Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/450

 Pottery. 393 According to him, we have here a whole theory of spontaneous generation, a graphic exposition of a naive hypothesis, by which the awakening intelligence of the men of that period strove to explain the origin of living beings, an hypothesis which was afterwards taken up by Ionian philosophers, and invested by them with an outward show of science. If the theory be tenable, Fio. 479. —Decoration on cuvcr of ewer. the comix)sition should be considered as the earliest expression of beliefs traceable through successive ages down to our own day. Such beliefs are still current among the fishermen of our coasts, who firmly believe that ducks are produced from barnacles. Time was when the tales relating to the metamorphoses of the barnacle were retailed by travellers, and even by sober-minded naturalists.' ' Ui>on ihe belief in question see Max Miiller, Ne%u Lessons oh the Sdence of Language.