In the Wrong Paradise, and Other StoriesLang, Andrew
Science
In the Wrong Paradise, and Other Stories
Lang, Andrew
Paranormal fiction; Science fiction, English; Short stories; Slavery -- Fiction
more freedom and less responsibility," and to "have made it hot for his
enemies," expressions transparently mythical. If more evidence were
wanted, it would be found in the myth which represents Gladstone as the
opponent of Huxley. As every philologist knows, Huxley, by Grimm's law,
is Huskley, the hero of a "husk myth" (as Ralston styles it), a brilliant
being enveloped in a husk, probably the night or the thunder-cloud. The
dispute between Gladstone and Huskley as to what occurred at the Creation
is a repetition of the same dispute between Wainamoinen and Joukahainen,
in the Kalewala of the Finns. Released from his husk, the opponent
becomes Beaconsfield = the field of light, or radiant sky.
In works of art, Gladstone is represented as armed with an axe. This, of
course, is probably a survival from the effigies of Zeus Labrandeus, den
Man auf Munsen mit der streitaxt erblickt (Preller, i. 112). We hear of
axes being offered to Gladstone by his worshippers. Nor was the old
custom of clothing the image of the god (as in the sixth book of the
"Iliad") neglected. We read that the people of a Scotch manufacturing
town, Galashiels, presented the Midlothian Gladstone (a local hero), with
"trouserings," which the hero graciously accepted. Indeed he was
remarkably unlike Death, as described by AEschylus, "Of all gods, Death
only recks not of gifts." Gladstone, on the other hand, was the centre
of a lavish system of sacrifice--loaves of bread, axes, velocipedes,
books, in vast and overwhelming numbers, were all dedicated at his
shrine. Hence some have identified him with Irving, also a deity
propitiated (as we read in Josephus Hatton) by votive offerings. In a
later chapter I show that Irving is really one of the Asvins of Vedic
mythology, "the Great Twin Brethren," or, in mythic language, "the
Corsican Brothers" (compare Myriantheus on the Asvins). His inseparable
companion is Wilson-Barrett.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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