We may close this section by reproducing the words in which
Buttmann (i. 208 seq.) indicates his disagreement with De Wette
in regard to the treatment of the early legends of the Bible:
they are well worth noting. "Thoroughly familiar with the
antiquities of the race in whose sacred writings these monuments
have been preserved to us, De Wette recognises and follows the
national spirit of that race in their most ancient records. In
this way he discovers amidst these ruins the thread of an old
connection, a kind of epos, the theme of which was the
glorification of the people of Israel, a theme which finds a
prelude even in the primitive history of the human race. This
view is of the first importance for the object he has before him,
which is the true criticism of these books; and for the moment
other considerations must necessarily yield to it. My object in
this whole investigation is only to find the universal element in
the legends of different nations, and especially to discover what
is common property in the myths of the different branches of the
great family of nations to which the Hebrews and the Greeks and we
ourselves alike belong.
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