls into a deep sleep,
from which she is aroused by the prince,
the Sun, who searches far for her. We
may find a slight parallel in Demeter's
search for her lost daughter, Proserpine
in the Greek myth; but a much more
evident resemblance is seen in the sleep
of Brynhild, stung to her sleep by the
sleep-thorn. 'The Two Brothers,' found
in an Egyptian papyrus of the Nine-
teenth Dynasty,— the time of Seti II. ,
- had several incidents similar to those
of (The Sleeping Beauty. ) The Hathors
who pronounce the fate of the prince
correspond to the old fairy, and both
tales show the impossibility of escaping
fate. The spindle whose prick causes
the long slumber is a counterpart of the
a
## p. 58 (#94) ##############################################
58
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
en-
arrow that wounds Achilles, the thorn incident occurs in the myth of Kronos
that pricks Sigurd, and the mistletoe swallowing his children; in the Maori
fatal to Baldur. In (Surya Bai? (from legend in which Ihani, the New Zealand
(Old Deccan Days') the mischief is cosmic hero, tries to creep through his
done by the poisoned nail of a demon. ancestress, Great-Woman or Night; in a
In the Greek myth of Orpheus, Eurydice Zulu version a princess is swallowed
is stung by the serpent of darkness. by a monster which becomes in a Karen
The hedge that surrounds the palace ap- tale a snake. We find it also in the
pears in the flames encircling Brynhild Algonkin legend repeated in Hiawatha';
on the Glittering Heath, and the seven among the Bushmen, Kaffirs, Zulus; and
coils of the dragon; also in the Hindu in Melanesia, where the monster is night,
tale of Panch Phul Ranee, in which showing quite plainly a savage nature-
the heroine is surrounded by seven myth. The story has been compared
ditches, surmounted by seven hedges of to the Sanskrit Vartika, rescued by the
spears.
In the northern form of the Açvins (the Vedic Dioscuri) from the
story an interesting feature is the pres- wolf's throat. Vartika is the Quail,
ence of the ivy, the one plant that can the bird that returns at evening; and
endure the winter's numbing touch. In the Greek word for quail is ortyx, allied
a Transylvanian variant a maiden spins possibly to Ortygia, the old name for
her golden hair in a cavern, from which Delos, birthplace of Apollo.
she is rescued by a man who undergoes BLUEBEARN. —
- This tale had been re-
an hour of torture for three nights. garded by some as partly historic, of
The awakening by a kiss corresponds to which the original was Gilles de Laval,
Sigurd's rousing Brynhild by his magic Baron de Retz, who was burned in 1440
sword; but the kiss may be a survival for his cruelty to children. It is, how-
of an ancient form of worship, thus sug- ever, really a märchen, and the leading
gesting that the princess in the earlier idea of curiosity punished is world-wide.
forms of the tradition may have been a The forbidden chamber is a counterpart
local goddess, which would support the of the treasure-house of Ixion, on
anthropological theory. The version most tering which the intruder was destroyed,
closely resembling Perrault's is Grimm's or betrayed by the gold or blood that
(Little Briar Rose,' which is however clung to him; also of Pandora's box, as
without the other's ending about the well as of Proserpine's pyx that Psyche
cruel mother-in-law. A few incidents opened in spite of the prohibition. There
are found in the Pentamerone,) and several parallels among the Ger-
a beautiful modern version is found in
fairy-tales collected by Grimm;
Tennyson's Day-Dream. '
and one feature at least is found in the
LITTLE RED RIDING-Hood. - In this Kaffir tale of the Ox (Callaway's Nurs-
story we may detect a myth of day and ery Tales of the Zulus'). Variants are
night. Red Riding-Hood, the Evening found in Russia, and among Gaelic pop-
Sun, goes to see her grandmother, the ular tales; and in the Sanskrit collection
Earth, who is the first to be swallowed Katha Sarit Sagara,' the hero Saktideva
by the wolf of Night or Darkness. The breaks the taboo, and like Bluebeard's
red cloak is the twilight glow. In the wife, is confronted with the horrible
German versions the wolf is cut open sight of dead women. Possibly in the
by the hunter, and both set free; here the punishment following the breaking of
hunter may stand for the rising sun that the taboo may be a survival of some
rescues all from night. The Russian ancient religious prohibition: among the
version in the tale of (Vasihassa) hints Australians, Greeks, and Labrador Ind-
at a nature-myth in the incident of the ians, such an error was regarded as the
white, red, and black horses, represent- means by which death came into the
ing the changing day. The German ver- world.
