II.—On Scientific Method in the Interpretation of Popular Myths, with special reference to Greek Mythology.

Extract

Of all the branches of interesting and curious learning, there is none which has been so systematically neglected in this country as mythology—a subject closely connected both with theology and philosophy, and on which those grand intellectual pioneers and architects, the Germans, have expended such a vast amount of profitable and unprofitable labour. The consequence of this neglect has been, that of the few British books we have on the subject, the most noticeable are not free from the dear seduction of favourite ideas, which possess the minds of the writers as by a juggling witchcraft, and prevent them from looking on a rich and various subject with that many-sided sympathy and catholic receptiveness which it requires. In fact, some of our most recent writers on this subject have not advanced a single step, in respect of scientific method, beyond Jacob Bryant, unquestionably the most learned and original speculator on mythology of the last century; but whose great work, nevertheless, can only be compared to a grand chase in the dark, with a few bright flashes of discovery, and happy gleams of suggestion by the way. For these reasons, and to make a necessary protest against some ingenious aberrations of Max Müller, Gladstone, Inman, and Cox in the method of mythological interpretation, I have undertaken to read the present paper; which, if it possess only the negative virtue of warning people to be sober-minded and cautious when entering on a path of so slippery inquiry, cannot be deemed impertinent at the present moment.