When we go back to the early history of any people, we find that fact
and fiction are strangely blended, and that the stories told are
largely made up of traditions distorted and exaggerated by imagination
and time. The myth, however, is valuable as representing the first
steps of a nation in the evolution of its literature from a barbaric
state, and as indicating special national characteristics.
The myths of Greece, for example, are chiefly derived from the
traditions extant when the alphabet was invented, and are preserved in
the poetic stories of Homer and Virgil. Combined, they make that
mythology which grew up in Greece, and which now so largely permeates
the literature of every civilized language.
The first stories given in this book are myths. They stand first in
the order of precedence because they stand first in the order of time.
The myths are followed by a few parables and fables, forms of stories
which from the earliest times have been used to apply some
well-established principle of morals to practical conduct.
Next follow legends, where we are called upon to separate the probable
from the improbable, the true from the false. Herodotus, the father of
history, wrote his account of the "Persian Empire" several hundred
years after the events took place which he has recorded. The stories
had been preserved to his day by tradition.
In the traditional stories and in the truer records which follow, the
pupil will see the play of the same emotions and passions which
actuate men at the present time, and the careers of the great
conquerors, Frederic and Napoleon, differ little essentially from
those of Alexander and Cæsar. Tyranny remains the same forever,
encroaching upon human liberty and limiting the field of human
conduct. It will be seen also that from the state of barbarism there
has been a gradual evolution which more and more places men under the
protection of equal laws.
These books are to be used mainly for the stories they contain. By a
simple reproduction in speech or in writing, we have the best possible
language lesson. The value of the books may be entirely lost by
catechisms which demand the literal reproduction of the text.