sion contains a widely spread incident, – Puss IN BOOTS. - Perrault's version of
the restoration of persons from mon- this popular and wide-spread tale was
sters who have swallowed them. We probably taken from Straparola's Pia-
find parallels in the Aryan story of the cevoli Notti. ? The story is found in a
dragon swallowing the sun, and killed Norse version in Lord Peter,' and in
by the sun-god Indra; here it is inter- the Swedish (Palace with Pillars of Gold,
esting to note that the Sanskrit word for in which the cat befriends a girl, whose
evening means mouth of night. ” The adventures are similar to those of the
are
man
## p. 59 (#95) ##############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
59
Marquis of Carabas. In a Sicilian ver-
sion is found the first hint of a moral
which is lacking in the above-mentioned
tales; that is, the ingratitude of the man.
This moral appears more plainly in a
popular French version, where man's in-
gratitude is contrasted with the gratitude
of a beast. This occurs likewise in
the versions of the Avars and the Rus-
sians. Cosguin imagined from the moral
that its origin was Buddhistic, for the
story could only have arisen in a com-
paratively civilized community; but the
only Hindoo version, the Match-Making
Jackal, which was not discovered until
about 1884 in Bengal, has no moral at
all. The most complete moral is found
in Zanzibar, in the Swahili tale of (Sul-
tan Darai,' in which the beneficent beast
is a gazelle: the ingratitude of the man
is punished by the loss of all that he
had gained; the gazelle, which dies of
neglect, is honored by a public funeral.
An Arab tribe honors all dead gazelles
with public mourning; from which may
be inferred a primitive idea that the
tribal origin was from a gazelle stock, --
a hint of totemism. Variants of Puss
in Boots) are found among the Finns,
Bulgarians, Scotch, Siberians, and in
modern Hindustani stories; and some
features are found in Grimm, and in the
adventures of the Zulu hero Uhlakan-
yana.
TOADS AND DIAMONDS. — This story of
the good sister who was rewarded, and
the bad who was punished, is found in
many forms. Several variants are met
in Grimm's tales; it is found in the col-
lection of Mademoiselle L'Heritier dat-
ing from 1696; and again is met among
the Zulus, Kaffirs, Norse, and Scotch. In
many cases the story runs into the tale
of the substituted bride, - an example of
the curious combinations of the limited
number of incidents in popular lore.
CINDERELLA. — This fairy-tale, in the
majority of the variants, contains sev-
eral incidents which may be perhaps the
remains of totemism and of a very old
social custom. The position of Cinder-
ella in most versions as a stepchild may
without much difficulty be supposed to
have been that of the youngest, who by
(junior's right) would have been the
heir; the myth of ill-treatment would
be natural if it arose when the custom
was slipping away. By that older law
of inheritance, the hearth-place was the
share of the youngest; so that Cinder-
ella's position by it, and her consequent
blackened condition, would be quite in
keeping with this theory. This right
of the youngest is met in Hesiod, who
makes Zeus the youngest child of Kro-
nos; it is also found in Hungary, among
Slavic communities, in Central Asia, in
parts of China, in Germany and Celtic
lands; and it is alluded to in the Edda.
A similar custom among the Zulus is
shown in one of Callaway's (Zulu Nurs-
ery Tales. The fragment of totemism
is shown in the cases when the agent
is a friendly beast or tree, which has
some mystic connection with the hero-
ine's dead mother. The most striking
instance occurs in the Russian tale
of "The Wonderful Birch,' in which the
mother is changed by a witch into a
sheep, killed and buried by the daugh-
ter, and becomes a tree, that confers
the magical gifts. The two features of
a beast and a tree are found in the old
Egyptian tale (Two Brothers); and the
beast alone is seen in Servian, Mod-
ern Greek, Gaelic, and Lowland Scotch
variants. In two versions of barbarous
tribes, (The Wonderful Horns) of the
Kaffirs, and a tale of the Santals, a hill-
tribe of India, the girl's place is taken
by a boy whose adventures are similar
to Cinderella's, but the agents are an
ox and a cow. In Perrault's tale, the
more refined fairy godmother takes the
place of these beasts, which are in every
case domesticated animals.
