by no means digested. When, however, these stories are treated in genealogical and realistic sequence and are illustrated by lyric, narrative, and descriptive passages of modern literature, there is furnished not only that material of allusion and reference for which the student nowadays trusts to meagre and disjointed textbook notes, but a potentiality that should render the general reading of belles lettres more profitable. For, a previous acquaintance with the material of literary tradition heightens the appreciation of each allusive passage as it is encountered; it enables the reader to sympathize with the mood and to enter into the purpose of the poet, the essayist, the novelist, the orator; it expands the intellectual lungs for the atmosphere breathed by the artist, at any rate for a literary and social atmosphere less asthmatic than that to which so many of us are unconsciously habituated. Of course, all this advantage would far better result from the first-hand nutriment and discipline of the Greek and Latin classics; of course, direct familiarity with the writers of Greece and Rome is the sine qua non of level-headed criticism and broad evaluation of modern literature; and, of course, a sympathy with the imaginings of old is the best incentive to an æsthetic estimate not only of art, but of nature to-day; but if our American pupils and many of their teachers cannot quaff Massic and Falernian, they do well to scent the bouquet. In time, a sense of flavor may, perchance, be stimulated, and, ultimately, a desire for nearer acquaintance with the literatures that we inherit.

In respect of the plastic arts, a similar indirect instruction may well be conveyed. A modest collection of photographs of the paintings and sculptures that have best represented mythical subjects, would, if used in the school and at home in connection with the study of classic myths, avail much toward lifting our American public from the dead level of apathy and provinciality in matters of imagination. A ray of artistic culture, even though refracted through the medium of photography, might, at least, illuminate guides that now make hard for ditches, might clarify the

ideals of callow youth, and orient the "chorus of indolent reviewers."

For, a second specific advantage to be derived from this study is that it quickens the aesthetic judgment, and heightens the enjoyment of such works of literature and art as not treating of mythical or classical subjects still possess the characteristics of the classic the unconscious simplicity, the inevitable charm, and the noble ideality. The Lycidas, the Adonais, the Thyrsis, the In Memoriam, the Ode to Duty, the Bothie of Tober-na-Vuolich, the Hymn of Man, Love is Enough, Prospice, Festus, the Ode of Life, the Dream of Gerontius, Lying in the Grass, and Simmenthal must mean little to one devoid of the spirit of classicism.

3. A few hints to teachers of the Classic Myths in their relation to English Literature may, perhaps, be acceptable.

From the outset care should be taken that pupils give to the classical names their proper accent, and that they anglicize both vowels and consonants according to the recognized rules laid down in the Latin grammars, and the English dictionaries.

Mythological and classical geography must also be carefully studied. The maps accompanying this volume will be serviceable; but there should be in the class-room one of Kiepert's maps of the World as Known to the Ancients (Orbis Veteribas Notus), or maps of Ancient Italy, Greece, and Asia Minor. The teacher

will find The International Atlas (G. P. Putnam's Sons, N.Y.), A. Keith Johnston's School and College Atlas of Ancient Geography, or the new edition of the same by James Cranstoun issued as Ginn and Company's Classical Atlas, indispensable in the prosecution of general reading.

Most of the myths will naturally be studied out of class and recited in class. Some of the longer ones, however, such as the Wanderings of Ulysses, or the Adventures of Æneas, might in the latter part of the course be read aloud in class for some fifteen minutes every day, in order that interest in the narrative as a whole may be maintained while careful and continual review is had of the numerous allusions and references to earlier myths

that each of the longer narratives contains. Throughout the course, all stories and all minutiæ should be kept fresh in the mind of the pupil, whether by oral reviews, informal and frequent questioning, or by compositions and written examinations. The knowledge of the myths and the proper perspective of their relation, one to another, should be fixed by the study of the family ties that motivate many of the incidents of mythical adventure, and that must have been commonplaces of information to the inventors and narrators of these stories.

