fit. Let us, however, omit entirely those myths
that are not suitable rather than attempt
making them over to suit modern conceptions. We
may properly allow liberties to a literary
artist like Hawthorne that a mere artisan
should not take.

2. Myth deals with the worn-out and obsolete
ideas of the past, and will give children false
religious and scientific notions. But one does
not rule out _Paradise Lost_ because Milton's
cosmogony is so purely fanciful, nor Dante
because of his equally fantastic structure of
the Inferno. Neither children nor older readers
are ever led astray by these purely incidental
backgrounds against which and by means of which
the human interest is powerfully projected.

3. Myth is too deeply symbolical. But readers
of different ages and abilities find results up
to their stature. We do not demand that the
children shall be able to understand all that
is back of _Gulliver's Travels_, or _Pilgrim's
Progress_, before we give them those books.
What is worth while in literature has an
increasing message as the powers of the reader
increase.

_How to use myths._ We may sum up the conclusions thus: Select those
myths that tell stories of dramatic force and that have sound ethical
worth. So far as possible let these be the ones most familiar in
literary allusion and in common speech. Present the myth as you would
any other folk story. Since myth naturally comes along a little later
than fairy stories, probably beginning not earlier than the third grade,
the discussion of its meanings may take a wider range. Keep the poetic
elements of the story prominent, as in most of the examples following.

SUGGESTIONS

For the soundest and most illuminating
discussion of the values and proper use of
myths in education see Edward Howard Griggs,
_Moral Education_, chap, xxi, "The Ethical
Value of Mythology and Folk-Lore." For some
good suggestions and lists consult Ezra Allen,
"The Pedagogy of Myth in the Grades,"
_Pedagogical Seminary_, Vol. VIII, p. 258. A
very interesting plan for the use of myths may
be found in two articles by O. O. Norris,
"Myths and the Teaching of Myths," _The
American Schoolmaster_, Vol. IX, p.