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the English language , ore superstructure - tion , should be a mixture of slang and blasphemy . The lesson might not be altogether thrown away , if out missionaries would thence draw the inference that they must begin by imparting positive ideas . It is useless to preach religious doctrines , or even morality , to a people who view not a single thing in the same light with ourselves . They must be treated as children with the minds of men ; that is , as if they possessed the quick apprehension of tlie former , with the retentive and collative faculty of the latter . Unhappily , our missionaries themselves are usually mere children as to knowledge of the world , and old women as to obstinacy and perverseness : the result of their labours being consequently nihil .
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eye , was , . sprang back , and laughed , and cried" Cruel and proud old women , I have your eye ; and I will throw it into the sea , unless you tell me the path to the Gorgon , and swear to me that you tell me right . " Then they wept , and chattered , and scolded ; but in vain- They were forced to tell the truth , though , when tley told it , Perseus could hardly make out the road . " You must go , " they said , " foolish boy , to the southward , into the ugly glare of the sun , till you come to Atlas the Giant , who holds the heaven and the earth apart . And you must ask his daughters , the Hesperides , who are young and foolish , like yourself . And now give us ba « k our eye ; for we have forgotten all the r « sfc . "
So Perseus gave them back their eye : but instead of using it , they nodded and fell fast asleep , and were turned into blocks of ice , till the tide came up and-washed them all away . And now they float up and down like icebergs for ever , weeping whenever they ineet the sunshine , and the fruitful summer , and the warm south wind , which fill young hearts with joy . But Perseus leaped away to tlie southward , leaving the snow and the ice behind ; past the isle of the Hyperboreans , and the tin isles , and the long Iberian shore ; while the sun rose higher day by day upon a bright blue summer sea . And the terns and the seagulls swept laughing round his head , and called to him
KItfGSLEY'S HEROES . The Heroes ; or , Greek Fairy Tales for My CJiildren . By the Rev . C . Kingsley . With Eight Illustrations , by the Author . Macmill . m and Co . What Niebuhr charmingly did for his son Marcus , Kingsley has done , like a poet , for his children , Rose , Maurice , and Mary : taken the Greek myths , and ,. divesting them of all scholastic apparatus , told them as fairy tales . But although Kingsley ' s genius is so immeasurably greater than that of Niebuhr . and his versions show in every page the traces of that superiority , there is one point in which his inferiority is manifest . Niebuhr forgot that he was an historian , a scholar , and a sceptic , when telling his boy the stories of Grecian mythology ; Kingsley will not forget , nor suffer us to forget , that he is a parson . All his writings have a sermonising tendency . The very gods of Greece cannot be left in their marble nakedness , but must have a surplice flung over them . His manuscripts are always thrust into the black leather case , which we could so willingly see on the pulpit desk only .
In the preface to this child ' s book the w rd God is flung about with amazing recklessness , meant to be impressive , but impressing us only with a feeling of the writer ' s extraordinary want of taste . In the space of forty-four lines God is mentioned eleven times . Jesus Christ thrice , and St . Paul once—all purporting that , if the Greeks were a wonderful people , it was God who made them so ( which one did not require to be told ) , and that the } ' ceased to worship God , giving themselves to idols of wood and stone—which will make scholars and philosophers stare . Mr . Kingsley loves the old Greeks , and says so ; hut he cannot say so without dragging in the Bible : he cannot teach his children to love the Greeks without at the same time giving them a sermon . If lie could only hear what people say of his preface * and warm admirers among them 3 he would at once issue his charming book without that blot ; and as his friends are not likely to tell him what they hear , it is for us to do so .
Onee having got over the preface , ' the render will meet with nothing but what he can admire in this volume . The surplice is cast aside on quitting the ves'ry , and the poet only appears . The stories chosen are Perseus , the Argonauts , and Theseus . Let us hope the other legends are to follow . Better than all criticism will be an extract of sufficient length to exhibit the manner in which the stories are told , aucl for this purpose we
select—HOW PERSEUS SLEW THE GOKGON . So Perseus started on his journey . . g 6 ing dry-shod over land and sea ; and his heart -was high and joyful , for the winged sandals bore him each , day a seven days'journey . And he went by Oythnus , and by Geos , and tlie pleasant Gyclades to Attica ; and past Athens , and Thebes , and the Copaic lake , and up the vale of Cephissus , and past the peaks of GSta and Piudus , and over the rich Thessalian plains , till the sunny hills of Greece wore behind him , and before him were the wilds of the north . Then he passed the Thraciau mountains , and many a barbarous tribe , Pseons aad Xtardans and Triballi , till he came to the later stream , and the dreary Scyttrian plains . And be walked across the Ister dry-shod , and away through thajnoars and fens , day and night towards the bleak north-west , turning neither to the right hand nor the left , till he came to tlie Unshapen Land , and the place which has no name .