The slip-
per is a feature that is found in the
whole cycle of tales. In the Greek myth
of (Rhodope, the slipper is carried off
by an eagle, and dropped in the lap of
the King of Egypt, who seeks and mar-
ries the owner. In the Hindu tale, the
Rajah's daughter loses her slipper in
a forest, where it is found by a prince,
on whom it makes the usual impression.
Here we find the false bride, which is
usually a part of these tales, but is
omitted by Perrault; and in most cases
the warning is given by a bird. In
several instances the recognition is ef-
fected by a lock of hair, which acts the
part of the glass slipper – which should
be fur (vair) according to some
thorities; this is found in the Egyptian
tale of the (Two Brothers, and reappears
in the Santal version and in the popu-
lar tales of Bengal. It occurs likewise
in an entirely different cycle, in the lock
of Iseult's hair which a swallow carries
to King Mark of Cornwall. We can
au-
## p. 60 (#96) ##############################################
60
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
also trace a slight resemblance in the
search of Orpheus for Eurydice, and
the Vedic myth of Mitra, the Sun-god,
as well as the beautiful Deccan tale of
(Sodewa Bai. If we search for indi-
cations of a nature-myth in the story of
Cinderella, we shall find that it belongs
to the myths of the Sun and the Dawn.
The maiden is the Dawn, dull and gray,
away from the brightness of the Sun;
the sisters are the clouds, that screen
and overshadow the Dawn, and the step-
mother takes the part of Night. The
Dawn fades away from the Sun, the
prince, who after a long search finds
her at last in her glorious robes of sun-
set. Max Müller gives the same mean-
ing to the Vedic myth of Urvasi, whose
name (“great-desires ») seems to imply a
search for something lost.
Hop o' MY THUMB. —A mythic theory
of this tale has been given, by which
the forest represents the night; the peb-
bles, the stars; and the ogre, the devour-
ing sun. The idea of cannibalism which
it contains may possibly be a survival
of an early savage state; and thus the
story very obligingly supports two of the
schools of mythic interpretation. It con-
tains traces of very great antiquity, and
the main features are frequently met
with. We find them, for instance, in
the Indian story of Surya Bai,' where a
handful of grain is scattered; in the Ger-
man counterpart, Hänsel and Gretel);
in the Kaffir tale, in which the girl drops
ashes; and that is found again in a story
in the Pentamerone.
) The incident of
the ogre's keen scent is found in a Nam-
aqua tale, in which the elephant takes the
part. In a Zulu story an ogress smells
the hero Uzembeni, and the same feature
is seen in Polynesian myths, and even
among the Canadian Indians. In Per-
rault's tale Hop o' My Thumb makes the
ogre kill his own children; but in many
forms the captor is either cooked, or forced
to eat some of his relatives, by means
generally of some trick. The substitution
of the ogre's daughters is suggested by
the story of Athamas and Themisto, whose
children are dressed by her orders in
white, while those of her rival are clad
in black; then by a reversal of the plan,
she murders her own. In most variants
the flight of the brothers is magically
helped; but Perrault uses only the Seven-
League Boots, which are no doubt iden-
tical with the sandals of Hermes and
Loki's magic shoes.
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. -This ancient
story is very evidently a myth of the Sun
and the Dawn. In all the variants the
hero and the heroine cannot behold each
other without misfortune. Generally the
bride is forbidden to look upon her hus-
band, who is enchanted under the form of
a monster. The breaking of the taboo
results in separation, but they are finally
reunited after many adventures. The
anthropological school of myth interpret-
ers see in this feature a primitive mar-
riage custom, which still exists among
many savage races of the present day.
One of the earliest forms of the story is
the Vedic myth of Urvasî and Purûra-
vas. ) Another is the Sanskrit Bheki, who
mårries on condition she shall never see
water; thus typifying the dawn, vanish-
ing in the clouds of sunset. Müller gives
an interesting philological explanation of
this myth. Bhekî means frog, and stands
for the rising or setting sun, which like
amphibious creatures appears to pass
from clouds or water. But in its Greek
form Bhekî means seaweed which is red,
thus giving dark red; and the Latin
for toad means “the red one,» hence
the term represents the dawn-glow or
gloaming, which is quenched in water.
