Page:A book of myths.djvu/19

This page has been validated.

xi

PREFACE

Odyssey and the Iliad, the translations of which probably take rank amongst the finest translations in any language.

The writer will feel that her object has been gained should any readers of these stories feel that for a little while they have left the toilful utilitarianism of the present day behind them, and, with it, its hampering restrictions of sordid actualities that are so murderous to imagination and to all romance.

"Great God! I'd rather be "A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn; "So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, "Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; "Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; "Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn."

JEAN LANG.

Edinburgh, July, 1914.