ising out of the sea, and made it the hieroglyphic
representative of the idea of sunrise. Thus Horus Apollo says:
When the Egyptians represent the sunrise, they paint the eye
of the crocodile, because it is first seen as that animal
emerges from the water."[209:1]

In this likening of the eyes of the crocodile to the eyelids of the
morning, we have the comparison of one natural object with another. Such
comparison, when used in one way and for one purpose, is the essence of
poetry; when used in another way and for another purpose, is the essence
of science. Both poetry and science are opposed to myth, which is the
confusion of natural with imaginary objects, the mistaking the one for
the other.

Thus it is poetry when the Psalmist speaks of the sun "as a bridegroom
coming out of his chamber"; for there is no confusion in his thought
between the two natural objects. The sun is like the bridegroom in the
glory of his appearance. The Psalmist does not ascribe to him a bride
and children.

It is science when the astronomer compares the spectrum of the sun with
the spectra of various metals in the laboratory. He is comparing natural
object with natural object, and is enabled to draw conclusions as to the
elements composing the sun, and the condition in which they there exist.

But it is myth when the Babylonian represents Bel or Merodach as the
solar deity, destroying Tiamat, the dragon of darkness, for there is
confusion in the thought. The imaginary god is sometimes given solar,
sometimes human, sometimes superhuman characteristics. There is no
actuality in much of what is asserted as to the sun or as to the wholly
imaginary being associated with it. The mocking words of Elijah to the
priests of Baal were justified by the intellectual confusion of their
ideas, as well as by the spiritual degradation of their idolatry.

"Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is
pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth,
and must be awakened."

Such nature-myths are not indications of the healthy mental development
of a primitive people; they are the clear signs of a pathological
condition, the symptoms of intellectual disease.

It is well to bear in mind this distinction, this opposition between
poetry and myth, for ignoring it has led to not a little misconception
as to the occurrence of myth in Scripture, especially in connection with
the names associated with