酷兔英语
    当前位置:
  1. 首页
  2. 文章
  3. 娱乐英语
  4. 原版小说
  5. 正文

Letters to Dead Authors-Part12_ANDREW LANG(1844-1912)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

0 收藏 0 分享 0 赞

章节正文
文章总共2页
saidst, "were they attributed to the natural elements; and wherefore

did the Gods constantly show themselves, like the sorcerers called



werewolves, in the shape of the perishable beasts?" But, mainly,

thou didst argue that, till the philosophers of the heathen were



agreed among themselves, not all contradicting each the other, they

had no semblance of a sure foundation for their doctrine.



To all this and more, most worshipful Father, I know not what the

heathen answered thee. But, in our time, the learned men who stand



to it that the heathen Gods were in the beginning the pure elements,

and that the nations, forgetting their first love and the



significance of their own speech, became confused and were betrayed

into foul stories about the pure Gods--these learned men, I say,



agree no whit among themselves. Nay, they differ one from another,

not less than did Plutarch and Porphyry and Theagenes, and the rest



whom thou didst laugh to scorn. Bear with me, Father, while I tell

thee how the new Plutarchs and Porphyrys do contend among



themselves; and yet these differences of theirs they call "Science"!

Consider the goddess Athene, who sprang armed from the head of Zeus,



even as--among the fables of the poor heathen folk of seas thou

never knewest--goddesses are fabled to leap out from the armpits or



feet of their fathers. Thou must know that what Plato, in the

"Cratylus," made Socrates say in jest, the learned among us practise



in sad earnest. For, when they wish to explain the nature of any

God, they first examine his name, and torment the letters thereof,



arranging and altering them according to their will, and flying off

to the speech of the Indians and Medes and Chaldeans, and other



Barbarians, if Greek will not serve their turn. How saith Socrates?

"I bethink me of a very new and ingenious idea that occurs to me;



and, if I do not mind, I shall be wiser than I should be by to-

morrow's dawn. My notion is that we may put in and pull out letters



at pleasure and alter the accents."

Even so do the learned--not at pleasure, maybe, but according to



certain fixed laws (so they declare); yet none the more do they

agree among themselves. And I deny not that they discover many



things true and good to be known; but, as touching the names of the

Gods, their learning, as it standeth, is confusion. Look, then, at



the goddess Athene: taking one example out of hundreds. We have

dwelling in our coasts Muellerus, the most erudite of the doctors of



the Alemanni, and the most golden-mouthed. Concerning Athene, he

saith that her name is none other than, in the ancient tongue of the



Brachmanae, Ahana, which, being interpreted, means the Dawn. "And

that the morning light," saith he, "offers the best starting-point



for the later growth of Athene has been proved, I believe, beyond

the reach of doubt or even cavil." {8}



Yet this same doctor candidly lets us know that another of his

nation, the witty Benfeius, hath devised another sense and origin of



Athene, taken from the speech of the old Medes. But Muellerus

declares to us that whosoever shall examine the contention of



Benfeius "will be bound, in common honesty, to confess that it is

untenable." This, Father, is "one for Benfeius," as the saying



goes. And as Muellerus holds that these matters "admit of almost

mathematical precision," it would seem that Benfeius is but a



Dummkopf, as the Alemanni say, in their own language, when they

would be pleasant among themselves.



Now, wouldst thou credit it? despite the mathematical plainness of

the facts, other Alemanni agree neither with Muellerus, nor yet with



Benfeius, and will neither hear that Athene was the Dawn, nor yet

that she is "the feminine of the Zend Thraetana athwyana." Lo, you!



how Prellerus goes about to show that her name is drawn not from

Ahana and the old Brachmanae, nor athwyana and the old Medes, but



from "the root [Greek text], whence [Greek text], the air, or [Greek

text], whence [Greek text], a flower." Yea, and Prellerus will have



it that no man knows the verity of this matter. None the less he is

very bold, and will none of the Dawn; but holds to it that Athene



was, from the first, "the clear pure height of the Air, which is

exceeding pure in Attica."



Now, Father, as if all this were not enough, comes one Roscherus in,

with a mighty great volume on the Gods, and Furtwaenglerus, among



others, for his ally. And these doctors will neither with

Rueckertus and Hermannus, take Athene for "wisdom in person;" nor



with Welckerus and Prellerus, for "the goddess of air;" nor even,




文章总共2页
文章标签:名著  

章节正文
Copyright © 2023 Qeto All rights reserved.
商务合作 | 联系我们 | 关于我们 | 版权声明 | 隐私条款 | 如果智培

京ICP备05059198号-1 京公网安备 11011202003401号