In Greek myths we find a resemblance
in some features of Orpheus and Eury-
dice); and the name of Orpheus in its
Sanskrit form of Arbhu, meaning the
sun, hints quite plainly at a solar origin
of this cycle of tales. A more marked
likeness exists in the myth of Eros and
Psyche by Apuleius, and in the Scandi-
navian tale of the Land East of the
Sun and West of the Moon. ) More or
less striking parallels are seen in the
Celtic (Battle of the Birds); in the “Soar-
ing Lark,' by Grimm; in the Kaffir (Story
of Five Heads); in Gaelic, Sicilian, and
Bengal folk-lore; and even in as remote
a quarter as Chili. The investigation of
minor fairy-tales, nursery rhymes, and
detached features running through many
myths, will yield an abundance of in-
teresting information. For instance, the
swan-maidens and werewolves, the bean-
stalk (which is probably a form of the
sacred ash of the Eddas, Yggdrasil, the
heaven-tree of many myths), can
found in ever-varying combinations.
We can allude to only a portion of the
voluminous literature on this subject. In
the general works on mythology, the
Aryan theory is maintained by Müller in
his Essay on Comparative Mythology
be
## p. 61 (#97) ##############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
61
new
(1856), and “Chips from a German Work.
shop' (1867–75); by Sir G. W. Cox in
Mythology of the Aryan Nations) (1870),
(Introduction to the Science of Compara-
tive Mythology and Folk-Lore' (1881), and
Popular Romances of the Middle Ages);
by Grimm in his «Teutonic Mythology)
('Deutsche Mythologie, translated by
Stallybrass) (1880–88); by A. Kuhn in
his (Teutonic Mythology, and the De-
scent of Fire (1872); and by W. Schwartz
in (Origin of Myths) (“Ursprung der
Mythe); 1860).
The most important works on the basis
of the anthropological theory are E. B.
Tylor's Primitive Culture) (1871); An-
drew Lang's Custom and Myth' (1885);
his Myth Ritual and Religion (1887);
and John Fiske's Myths and Myth-Mak-
ers) (1872); as well as J. G. Frazer's
(Golden Bough' (1890). W. A. Clouston
in Popular Tales and Fictions) (1887)
supports the Indian theory. The best
works directly bearing on Fairy Tales
are J. Ritson's Fairy Tales) (1831): T.
Keightley's Fairy Mythology) (1833),
both somewhat antiquated; J. T. Bunce's
(Fairy Tales, their Origin and Meaning)
(1878); J. O. Halliwell-Phillips's Popular
Rhymes and Nursery Tales (1849);
R. Koehler's European Popular Tales)
(1865), and his Essays on Fairy Tales
and Popular Songs) (1894); E. S. Hart-
land's Science of Fairy Tales' (1891);
Andrew Lang's Edition of Perrault's
Popular Tales) (1888); W. Adlington's
Most Pleasant and Delectable Tale of
the Marriage of Cupid and Psyche,' with
(Discourse on Fable) by A. Lang (1887);
and Joseph Bedier's Fables) (Les Fa-
bliaux') (1893).
The most notėworthy collections of
the folk-tales of individual nations are
Dasent's Popular Norse Tales) (1862);
Campbell's “Tales of the West Highlands';
Frere's (Old Deccan Days'; Steel and
Temple's Wide-Awake Stories) (1884);
L. B. Day's (Folk Tales of Bengal (1883);
Callaway's 'Zulu Nursery Tales) (1866);
Theal's Kaffir Folk Lore); Cosguin's
Popular Tales of Lorraine) (1886); Mas-
pero's "Tales of Ancient Egypt, 2d ed.
(1889).
Physiologus (The Naturalist). A very
remarkable book of animal allego-
ries, some fifty or sixty in number, pro-
duced originally in Greek at Alexandria,
as early probably as the final comple-
tion of the New Testament, or before
200 A. D. , and in circulation for many
centuries, in many languages, as a kind
of natural Bible of the common people;
more universally known, and more pop-
ularly regarded, than the Bible even,
because so familiar in the memories of
the masses, and not dependent upon
written copies.
So entirely was it a book of tales
and traditions of the uneducated mass,
more often told to hearers than copied
out and read, that any one who made
a written copy varied the text at will,
enlarging or abridging, and inserting
ideas or Scripture quotations at
pleasure. It was in this respect a re-
flection of the literary method of the
Græco-Hebrew writers of the time of
Christ, and of the Greek Christians of
the New Testament age, 50–150 A. D.
