Page:The Religion of the Veda.djvu/118

 The Religion of the Veda virtuous and abstemious; does not the true spirit of research call a halt at the point where rigid mathematic certainty is at an end? The difficulties which have beset Comparative Mythology are of various sorts: First, the unques- tionable delicacy, clear to the point of fragility, of prehistoric materials. Next, the imagination of scholars who incline to such studies is prone, by the very terms of its existence, to be a little excessive. The first results of the science were so striking and fascinating that its development went on too fast, its conclusions became too hasty. May the shades of Theodor Benfey, Adalbert Kuhn, and Max Müller pardon me if I say that their almost poctic genius did at times take flight from the firm carth into sheer cloudland-" where birds can no longer fly." Unquestionably they did compare some myth- ological names because of the faintest and shakiest phonetic resemblances. Intuitive fanciful explana- tions of the most complicated myths do to some extent masquerade as scientific results in their writ- ings, and in the writings of the school that grew up mushroom-like about them. A science based upon vague and general resemblances of both things and words could not be otherwise than faulty both as to its details and its philosophic generalizations. In brief, Comparative Mythology suffered from the 102