Among Famous Books | Page 6

the main, and as a general description, this is
quite unquestionable. Prometheus is the prototype of a thousand other
figures of the same kind, not in mythology only, but in history, which
tell the story of the spiritual effort of man frustrated and brought to
earth. It is the story of Tennyson's youth who
"Rode a horse with wings that would have flown But that his heavy
rider bore him down."
Only, in the Prometheus idea, it is not a man's senses, as in Tennyson's
poem, but the outward necessity of things, the heavy and cruel powers
of nature around him, that prove too much for his aspirations. In this
respect the story is singularly characteristic of the Greek spirit. That
spirit was always daring with truth, feeling the risks of knowledge and
gladly taking them, passionately devoted to the love of knowledge for
its own sake.
The legend has, however, a deeper significance than this. One of the
most elemental questions that man can ask is, What is the relation of
the gods to human inquiry and freedom of thought? There always has
been a school of thinkers who have regarded knowledge as a thing
essentially against the gods. The search for knowledge thus becomes a
phase of Titanism; and wherever it is found, it must always be regarded
in the light of a secret treasure stolen from heaven against the will of
contemptuous or jealous divinities. On the other hand, knowledge is
obviously the friend of man. Prometheus is man's champion, and no
figure could make a stronger appeal than his. Indeed, in not a few
respects he approaches the Christian ideal, and must have brought in

some measure the same solution to those who were able to receive it.
Few touches in literature, for instance, are finer than that in which he
comforts the daughters of Ocean, speaking to them from his cross.
The idea of Titanism has become the commonplace of poets. It is
familiar in Milton, Byron, Shelley, and countless others, and Goethe
tells us that the fable of Prometheus lived within him. Many of the
Titanic figures, while they appeared to be blaspheming, were really
fighting for truth and justice. The conception of the gods as jealous and
contemptuous was not confined to the Greek mythology, but has
appeared within the pale of Christian faith as well as in all heathen
cults. Nature, in some of its aspects, seems to justify it. The great
powers appear to be arrayed against man's efforts, and present the
appearance of cruel and bullying strength. Evidently upon such a theory
something must go, either our faith in God or our faith in humanity;
and when faith has gone we shall be left in the position either of
atheists or of slaves. There have been those who accepted the
alternative and went into the one camp or the other according to their
natures; but the Greek legend did not necessitate this. There was found,
as in Æschylus, a hint of reconciliation, which may be taken to
represent that conviction so deep in the heart of humanity, that there is
"ultimate decency in things," if one could only find it out; although
knowledge must always remain dangerous, and may at times cost a
man dear.
The real secret lies in the progress of thought in its conceptions of God
and life. Nature, as we know and experience it, presents indeed an
appalling spectacle against which everything that is good in us protests.
God, so long as He is but half understood, is utterly unpardonable; and
no man yet has succeeded in justifying the ways of God to men. But "to
understand all is to forgive all"--or rather, it is to enter into a larger
view of life, and to discover how much there is in us that needs to be
forgiven. This is the wonderful story which was told by the Hebrews so
dramatically in their Book of Job; and the phases through which that
drama passes might be taken as the completest commentary on the
myth of Prometheus which ever has been or can be written.

In two great battlegrounds of the human spirit the problem raised by
Prometheus has been fought out. On the ground of science, who does
not know the defiant and Titanic mood in which knowledge has at
times been sought? The passion for knowing flames through the gloom
and depression and savagery of the darker moods of the student.
Difficulties are continually thrust into the way of knowledge. The
upper powers seem to be jealous and outrageously thwarting, and the
path of learning becomes a path of tears and blood. That is all that has
been reached by many a grim and brave student spirit. But there is
another possible explanation; and there are those who