INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 1. AURORA,. Frontispiece Guido Réni, Italian painter, 1575-1642. Ceiling fresco, Ros- Jean Antoine Houdon, French sculptor, 1741-1828. Museum 5. JUPITER, . 74 Sculptor unknown; brought from Otricoli, Umbria, to the 6. PROMETHEUS AND MINERVA, 82 Thorwaldsen (as above). 7. IPHIGENIA, E. Hübner, German painter, 1842-. 8. ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE, Robert Beyschlag, German painter, 1838-. 114 134 Laurence Alma-Tadema, Belgian painter, 1836-. II. CUPID AND PSYCHE, 174 Edward Burne-Jones, English painter, 1833-. OPPOSITE PAGE 12. CUPID SHARPENING HIS ARROW, 188 16. THE HOLY GRAIL, . W. L. Taylor, American painter, 1854-. 268 FOUNDATION STUDIES IN LITERATURE. INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. EVER since the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey" of Homer were recognized as literary masterpieces, writers of all nations have found in them not only subjects for the exercise of their own genius, but an inexhaustible fund of illustration which in these days we call mythological and classical allusions. Greek mythology has become so interwoven with our literature that some knowledge of it is absolutely necessary on the part of the reader of modern history, poetry, essays, or even fiction, if he would read with ease and any true appreciation of the thought of the author. The average reader passes over these allusions as he does over the French and German quotations, not quite satisfied, but having neither the time nor the opportunity to consult the proper reference book. And even if both time and opportunity are at his disposal, what a waste of energy is involved in the process! What a slow, laborious, unsatisfactory method of acquiring knowledge is that which presupposes the constant use of a dictionary or encyclopædia! Of course these and other books of reference have their place and are indispensable to every student, but when one is reading for pleasure or for culture, and especially when one is reading poetry, the frequent interruption to look up allusions destroys the reader's pleasure utterly. Yet students are urged to do this by teachers and writers who are supposed to be competent guides for young readers. One writer on this subject says, "Until the habit of looking up allusions has been acquired and practised, a reader does not know what he has lost of possible knowledge of the pertinence of illustration, example, and analogy, borrowed from another avenue of literature than the one through which the author is leading him. Unfortunately only the few are well versed in historical knowledge, legendary and mythological lore, the language of art, and the learning of science. Yet, if a reader follow the author's lead every time, he will soon find that he brings to his reading an ever-increasing fund of desirable information which can be applied over and over again." Now we claim if our reading were guided aright, if teachers had the right ideas of selection and arrangement, we could gain from literature itself the power to interpret other literature. The myths, as we find them in our hand-books of mythology or in our classical dictionaries, have no especial merit; it is their adaptability for illustration that commends them to authors of all times and conditions, that shows them to be of permanent interest to the reading world. The educational value of the study of mythology has been underestimated by the great |