It was the lesson only of the story,
not its exact text, which was regarded;
facts were of less account than the truth
meant to be conveyed. Some of the
animals of the stories were imaginary;
and with animals were included the
diamond, the magnet, the fire-flint, the
carbuncle, the Indian stone, and such
trees as the sycamore and one called
peridexion.
The facts in each story
were not those of science, given by Ar-
istotle or any other authority; but those
of folk-lore, of popular tradition and
fable, and of frequent touches of the im-
agination. It mattered little as to the
facts, if they were of startling interest:
the important thing was the spiritual
lesson. Thus the one horn of the uni-
corn signifies that Christ is one with the
Father; the wonderfully sweet odor of
the panther's breath, attracting all other
animals except the serpent, signifies
Christ drawing all unto him except the
Devil. The riot of legend and fable,
which under «Physiologus says,"
took the popular fancy in proportion as
it was wild; and credulity thus stimu.
lat
th
strongest belief. The
ideas thus taught passed into all the lit.
eratures of Europe, and found incessant
expression in art, and in emblems carved
upon churches and even upon furniture.
The Greek text of Physiologus,' and
versions in great variety, have been
printed; and in the Geschichte des
Physiologus, by F. Lauchert, 1889, a full
account of the origin, character, and dif.
fusion of the work is given, with the
Greek original and a Ge an transla
tion.
ran
was
## p. 62 (#98) ##############################################
62
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
a
its pursuit of the ideal. Apuleius excels
every other ancient writer in catching the
changing aspects of nature and of hu-
man comedy; and with all liis fantastic
imaginative power, he is as realistic as
Zola, and sometimes as offensive.
He
describes, for instance, the agony of a
broken-down horse tortured by swarms
of ants, with the same precision that he
uses to relate the gayety of a rustic
breakfast, or a battle between wolves
and dogs. On the other hand, he puts
in no claim to be a moralist, and is
much more concerned about the exte.
riors of his characters than about their
souls.
sees
Golde
olden Ass, The, by Apuleius. A
collection of stories divided into
eleven books, and written in Carthage,
not later than 197 A. D. It is usually
described as an imitation of The Ass)
of Lucian; the author himself tells us
that it is a (tissue woven out of the
tales of Miletus »; but probably both
works are based on the same earlier
originals. The plot is of the thinnest.
A young man
an old sorceress
transform herself into a bird after drink-
ing a philter. He wishes to undergo a
similar metamorphosis, but mistakes the
vial and is turned into an ass. To be-
come a man again, he must eat a certain
species of roses, and the pilgrimage of
the donkey in search of them is the au-
thor's excuse for stringing together a
number of romantic episodes and stories:
stories of robbers, such as “The Brigand
for Love,' where a youth becomes a ban-
dit to deliver his betrothed; (The Three
Brothers, where the three sons of a
wealthy peasant are massacred by a fero-
cious squire and his servants; and (The
Bear of Platæa,' where a heroic robber
lets dogs devour him in the bearskin in
which he has hidden himself. Then come
ghost stories: The Spectre,' where the
phantom of a girl penetrates in full noon-
day into a miller's yard, and carries off
the miller to a room where he hangs
himself; Telephron,' where a poor man
falls asleep, and supposes himself to
awaken dead; The Three Goat-Skins,
where the witch Pamphile inadvert-
ently throws some goats' hair into her
crucible, instead of the red hair of her
fat Boeotian lover, thus bringing back to
life in place of him the goats to whom
the hairs belonged. But the prettiest and
most finely chiseled of these tales are
those that paint domestic life: (The San-
dals,' where a gallant devises a very
ingenious stratagem to get out of an un-
pleasant predicament and regain posses-
sion of his sandals, forgotten one night
at the house of a decurion; and sev-
eral of the same kind. Many others are
real dramas of village life. The most
famous of all is (The Loves of Psyche. )
It occupies two entire books, and has
inspired poets, painters, and sculptors, in
all ages and countries; though perhaps
the author would have been rather as-
tonished to learn that the moderns had
discovered in the sufferings of his hero-
a profound metaphysical allegory,
symbolizing the tortures of the soul in
Daphnis and Chloe, by Longus. This
charming pastoral romance was writ-
ten in Greek during the fourth century
of our era. It was first translated into
a modern language by Amyot, who pub-
lished a French version in 1559. Other
renderings were soon made, and had
great influence on European literature.
