for him,--was and is modified by his own laws of thinking; deep, subtle,
but universal, ever-operating laws. The world of Nature, for every man, is
the Fantasy of Himself. this world is the multiplex "Image of his own
Dream." Who knows to what unnamable subtleties of spiritual law all these
Pagan Fables owe their shape! The number Twelve, divisiblest of all, which
could be halved, quartered, parted into three, into six, the most
remarkable number,--this was enough to determine the _Signs of the Zodiac_,
the number of Odin's _Sons_, and innumerable other Twelves. Any vague
rumor of number had a tendency to settle itself into Twelve. So with
regard to every other matter. And quite unconsciously too,--with no notion
of building up " Allegories "! But the fresh clear glance of those First
Ages would be prompt in discerning the secret relations of things, and
wholly open to obey these. Schiller finds in the _Cestus of Venus_ an
everlasting aesthetic truth as to the nature of all Beauty; curious:--but
he is careful not to insinuate that the old Greek Mythists had any notion
of lecturing about the "Philosophy of Criticism"!--On the whole, we must
leave those boundless regions. Cannot we conceive that Odin was a reality?
Error indeed, error enough: but sheer falsehood, idle fables, allegory
aforethought,--we will not believe that our Fathers believed in these.


Odin's _Runes_ are a significant feature of him. Runes, and the miracles
of "magic" he worked by them, make a great feature in tradition. Runes are
the Scandinavian Alphabet; suppose Odin to have been the inventor of
Letters, as well as "magic," among that people! It is the greatest
invention man has ever made! this of marking down the unseen thought that
is in him by written characters. It is a kind of second speech, almost as
miraculous as the first. You remember the astonishment and incredulity of
Atahualpa the Peruvian King; how he made the Spanish Soldier who was
guarding him scratch _Dios_ on his thumb-nail, that he might try the next