And seven days he walked through it , on a path which few can tell ; for those who have trodden it like least to speak of it , and those who go there again in dreams are glad enough when they awake ; till he came to the edge of the everlasting night , where the air was full of feathers , and the soil was Lard with ice ; and there at last be found the three Grey Sisters , by the shore of the freesriug sea , nodding upon a white log of drift-wood , beneath the cold white winter moon ; and they chauntod a low song together , " Why , the old times were better than the new . " There was no living thiug around them , not a fly , not a moss upon the rocks . Neither seal nor sea-gull dare come near , lost the ice should clutch them in its claws . The Burge broke up in foam , but it fell again in flakes of snow ; and it frosted the hair of the three Grey Sisters , and the bones in the ice-cliff above their heads . They passed the eye from ouo to " < tho other , but for all that they could not sec ; and they passed the toothjfroru one to the other , but for all that they could not cat ; and they sat in the full glare of the moon , but they were none the warmer for her beams . And Peraeus pitied the three'Grey Sisters ; but tlioy did not pity themselves .
So he said , "Oh vonerable mothers , wisdom in the dauglr ter of old ago . You therefore whould know many things . Toll me . if you can , the path to the Gorgon ?" Then ouo cried , " " Who xh this who roproaobos us with old nge ? " And another , " This is the voice of ono of the children of nieu . " And lie , — " I do not reproach , but honour your old age , and I am ono of the sonB of men and of the- horoes . Tho rulora of Olympus have sent me to you to auk tho way to the Gorgon . " * Then ono— " There are now rulorn in Olympus , find all now things are bad . " And another— " We hate your rnlors , and tho heroes , and all tho children of
men . Wo are the kindred of tho Titans , and the Giants , and the Gorgona , and tho anoiont monsters of tho deep . " And another— " Who is this rash and insolent man , who pushes unbidden into our world ? " And tho first , — * There never was buoIx ft world aa ours , nor will bo ; if wo lot him sec it , ho will spoil it all . " u n- n ° U 0 C 1 ' * * » " ^ »» o tho oyo , that I may aoo him ; ami another , — Uivo mo tho tooth , that I may bite him . " » But Perueua , vylieu ho saw that they wore foolish and proud , and did uot lovo tho children of n \ on , loft oiF pitytug thorn , and tauid to himnelf , " Hungry xnon must ncoda b « hasty ; if I utay making many Tvordn hero , I ahull bo tttarvod . " Thou ho utopped olono to thoin , aua -watched till they pujsod tho oyo from hand to hand . And us they groped RDowt between thomBolvea , ho held out hia own haud goutly , till ono of them put
to stop and play , and the dolphins gambolled up as he passed , and offered to carry him on their backs . And all night long the sea-nymphs sang sweetly , and the Tritons blew upon their conchs , as they played round Galatea their queen , in her car of pearled shells . Day by day the sun rose higher , and leaped more swiftly into the sea at night , and more swiftly out of the sea at dawn ; while Perseus skimmed over the billows like a sea-gull , and his feet were never wetted ; and leapt on from wave to wave , and Iris limbs were never weary , till lie saw far away a mighty mountain , all rose-red in the setting sun . Its feet were wrapped in forests , and its head in wreaths of cloud ; and Perseus knew that it was Atlas , who holds the heavens and the earth apart .