Many English, French, and Italian pas-
torals were suggested by this work; but
the one derived most directly from this
source is Saint-Pierre's Paul and Vir-
ginia,' which is almost a parallel story,
with Christian instead of pagan ethics.
On the island of Lesbos, a goatherd
named Lamon finds one of his goats suck-
ling a fine baby boy, evidently exposed
by his parents. The good man adopts
him as his own child, calling him Daph-
nis, and brings him up to herd his goats.
The year after he was found, a neigh-
bor, Dryas, discovers a baby girl nour-
ished by a ewe in the grotto of the
nymphs. She is adopted under the name
of Chloe, and trained to tend the sheep.
The two young people pasture their
herds in common, and are bound by an
innocent and childlike affection. Eventu-
ally, this feeling ripens on both sides to
something deeper; but in their innocence
they know not the meaning of love, even
when they learn that the little god has
them in his especial keeping. After a
winter of forced separation, which only
inflames their passion, Daphnis sues for
the hand of Chloe. In spite of his hum-
ble station, he is accepted by her foster-
parents; but the marriage is deferred till
after the vintage, when Lamon's master
is coming On his arrival the goatherci
describes the finding of the child, and ex-
hibits the tokens found with him. Here-
upon he is recognized as the son of the
## p. 63 (#99) ##############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
63
master of the estate, and restored to his
real position. By the aid of Daphnis's
parents, Chloe is soon identified as the
daughter of a wealthy Lesbian, who in a
time of poverty had intrusted her to the
nymphs. The young people are married
with great pomp, but return to their pas-
toral life, in which they find idyllic happi-
ness.
Golden Fleece, Conquest of the
("Argonautica'), an epic poem in
four cantos, by Apollonius of Rhodes, a
contemporary of Ptolemy Philadelphus.
Apollonius found all the elements of his
poem in the legendary traditions of the
Greeks; the expedition of the Argonauts
being, next to the siege of Troy, the
most famous event of the heroic ages,
and the most celebrated poets having
sung some one or other of its heroes.
The first two cantos contain an expla-
nation of the motives of the expedition,
the election of Jason as commander-in-
chief, the preparations for departure, and
a narrative of the incidents that marked
the voyage from Chalcis. The third
describes the conquest of the Golden
Fleece, and the beginning of Medea's love
for Jason, the development of which forms
the finest portion of the poem. Her hesi-
tations and interior struggles supplied
Virgil with some of his best material for
the fourth book of the Æneid. In the
fourth canto, Medea leaves her father to
follow Jason. This book is full of inci-
dent. The Argonauts go through the
most surprising adventures, and encounter
perils of every description, before they
are able to reach the port from which
they started. These various events have
allowed the poet to introduce brilliant
mythological pictures, such as his account
of the Garden of the Hesperides. The
work has been frequently translated into
almost every modern language, and is ad-
mittedly the masterpiece of Alexandrian
literature. The Argonautica) of Vale-
rius Flaccus is an imitation of that of
Apollonius, while the style is that of Vir-
gil. Quintilian and other contemporaries
of the author considered the imitation
superior to the original. Most modern
scholars, however, regard it as without
originality or invention, and as a mere
tasteless display of erudition.
Mahābhārata of Krishna-Dwaipayana
Vyasa, The. This great Indian
epic has been compared to a national
bank of unlimited resources, upon which
all the poets and dramatists of succeed-
ing ages have freely drawn, so that
scarcely a Sanskrit play or song lacks
references to it. As the compilation
of long series of poets, it contains not
only the original story of the Kaurava-
Pandava feud, but also a vast number
of more or less relevant episodes : it is
a storehouse of quaint and curious sto-
ries. It tells of the mental and moral
philosophy of the ancient Rishis, their
discoveries in science, their remarkable
notions of astronomy, their computations
of time, their laws for the conduct of
life, private and public, their grasp of
political truths worthy of Machiavelli.
Stories and histories, poems and ballads,
nursery tales and profound discourses on
art, science, daily conduct, and religion,
are all sung in sonorous verse. Written
in the sacred language of India, it is the
Bible of the Hindus, being held in such
veneration that the reading of a single
Parva or Book was thought sufficient to
cleanse from sin. It has been translated
into English prose by Kisari Mohan
Ganguli, and published in fifteen octavo
volumes. Sir Edwin Arnold has trans-
lated the last two of the eighteen parvas
into blank verse; and in his preface he
gives a succinct analysis of the epic
which has been called “the Fifth Veda. "
To ordinary readers much of the fig-
urative language of the Mahābhārata'
seems grotesque, and the descriptions are
often absurd; but no one can help being
amazed at its enormous range of sub-
jects, the beauty of many of the stories
it enshrines, and the loftiness of the mo-
rality it inculcates. In grandeur it may
well be compared to the awe-inspiring
heights of the Himalayas.
