Thus each myth reveals itself
to me as existing for itself, having a basis and completeness of
its own, and even when I find it in other nations I at once assert
for it its character as already known to me. Thus De Wette and I
come to differ in the view we take of individual myths. To him they
commonly appear as spontaneous free inventions of individual men
for their own purposes; not in the ignoble sense in which the vulgar
view speaks of the religious narratives of ancient peoples, but free
inventions in which there is no intention to deceive. I, on the
contrary, can allow no invention in these oldest portions of
mythology. A true myth is never invented; it is handed down.
It is not true, but it is honest. From small elements which fancy
offered as true, these myths arose and grew, without any contributor
to their growth feeling that he had of himself added to them. Those
only had any conscious intention in the matter, who touched up the
oldest pure myths, and drew them into the great circle of their
national history; and their intention, though conscious, was quite
innocent and harmless, as De Wette describes it.
Pages:
693
694
695
696
697
698
699
700
701
702
703
704
705
706
707
708
709
710
711
712
713
714
715
716
717