While observation, and thought upon observation,
and the organized knowledge or science which results from these,
progressed as regarded the myths and legends of other countries,
and an atmosphere was thus produced giving purer conceptions of the
world and its government, myths of that little geographical region
at the eastern end of the Mediterranean retained possession of the
civilized world in their original crude form, and have at times
done much to thwart the noblest efforts of religion, morality, and
civilization.
II. MEDIAEVAL GROWTH OF THE DEAD SEA LEGENDS.
The history of myths, of their growth under the earlier phases of
human thought and of their decline under modern thinking, is one of
the most interesting and suggestive of human studies; but, since to
treat it as a whole would require volumes, I shall select only one
small group, and out of this mainly a single myth--one about which
there can no longer be any dispute--the group of myths and legends
which grew upon the shore of the Dead Sea, and especially that one
which grew up to account for the successive salt columns washed out
by the rains at its southwestern extremity.
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