light of a secret treasure stolen from heaven against the will of
contemptuous or jealous divinities. On the other hand, knowledge is
obviously the friend of man. Prometheus is man's champion, and no figure
could make a stronger appeal than his. Indeed, in not a few respects he
approaches the Christian ideal, and must have brought in some measure
the same solution to those who were able to receive it. Few touches in
literature, for instance, are finer than that in which he comforts the
daughters of Ocean, speaking to them from his cross.

The idea of Titanism has become the commonplace of poets. It is familiar
in Milton, Byron, Shelley, and countless others, and Goethe tells us
that the fable of Prometheus lived within him. Many of the Titanic
figures, while they appeared to be blaspheming, were really fighting for
truth and justice. The conception of the gods as jealous and
contemptuous was not confined to the Greek mythology, but has appeared
within the pale of Christian faith as well as in all heathen cults.
Nature, in some of its aspects, seems to justify it. The great powers
appear to be arrayed against man's efforts, and present the appearance
of cruel and bullying strength. Evidently upon such a theory something
must go, either our faith in God or our faith in humanity; and when
faith has gone we shall be left in the position either of atheists or of
slaves. There have been those who accepted the alternative and went into
the one camp or the other according to their natures; but the Greek
legend did not necessitate this. There was found, as in Æschylus, a hint
of reconciliation, which may be taken to represent that conviction so
deep in the heart of humanity, that there is "ultimate decency in
things," if one could only find it out; although knowledge must always
remain dangerous, and may at times cost a man dear.

The real secret lies in the progress of thought in its conceptions of