"The myth," says Hermann, "is the representation of an idea."

If this is so, is it not time that we dismiss, once for all, these American myths from the domain of historical traditions?

An historical myth is a myth that has a known and recognized foundation in historical truth, but with the admixture of a preponderating amount of fiction in the introduction of personages and circumstances.

But I have yet to learn how, if the lowest myths are the earliest, the highest attributes came in time to be conferred on the hero of the lowest myths.

The myth of Qat is a jungle of facetiae and frolic, with one or two serious incidents, such as the beginning of Death and the coming of Night.

" Now, the myth or legend of a grave is a legitimate deduction from the symbolism of the ancient Spurious Masonry.

To the wise farmer the myth of the Augean stables is the genesis of good agriculture.

From this definition it will appear that the myth is really only the interpretation of an idea.

The legend on which it is founded, a mediaeval myth here transferred to classical times, is also the groundwork of Browning's ballad, "The Boy and the Angel.

The myth, then, is a narrative of remote date, not necessarily true or false, but whose truth can only be certified by internal evidence.

All cosmic myths and noble conceptions of Deity and pure religious beliefs were only offshoots of Hebrew tradition.

Thus some of the earlier continental writers have supposed the myth to have been a symbol of the destruction of the Order of the Templars, looking upon its restoration to its original wealth and dignities as being prophetically symbolized.

Myths are the religion of youth, and of primitive, unsophisticated nations; while science may be called the religion of the mature man, full of experience and immersed in the actual.

While in reality, myth and allegory are the essential elements of religion, but under the indispensable condition (because of the intellectual limitations of the great masses) that it supplies enough satisfaction to meet those metaphysical needs of mankind which are ineradicable, and that it takes the place of pure philosophical truth, which is infinitely difficult, and perhaps never attainable.

The painted myth is a new departure, the creation of Giorgione's own brain, and as such, is treated in a wholly unconventional manner.