“But if it not be true, the myth itself requires to be explained, and every principle of philosophy and common sense demand that the explanation be sought, not in arbitrary allegorical categories, but in the actual facts of ritual or religious custom to which the myth attaches.”
William Robertson Smith
Tags: Actual | Allegorical | Arbitrary | Attaches | Categories | Common | Custom | Demand | Every | Explained | Explanation | Facts | Itself | Myth | Philosophy | Principle | Religious | Requires | Ritual | Sense | Sought | True | Which
44% of people like this quote
William Robertson Smith
Author details
Related authors
Other William Robertson Smith Quotes
The god, it would appear, was frequently thought of as the physical progenitor or first father of his people.
William Robertson Smith
58% of people like this quote
The myths connected with individual sanctuaries and ceremonies were merely part of the apparatus of the worship; they served to excite the fancy and sustain the interest of the worshipper... no one cared what he believed about its origin.
William Robertson Smith
53% of people like this quote
This, it may be said, is no more than a hypothesis... only of that force of precedent which in all times has been so strong to keep alive religious forms of which the original meaning is lost.
William Robertson Smith
52% of people like this quote