instinct of the existence of a good being or beings habitually attach to his name or their names the recklessly immoral myths?—is practically left I unsolved. The process lies beyond our ken, beyond the view of history.
The book does not pretend to be exhaustive. For various reasons, the myths of various races are omitted or touched on but in passing. In the first place, I remember the woes predicted for him who "says all that he has to say on any subject." Therefore the myths of the Finns and of the Scandinavians are only alluded to incidentally. Babylonian myths and religion are still in a condition so perplexed and obscure that I have not the audacity to cross their frontier. Had Professor Sayce's Hibbert Lectures on this topic been published while these chapters were unwritten, I might have attempted to use Professor Sayce as a guide in so difficult a region. Roman myths are so entangled with those of Greece (different as is the genius of the Latin people), that I have only borrowed a few illustrations from the practice and belief of Rome. Of Mongolian, Chinese, and Japanese mythology I am almost entirely ignorant, and Celtic developments appear scarcely less hard to understand. Here, too, we may expect much aid from the Hibbert Lectures of Professor Rhys.
The book throughout, where it deals with the myths of the Sanskrit-speaking people and of the Egyptians,