He came to the mountain , and leapt on shore , and wandered upward , among pleasant valleys and waterfalls , and tall trees , and sti'ange ferns and flowers ; but there was no smoke rising from any glen , nor house , nor sign of man . At last he heard sweet voices singing ; and he guessed that be was come to the garden of the Nymphs , the daughters of the Evening Star . They sang like nightingales among the thickets , and Perseus stopped to heal their song ; but the words which they spoke he could not understand ; no , nor no man after him for many a lumdred years . So Tie stepped forward and saw them dancing , hand in hand around the charmed tree , 'which , - bent under its golden fruit ; and round the tree-foot was coiled the Dragon , old Ladon , the sleepless snake , who lies there for ever , listening to the song of the maidens , blinking and watching with dry bright eyes . Then Perseus stopped , not because he feared the dragon , but because he was bashful before * those fair maids ; but when they saw him , they too stopped , and called to him with trembling
voices" Who are you ? Are you Heracles the mighty , who will come to rob our garden , and carry off our golden fruit ? " And he answered—• ' I am not Heracles the mighty , and I want none of your golden fruit . Tell me , fair nymphs , the way , which leads to the Gorgon , that I . may'go on my way and slay her . " " ^ N ot yet , not yet , fair boy ; come dance with us around the tree , in the garden which , knows no winter ^ the home of the south wind and the sun . Come hitker and play with us awhile ; we have danced alone here for a thousand-years , and our hearts are weary with longing for a playfellow . So come , come , . come 1 " "I cannot dance with you , fair maidens ; for I must do the errand of the Immortals . So , tell me the way to the Gorgon , lest I wander and perish in the waves . " Then they sighed and wept ; and answered , — " The Gorgon ! she will freeze . you into stone . " in stallThe
"It is better to die like a hea-o than to live like an ox a . Immortals have lent me weapons , and they will give me wit to use them . " Then they sighed again and answered , — " Fair boy , if you are bent on your own . ruin , be it so . We know not the way to the Gorgon : but we will ask the giant Atlas , above upon the mountain peak , the brother of our father , the silver Evening Star . He sits aloft and sees across the ocean , and far away into the Unshapen Land . " So they went up the mountain to Atlas their uncle , and Perseus went up witU them . And they found the giant kneeluig , as he held the heavens and the earth apart . They asked him , and he answered mildly , pointing to the sea-board with his mighty hand ; " I can see the Govgons lying on aix island far away , but this youth can never come near them , unless he has the hat of darkness , which whosoever wears cannot be seen . " Then cried Perseus , " Where is that bat , that I may find it ?"
But tho giant smiled . " No living mortal can find that Lat , for it lies iu the depths of Hades , in tlie regions of the dead . But my nieces are immortal , and they shall fetjeh it for you , if you will promise mo one thing and keep your faith . " Then Perseus promised ; and tlie giant said—" When you come back with the head of Medusa , you shall show me the beautiful horror , that I may lose my feeling and my breathing , and become a stone for aver ; for it is weary labour for me to hold the heavens and the earth apart . " Then Perseus promised , aud . the eld « st of the' nymphs went down , and into a dark cavern among the cliffs , out of which came smoke and thunder , for it was ono of the mouths of Hell . And Perseus and the nymphs sat down soven days , and waited trembling , till tho nymph came up again ; and hor face was pale , and her eyes dazzled with the light , ' for she had been long in tho dreary darkness ; but iu hor hand was the magic hat .
Then all tho nymphs kissod Persons , and wopt over him a long while ; but he wna only impatient to bo gone . And at last they put tlio hat upon his head , and he vanished out of their sight , But PoreoviB went on boldly , past m « ny an ugly night , for away into tho heart of tho Uushapeu Laud , boyond tho streams of Oconu , to tho isles where no alni oruiaod , whore is noithor night nor day , whoro nothing i » in its right place , and nothing has a name ; till ho board tho rustic of tho Gorgona' wings , and saw the glitter of their braison talons ; and then ho know that it was time to halt , lest Modua . v should freeze him into stone . He thought awhile with lxim « clf , and romomborod Athene ' s worda . Ho roen nlofr . into tho air , and hold tUo mirror of tho shield above bia head , »» d looke < up into it that ho might seo all that was below him . And ho flaw the throo Gorgons flleopiug , aa huge as olophtvntn . Ho know tlm
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and theref of its of Christian civilisa the into itfancying that it the handof her sisterThen he January 26 , 1856 ] THE LE ADER , ____ q 9
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 26, 1856, page 89, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2125/page/17/
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