The same is found in the Scandinavian cosmogonical fragment. In the _Edda_ is given the description to Gangler by Har, one of the three informants (Har, Jafuhar, and Tredi) of the first man, called Bur, “the father of Bör, who took for wife Besla, a daughter of the giant Bölthara, of the race of the primitive giants.” The full and interesting narrative may be found in the _Prose Edda_, sects. 4-8, in Mallett’s _Northern Antiquities_.[224] The same groundwork underlies the Grecian fables about the Titans; and may be found in the legend of the Mexicans—the four successive races of _Popol-Vuh_. It constitutes one of the many ends to be found in {123} the entangled and seemingly inextricable skein of mankind, viewed as a psychological phenomenon. Belief in supernaturalism would be otherwise inexplicable. To say that it sprang up, and grew and developed throughout the countless ages, without either cause or the least firm basis to rest upon, but merely as an empty fancy, would be to utter as great an absurdity as the theological doctrine that the universe sprang into creation out of nothing. It is too late now to kick against an evidence which manifests itself as in the full glare of noon. Liberal, as well as Christian papers, and the organs of the most advanced scientific authorities, begin to protest unanimously against the dogmatism and narrow prejudices of sciolism. The _Christian World_, a religious paper, adds its voice to that of the unbelieving London press. Following is a good specimen of its common sense: “If a medium,” it says,[225] “can be shown ever so conclusively to be an impostor, we shall still object to the disposition manifested by persons of some authority in scientific matters, to pooh-pooh and knock on the head all careful inquiry into those subjects of which Mr. Barrett took note in his paper before the British Association. Because spiritualists have committed themselves to many absurdities, that is no reason why the phenomena to which they appeal should be scouted as unworthy of examination. They may be mesmeric, or clairvoyant, or something else. But let our wise men tell us what they are, and not snub us, as ignorant people too often snub inquiring youth, by the easy but unsatisfactory apothegm, “Little children should not ask questions.” Thus the time has come when the scientists have lost all right to be addressed with the Miltonian verse, “O thou who, for the testimony of truth, hast borne universal reproach!” Sad degeneration, and one that recalls the exclamation of that “doctor of physic” mentioned one hundred and eighty years ago by Dr. Henry More, and who, upon hearing the story told of the drummer of Tedworth and of Ann Walker, “_cryed_ out presently, _If this be true, I have been in a wrong box all this time, and must begin my account anew_.”[226]