تیری تربیت کے لیے عالي - ملا ق کر کے تے مولا علی
Gol
ulistan, or Rose Garden, by Sa'di.
(The Sheikh Muslih-ud-din was his
real name. ) He was born about 1193 at
Shiraz; and after many years of travel
(once captured by the Christian Crusa.
ders he was fighting), and visiting all
the chief countries and cities of Asia, he
settled down in a hermitage at Shiraz,
and wrote many works, including the
(Gulistan. He has been called "The
Nightingale of Shiraz,) and his works
«the salt-cellar of poets. ) Emerson so
admired him that he frequently used his
name as an alias in his poems. Sa'di's
daughter married the poet Hafiz. The
(Gulistan) is a poetical work, and con-
sists of fascinating stories or anecdotes,
## p. 64 (#100) #############################################
64
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
son.
to
as
with a moral, like the parables of the
Bible. They are replete with homely
wisdom and life experience; the prose
portions are interspersed with verses out
of Sa'di's wide experience of the man-
ners and customs of many men. Their
great charm can only be known by
reading them. Delicacy, simplicity, and
bonhomie are the chief features of Sa'di's
style.
Heimskringla, The, by Snorri Sturla-
This chronicle of the kings of
Norway (from the earliest times down
1177), sometimes known the
(Younger Edda) or the Mythic Ring
of the World,' was originally written in
Icelandic, in the early part of the thir-
teenth century. It has always been a
household word in the home of every
peasant in Iceland, and is entertaining
reading to those who read for mere
amusement, as well as to the student of
history; being full of incident and anec-
dote, told with racy simplicity, and giv-
ing an accurate picture of island life at
that early day. Short pieces of scaldic
poetry originally recited by bards are in-
terspersed, being quoted by Snorri as his
authorities for the facts he tells. The
writer, born in Iceland in 1178, was ed-
ucated by a grandson of Sæmund Sig-
fusson, author of the Elder Edda,' who
doubtless turned his pupil's thoughts in
the direction of this book. A descendant
of the early kings, he would naturally
like to study their history. He became
chief magistrate of Iceland, took
active part in politics, and was murdered
in 1241 by his two sons-in-law, at the
instigation of King Hakon. His book
was first printed in 1697, in a Latin
translation, having been inculcated in
manuscript, or by word of mouth, up to
that time. It was afterwards translated
into Danish and English, and may be
regarded as a classic work.
Chanson de Roland. This is the cul-
mination of a cycle of Chansons de
Geste) or Songs of Valor, celebrating the
heroic achievements of Charlemagne, and
inspired especially by the joy and pride
of the triumph of Christian arms over the
Mohammedan invasion, which, through
the gate opened by the Moors of Spain,
threatened to subdue all Europe. The
Song of Roland or of Roncesvalles cele-
brates the valor of Roland, a Count Pal-
adin of Charlemagne, who, on the retreat
of the King from an expedition against
the Moors in Spain, is cut off with the
rear-guard of the army in the pass of
Roncevaux; and, fatally wounded in the
last desperate struggle, crawls away to
die beneath the shelter of a rock, against
which he strikes in vain his sword Du-
randal, in the effort to break it so that
it may not fall into the hands of his en-
emy: -
"Be no man your master who shall know the
fear of man:
Long were you in the hands of a captain
Whose like shall not be seen in France set
free!
The French text of the "Chanson) was
first published in Paris by M. Francisque
Michel in 1837, and afterward in 1850 by
M. F. Genin. The original form of the
lines above quoted is as follows: –
« Ne vos ait hume ki pur altre feiet !
Mult bon vassal vos ad lung tens tenue :
Jamais u'ert tel in France la solue. "
Around this incident have grown a
multitude of heroic and romantic tales,
which have taken form in all the mediæ-
val literature of Europe; but especially in
Italy, — where however the hero appears
with little more than the name to iden-
tify him,- in the Orlando Furioso) of
Ariosto, and the Orlando Innamorato)
of Boiardo. Tyrwhitt, in his edition of
Chaucer, was the first to call the atten-
tion of English readers to the (Chanson);
but English tradition has it that the
song was sung by the Norman Taillefer
just before the battle of Hastings. The
best and oldest French MS. , called the
«Digby,” is preserved in the Bodleian
library at Oxford.
