Proserpine and Midas | Page 7

farther, and claim that there was no essential difference between ancient mythology and the theology of the Christians, that both were interpretations, in more or less figurative language, of the great mysteries of being, and indeed that the earlier interpretation, precisely because it was more frankly figurative and poetical than the later one, was better fitted to stimulate and to allay the sense of wonder which ought to accompany a reverent and high-souled man throughout his life-career.
In the earlier phase of Shelley's thought, this identification of the ancient and the modern faiths was derogatory to both. The letter which he had written in 1812 for the edification of Lord Ellenborough revelled in the contemplation of a time 'when the Christian religion shall have faded from the earth, when its memory like that of Polytheism now shall remain, but remain only as the subject of ridicule and wonder'. But as time went on, Shelley's views became less purely negative. Instead of ruling the adversaries back to back out of court, he bethought himself of venturing a plea in favour of the older and weaker one. It may have been in 1817 that he contemplated an 'Essay in favour of polytheism'.[Footnote: Cf. our _Shelley's Prose in the Bodleian MSS_., 1910, p. 124.] He was then living on the fringe of a charmed circle of amateur and adventurous Hellenists who could have furthered the scheme. His great friend, Thomas Love Peacock, 'Greeky Peaky', was a personal acquaintance of Thomas Taylor 'the Platonist', alias 'Pagan Taylor'. And Taylor's translations and commentaries of Plato had been favourites of Shelley in his college days. Something at least of Taylor's queer mixture of flaming enthusiasm and tortuous ingenuity may be said to appear in the unexpected document we have now to examine.
It is a little draft of an Essay, which occurs, in Mrs. Shelley's handwriting, as an insertion in her Journal for the Italian period. The fragment--for it is no more--must be quoted in full. [Footnote: From the 'Boscombe' MSS. Unpublished.]
The necessity of a Belief in the Heathen Mythology to a Christian
If two facts are related not contradictory of equal probability & with equal evidence, if we believe one we must believe the other.
1st. There is as good proof of the Heathen Mythology as of the Christian Religion.
2ly. that they [do] not contradict one another.
Con[clusion]. If a man believes in one he must believe in both.
Examination of the proofs of the Xtian religion--the Bible & its authors. The twelve stones that existed in the time of the writer prove the miraculous passage of the river Jordan. [Footnote: Josh. iv. 8.--These notes are not Shelley's.] The immoveability of the Island of Delos proves the accouchement of Latona [Footnote: Theogn. 5 foll.; Homer's Hymn to Apollo, i. 25.]--the Bible of the Greek religion consists in Homer, Hesiod & the Fragments of Orpheus &c.--All that came afterwards to be considered apocryphal--Ovid = Josephus--of each of these writers we may believe just what we cho[o]se.
To seek in these Poets for the creed & proofs of mythology which are as follows--Examination of these--1st with regard to proof--2 in contradiction or conformity to the Bible--various apparitions of God in that Book [--] Jupiter considered by himself--his attributes-- disposition [--] acts--whether as God revealed himself as the Almighty to the Patriarchs & as Jehovah to the Jews he did not reveal himself as Jupiter to the Greeks--the possibility of various revelations--that he revealed himself to Cyrus. [Footnote: Probably Xenophon, Cyrop. VIII. vii. 2.]
The inferior deities--the sons of God & the Angels--the difficulty of Jupiter's children explained away--the imagination of the poets--of the prophets--whether the circumstance of the sons of God living with women [Footnote: Gen. vi.] being related in one sentence makes it more probable than the details of Greek--Various messages of the Angels--of the deities--Abraham, Lot or Tobit. Raphael [--]Mercury to Priam [Footnote: Iliad, xxiv.]--Calypso & Ulysses--the angel wd then play the better part of the two whereas he now plays the worse. The ass of Balaam--Oracles--Prophets. The revelation of God as Jupiter to the Greeks---a more successful revelation than that as Jehovah to the Jews--Power, wisdom, beauty, & obedience of the Greeks--greater & of longer continuance--than those of the Jews. Jehovah's promises worse kept than Jupiter's--the Jews or Prophets had not a more consistent or decided notion concerning after life & the Judgements of God than the Greeks [--] Angels disappear at one time in the Bible & afterwards appear again. The revelation to the Greeks more complete than to the Jews--prophesies of Christ by the heathens more incontrovertible than those of the Jews. The coming of X. a confirmation of both religions. The cessation of oracles a proof of this. The Xtians better off than any but the Jews as blind as the Heathens--Much more conformable to an idea of [the]