h, no doubt, as were concerned with a forwarding of life. Our
collection exhibits the full survival of the usage and theory. It is the
new moon to which is dedicated the money that under its expanding
influence will be sure to multiply; it is at such time that the seed is
to be put into the ground. On the contrary, the abolishment of pests and
diminution of objects in which shrinkage is desired may be obtained by
connecting these with the waning sphere.

Lunar change has had an important connection with ancient myth as well as
with primitive ritual. For the reason indicated, the crescent was
assigned as an emblem to goddesses of growth. This ornament passed from
Cybele and Diana to Mary; as on the vault of St. Mark's the Virgin wears
the starry robe of the earlier goddess, so on garden walls of Venice she
stands crowned with the crescent, in the same manner as the divinities
whom she has superseded. In this connection is especially to be
considered the habit of personification implied in our English rhymes. Of
late, the doctrine which perceives in myth a symbolic expression of the
forces of nature has fallen into comparative discredit, a contempt
explicable in view of the unscientific manner in which "sun-myths" have
been exploited; our English sayings, therefore, are to be received as a
welcome demonstration that one must not proceed too far in his attitude
of doubt. If the popular mind, to-day, and in a country particularly
accessible to the influences of modern culture, worships the personified
moon, it may be considered as certain that antiquity did the like.
Mythology is woven out of so many strands that goddesses like Artemis and
Diana may have been much more than lunar personifications; but I think it
can scarce be doubted that in a measure such they were.

There is to be noted a most important characteristic of modern
superstition, namely, that the original usage, and also the primitive
theory, has sometimes continued the longest, because founded on the
broadest and most human foundation. The modern survival exhibits those
fundamental conceptions out of which grew the complicated rites and
elaborate mythologies of ancient religions. In this manner, as from a
height of observation, we are able to look back beyond recorded history,
and to trace the principles of historic development. So may be elucidated
problems which neither metaphysical speculation nor historical research
has proved adequate to expound. Compara