Nothing irritates philological mythologists so much, nothing has injured
them so much in the esteem of the public which 'goes into these things a
little,' as the statement that their competing etymologies and discrepant
interpretations of mythical names are mutually destructive. I have been
told that this is 'a mean argument.' But if one chemical analyst found
bismuth where another found iridium, and a third found argon, the public
would begin to look on chemistry without enthusiasm; still more so if one
chemist rarely found anything but inevitable bismuth or omnipresent
iridium. Now Mannhardt uses this 'mean argument.'