The myths may well be reproduced as exercises in narration, comparison, description; and they may be regarded as stimulus for imaginative invention concerning local wonders and beauties of nature. Pupils may also be encouraged to consider, and to comment upon, the moral qualities of the heroes and heroines of mythology. Thus they may be led to recognize the difference between ancient and modern standards of right and wrong. To this end, and for the supply of further nutriment, it is important that teachers collect from their reading of the classic originals, or from translations of the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Greek dramatists, the Eneid, the Metamorphoses, etc., material supplementary to the text, and give it freely to their classes. To facilitate this practice, the sources of the myths have been indicated in the footnotes of this volume, and a few of the best translations have been mentioned in §§ 10-12 of the Commentary. Instructors should also read to the classes illustrative English poems, or portions of them based upon the myths under consideration; and they should encourage the pupils to collect from their English reading additional examples of the literary survival or adaptation of ancient fable. For this purpose special sections of the Commentary have been prepared indicating some of the best-known literary applications of each myth.

The myths should provide not only nutriment for thought, but material for memory. Our youth in the push for scientific facts and methods, so-called discipline, and literary acquisition, masticate little, swallow everything, digest nothing, and having agon

:

ized, forget. If fewer things were despatched, especially in the study of literature, and if more were entrusted to the memory, there would be something to assimilate, and time to assimilate it; there would be less dyspepsia and more muscle. Teachers and parents are over-considerate, nowadays, of the memory in children they approach it gingerly; they have feared so much to wring its withers that in most children the memory has grown too soft for saddling. In our apprehension lest pupils may turn out parrots, we have too often turned them out loons. It is better that a few of the facts in their heads be wrong, than that no facts be there at all. With all our study of children and our gabble about methods of teaching them, while we insist, properly enough, that youth is the seed-time of observation, we seem to have forgotten that it is also the harvest-time of memory. It is easy for children to remember what they learn, it is a delight for them to commit to memory; we act criminally when we send them forth with hardly a fact, or a date, or a glorious verse in the memory of one out of ten of them. Such unfortunately is the case in many of our schools; and such was not the case in the day of our fathers. Pupils should be encouraged to recite memoriter the best poems and verses that accompany the myths here given; and they should not be allowed to pass allusions already explained without recalling verses that contain them.

But, above all things, should be cultivated, by means of this study, the spiritual capabilities of our youth. Pabulum for thought, accurate habits of memory, critical judgment, simplicity and directness of oral and written expression may all be furnished or developed by other educative agencies; but what stimulus to fancy, to poetic sensitiveness and reflection, to a near kinship with the spirit of nature humanized can be found more cogent than the contemplation of the poetic traditions that abide in verse? Mythology, fraught with the fire of imagination, kindles the present from the past.

In this new world of ours, shall slopes and mountains, gorges, cañons, flowery fields and forests, rivers, bays, Titanic lakes, and

shoreless reach of ocean be seen of eyes that lack insight, be known of men for whom nature does not live? Surely the age of myth is not yet wholly past; surely the beaut:es and the wonders of nature are a fable of things never fully revealed ; surely this new republic of ours, no less than her prototypes by Tyrrhenian and Egean seas, utters, in her queenly form and flowing robes, a spirit, a truth, a potential poetry, and a beauty of art, the mere grace of which we Americans for lack of imaginative training, and sympathy, and awe have not yet valued, and have yet to apprehend.

With young pupils, the teacher will probably find it best to begin recitations in this book at the fourth chapter (Greek Myths of the Creation). The first three chapters may be deferred until the class is better able to understand them, or may be summarized in informal talks supplementary to the earlier recitations. Pupils of advanced classes in the High Schools will experience no difficulty in mastering these chapters when they come to review them.

Since the myths are presented in a logical and genealogical arrangement, they should be recited in this order. When there is not time for detailed recitation on the whole book, some of the longer narratives, such as the Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid, or the Norse Myths, might be read at home, and reported in class by way of oral or written composition, once a week or fortnight. These narratives should not, however, be assigned in arbitrary and inconsequential fragments; their epical quality must be emphasized.

The Commentary is numbered in sections corresponding to those of the text. The Textual and Interpretative Notes should be studied by older pupils in connection with each lesson. But they should not be suffered to spoil the interest in the stories, as such. Allusions and interpretations which the younger pupil does not appreciate will, if the book is used for purposes of reference in his further English, Latin, or Greek studies, be clear before the end of his course. The masterpieces mentioned in the Illustrative Notes will suggest subjects for further study and for exercises in English Composition.