Page:White and Blue Vol XIII no. 16, Feb 4 1910.djvu/5

132 and prevent them from separating.' But Brahma, to punish the pride of the tree, cut off its branches and cast them down on the earth, when they sprang up as wata trees, and made differences of belief and speech and custom to prevail on the earth."

In Greece the legend recounts how the Aloidae piled Mount Ossa upon Olympus and then, in turn, Mont Pelion upon Ossa, in an effort to reach heaven and overthrow Zeus or Jupiter. Later, in the mind of Plato, the legend was, developed in more serious form. He held that there was a Golden Age in which men and animals all spoke a common tongue; but that, finally, Zeus confounded, their speech because men had become arrogant and demanded eternal youth and immortality.

Among various other peoples, legends concerning the origin of languages existed; but these were mostly less suggestive of the Hebrew narrative. Peoples exchange nothing so readily and so persistently as their stories and wherever races, have-had opportunity for contact we find evidences of such interchange. No greater error could be made, however, than to suppose that resemblances between. The stories of different peoples are necessarily to be accounted for on the ground of contact and borrowing, or of common traditions. By such hasty inference, different men have proved to their own satisfactions that the American Indians have descended from the English, from the Welsh, from the Greeks, from the Romans, from the Chinese, and from other peoples. The cause of resemblances is frequently psychological, for the mind of man is pretty much the same, wherever found, and inclined much to follow the same or closely parallel paths when seeking solutions to identical questions under conditions largely similar. Any one who has observed the untaught child spontaneously asking the same questions generation after generation, and just as spontaneously reaching the same or closely similar conclusions, will recognize the importance of psychological parallels in bringing about general resemblances between many folktales of different primitive peoples irrespective of any physical contact between them.

A person setting out specially to find resemblances between the stories and legends of any two peoples is likely to find them and, perhaps, duly to exaggerate them and to read into them much that is wholly unwarranted. Primitive peoples do not hold in common the view that there is a canopy over the earth because of any common tradition, but only because they are subject to the same optical illusion. And they all believe the sun moves across the sky and that the earth remains still because their minds act in the same way in interpreting identical phenomena. Similarly, they do not attribute a deity to every spring and stream, to volcano and wind, to the thunder and storm, and think of one back of every natural phenomena because of common origin or tradition; they do so because, it is the nature of the human mind in a certain stage of its development so to interpret causation.

The question concerning the origin of differences in tribe and language is one which must necessarily arise and which must necessarily receive some answer among the most diverse peoples and races. Primitive man quite as inevitably regards language as the direct gift of a God as he would look to the same source for the cause of wind or volcano. Diversity in language being obviously a hindrance and an evil among- men would naturally be regarded as brought about by God or by gods in anger at some offense or usurpation among men. The fact that legends concerning a confusion of tongues are widespread and in certain general features similar, is only what might be expected—it is no proof of a common tradition of an actual historical occurrence or of actual physical contacts Correspondence in myths and legends of peoples must be both extensive and detailed to establish community of source or of physical contact.

Only the childish and immature mind can lose by learning that much in the Old Testament is poetical and that some of the stories are not true historically. Poetry is a superior medium for conveying religious truth. "Everyone who perceives the peculiar poetic charm of these old legends must feel irritated by the barbarian—for there are pious barbarians—who think he is putting the true value upon these narratives only when he treats them as prose and history. Only ignorance can regard such a conclusion as irreverent for it is the judgment of reverence and love. These poetic narratives are the most beautiful possessions which a people brings down through the course of its history, and the legends of Israel, especially those of Genesis, are perhaps the most beautiful and most profound ever known on earth."R. V. C.

 A Theme

INTRODUCTION — Of special note to College students.

SUBJECT MATTER—Professor Osmond gave some very excellent dramatic readings from Shakespeare Thursday - evening before the College Club. Some of the most notable passages in dramatic literature were ably interpreted, among them being "I Met a Fool in the Forest," "As You Like It," "Queen Mab," "Romeo and Juliet," "Soliloquy on Sleep," "King Henry IV," second part, and scenes from "Hamlet."

CONCLUSION—If this announcement has been perfectly familiar to you since Thursday evening, then the vantage ground of dutifulness exalts you beyond reproach; but, if it sounds a bit "newsy" then surely you're calamity-stricken and conscience-smitten. Your inevitable fate is that that same bad eminence which you have attained is seized by your enemies, who have assumed thereby the power for your own destruction, and are afforded inestimable pleasure in promulgating the truthfulness of your unscrupulous punctuality.

Et tu, Brute

We should like to know what STUDENT LIFE means by publishing such "junk" as that clipping from the "Salt Lake Herald" regarding the U. of U.-B. Y. U. basketball situation. Had you taken trouble to look up the matter you would have found that the article referred to showed a reckless disregard for the facts of the case. Neither by the official schedule nor by any subsequent change was there a U. of U.-B. Y. U. game set for the first semester.. Consequently we could not ask for a postponement for the selfish reasons stated. Very naturally we object to that sort of advertising.

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Fanny McLean, teacher of the Sixth grade in the Training School, is unable to be in school at present, Mrs. Fay Cummings is taking her place temporarily.-

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Mrs. Alice E. Parker will teach dancing every Friday evening from 7-8:30 o'clock at the B. Y. U. gymnasium. For further particulars call at 44 West Center. Phone, 236K—BelL