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CONFLUENCE OF OPPOSITES
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was once a reality; that pot poetic allegory, least of all that dapery and deception were the origin of it. Mep, I Bay, never did believe idle sopge, dever risked their soul'e life on allegories: men in all times, especially in early earnest times, have had an instinct for detecting quacks, for detecting quacks. Let us try if leaving out both the qoack theory and the allegory one, and listening with affectionate attention to that far off confused rumour of the pagan ages, we cannot ascertain so much as this at least, that there was a kind of fact at the heart of them; that they too were pot mendacious and distracted, but in their owo poor way true and gape"-(Heroes and
Hero-Worship). Carlyle, of course, knew nothing about the true interpretaton of these 'Pagan' myths; but the value of his opinion is not lessened in the least thereby; for though unable to penetrate to the core of the secret script in which the mythologies of the world are couched he was fully convinced of real wisdom being the basis of true mythology. But you might ask where is that real wisdom, where the scientific foundation, now which assuredly existed at the time of the framing of these mythologies? How is it that we bave only the mythologies left to us and not the scientific truth? The answer is that the allegorisers were not the original pioneers themselves but highly-gifted Artists, who came afterwards. They were not builders and they dug not their foundations themselves, but were content to embellish and decorate the Edifice of Truth raised by their Predecessors. Where is the scientific truth to be found? Who are these predecessors of the allegory men? Let us classify religions in a tabulated way to understand the narrative of the past. The following arrangement is justified by the conclusions established in the course of these lectures.
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