Much the same attempt to find the Biblical truth at the bottom of
savage and ancient fable has been recently made by the late M.
Lenormant, a Catholic scholar.[1]


[1] Les Origines de l'Histoire d'apres le Bible, 1880-1884.


In the beginning of the present century Germany turned her
attention to mythology. As usual, men's ideas were biassed by the
general nature of their opinions. In a pious kind of spirit,
Friedrich Creuzer sought to find SYMBOLS of some pure, early, and
Oriental theosophy in the myths and mysteries of Greece. Certainly
the Greeks of the philosophical period explained their own myths as
symbols of higher things, but the explanation was an after-
thought.[1] The great Lobeck, in his Aglaophamus (1829), brought
back common sense, and made it the guide of his vast, his
unequalled learning. In a gentler and more genial spirit, C.
Otfried Muller laid the foundation of a truly scientific and
historical mythology.[2] Neither of these writers had, like Alfred
Maury,[3] much knowledge of the myths and faiths of the lower
races, but they often seem on the point of anticipating the
ethnological method.


[1] Creuzer, Symbolik und Mythologie, 2d edit., Leipzig, 1836-43.

[2] Introduction to a Scientific System of Mythology, English
trans., London, 1844.