The French poem
contains 6,000 lines. A Fragment of
1,049 lines, translated in Middle English
from what is known as the Lansdowne
MS. , is published by the Early English
Text Society.
Ogier the Dane.
This story of the
paladin of Charlemagne has ap-
peared in many different forms; but the
earliest manuscript is a chanson de geste,
or epic poem, written by Raimbert de
Paris in the twelfth century. The sub-
ject is still older, and Raimbert is thought
to have collected songs which had been
sung in battle years before. The first
part is entitled “The Anger of Ogier,'
and is descriptive of the feudal life of
the barons of Charlemagne. In a quar-
rel over a game of chess, Charlot, the
son of Charlemagne, kills Beaudoin, the
son of Ogier. Ogier demands the death
an
## p. 65 (#101) #############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
65
of with the
Che past 1
oded in
uck agais
Tod is
is of his e
a" koca
Frant
))
Tarsos!
France
. in 1 1
fo:
of Charlot, but is exiled by Charlemagne,
whom Ogier would have killed but for
the protection afforded by the barons.
Ogier flies to Italy, and Charlemagne de-
clares war against his harborer. Ogier
shuts himself up in Castelfort, and with-
stands a siege of seven years; at the
end of which time, all his followers hav-
ing died, he makes his way to the camp
of Charlemagne and enters the tent of
Charlot. Throwing his spear at the bed
where he supposes Charlot to be asleep,
he escapes into the darkness, crying de-
fiance to Charlemagne. Afterwards he
is captured while sleeping, but by the
entreaties of Charlot the sentence of
death is changed to that of imprison-
ment. The country is invaded by Bra-
hier, a Saracen giant, seventeen feet tall
and of great strength. Ogier is the only
man fit to cope with him, and he refuses
to leave his prison unless Charlot is
delivered up to his vengeance. Charle-
magne accedes, but Charlot's life is saved
by the miraculous interposition of Saint
Michael. The poem ends with Ogier's
combat with the giant, who is conquered
and put to death. Among the tales in
which Ogier figures there is a romance
called Roger le Danois,' the Orlando
Furioso) of Ariosto, and the Earthly
Paradise) of William Morris.
In the fourth lecture he considered the
Hero as Priest, singling out Luther and
the Reformation, and Knox and Puri-
tanism. << These two men we will ac-
count our best priests, inasmuch as they
were our best reformers. )
The Hero as Man of Letters, with
Johnson, Rousseau, and Burns as his
types, forms the subject of Carlyle's fifth
lecture. «I call them all three genuine
Men, more or less; faithfully, for the
most part unconsciously, struggling to be
genuine, and plant themselves on the
everlasting truth of things. ”
Finally, for the Hero as King he se-
lects as the subject of his sixth lect-
ure Cromwell and Napoleon, together
with the modern Revolutionism which
they typify.
« The commander
- he is
practically the summary for us of all
the various figures of Heroism; Priest,
Teacher, whatever of earthly or of spirit-
ual dignity we can fancy to reside in a
man, embodies itself here. ))
Carlyle eulogizes his heroes for the
work that they have done in the world.
His tone, however, is that of fraterniz-
ing with them rather than of adoring
them. He holds up his typical heroes
as patterns for other men of heroic mold
to imitate, and he makes it clear that he
expects the unheroic masses to adore
them. The style of Hero-Worship) is
clearer than that in most of the other
masterpieces of Carlyle, and on this ac-
count is much more agreeable to the
average reader.
There is less exagger-
ation, less straining after epigram.
over
men
feiet
Alex
Sude'
e
(
(
antic
the
especie
eto a?
me 72
Furiani
Dham
5 adet
the
(Char
t that
Heroes,
ar
tings
calitate
e Buzz
each?
to
agte
de Es
Lars
oly Ego
Hero-Worship, and the He.
roic in History, On, by Thomas
Carlyle. Carlyle's Hero-Worship made
its first appearance as
a series of lect-
ures delivered orally in 1840, They
were well attended, and were so popular
that in book form they had considerable
success when published in 1841.