genius and growth. Ground was broken in this department by Heyne, whose views have been tested, corrected, and enlarged by a great number of learned, ingenious, and philosophical writers among his own countrymen, specially by Buttmann, Voss, Creuzer, Müller, Welcker, Gerhard, and Preller. The general tendency of the Germans is to start-as Wordsworth does in his Excursion, book iv.-from the position of a devout imaginative contemplation of nature, in which the myths originated, and to trace the working out of those ideas, in different places and at different times, with the most critical research, and the most vivid reconstruction. If in this work they have given birth to a large mass of ingenious nonsense and brilliant guess-work, there has not been wanting among them abundance of sober judgment and sound sense to counteract such extravagances. It may be noticed, however, as characteristic of their over specu lative intellect, that they have a tendency to bring the sway of theological and physical symbols down into a region of what appears to be plain historical fact; so that Achilles becomes a water-god, Peleus a mud-god, and the whole of the Iliad, according to Forchhammer, a poetical geology of Thessaly and the Troad! Going to the opposite extreme from Euhemerus, they have denied the existence even of deified heroes; all the heroes of Greek tradition, according to Uschold, are only degraded gods; and generally in German writers, a preference of transcendental to simple and obvious explanations of myths is noticeable. Creuzer, some of whose views had been anticipated by Blackwell, in Scotland, is especially remarkable for the high ground of religious and philosophical conception on which he has placed the interpretation of myths; and he was also the first who directed attention to the oriental element in Greek mythology-not, indeed, with sufficient discrimination in many cases, but to the great enrichment of mythological material, and the enlargement of philosophical survey. In the most recent times, by uniting the excursive method of Creuzer with the correction supplied by the more critical method of O. Müller and his successors, the science of comparative mythology has been launched into existence; and specially the comparison of the earliest Greek mythology with the sacred legends of the Hindus, has been ably advocated by Max Müller in the Orford Essays (1856). In France, the views of Euhemerus were propounded by Banier (1739). By the British scholars, mythology is a field that has been very scantily cultivated. Besides those already named, Payne Knight, Mackay, Grote in the first volumes of his history, and Keightley are the only names of any note, and their works can in no wise compete in originality, extent of research, in discriminating criticism, or in largeness of view, with the productions of the German school. The best for common purposes is Keightley; the most original, Payne Knight. Recently, G. W. Cox, in a work on Aryan mythology, has pushed the sanscritising tendencies of Max Müller to an extreme which to most minds seems absurd. On the special mythologies of India, Rome, Greece, etc., information will be found under the heads of the respective countries to which they belong. The more important mythological personages are noticed under their own names; see BACCHUS, JUPITER, HERCULES, etc.

MYTHICAL ISLANDS are those mentioned by early writers and navigators, the existence of which is doubtful, since they have never been found in the localities indicated on charts. Nearly all of these were said to be in the Atlantic Ocean, and among them were ATLANTIS (q.v.); also BIMINI, which was said to belong to the Bahama group, but far to the east, and believed by the natives to contain a spring, whose waters would give everlasting youth. See PONCE DE LEON. BRAZIL was, perhaps, the most famous of all these islands on account of its red dyewoods, the name properly denoting dyewood. This island was variously located on the charts of the Middle Ages, and on one drawn in 1436, is also named Terceira. ISLA VERTE, OI Green Rock, was believed by the natives of the Hebrides to be always visible beneath the setting sun. BORANDAN or ST. BRANDON was located on most of the maps of the sixteenth century west of the Canaries, and expeditions were sent in search of it as late as 1721; but as it was never found, it was believed to be inaccessible to mortals by enchantment. It was believed to be the home of Armida (q.v.). THE ISLAND OF SEVEN CITIES was another of the fabulous islands of the sixteenth century, which was particularly noted for its magnificence and wealth. It was to this island that seven bishops and their followers were said to have fled on the conquest of Spain by the Moors. Arriving here, they burned their ships to prevent the return of any possible deserters, and founded seven cities, and whenever navigators touched upon these shores they were never allowed to leave. CIPANGO was another island much searched for by Columbus and other early navigators, and supposed by some to be Japan. GUMMER'S ORE was a fabulous island said to float about in the northern seas, near the southern shores of Norway and Sweden. One navigator placed it on the charts as being just off the coast from Stockholm. ZANGBAR was a mythical island of India, lying in the Indian Ocean. See also LEMURIA. Under this head may also be mentioned the mythical islands of literature, only a few of which can be mentioned. AVALON (q.V.), ISLANDS OF THE BLESSED, in Grecian mythology, were located in the far west, and famous as the abode to which the favorites of the gods were allowed to go without dying. GLUBDUBDRIB, LAPUTA, and LUGGNAGG are all islands mentioned by Swift in Gulliver's Travels. ISLAND OF LANTERNS, in a satire by Rabelais, was noted as the abode of false pretenders to knowledge. BARATARIA is an island-city in Don Quixote over which Sancho Panza ruled for a time. The NEW ATLANTIS was an island on