The Age of Fable Author:Thomas Bulfinch Perhaps many of the world's travails can be traced to the displacement of mythology by the age of science. For today, knowledge is deemed useful only if it enlarges our possessions or raises our station in society. But if the criterion were what makes us happier and more virtuous, then mythology would have retained its proper place in the eyes... more » of society. "For," says Bullfinch, "mythology is the handmaid of literature; and literature is one of the best allies of virtue and promoters of happiness. Without a knowledge of mythology much of the elegant literature of our own language cannot be understood and appreciated. When Byron calls Rome 'the Niobe of nations,' or says of Venice, "She looks a Sea-Cybele fresh from ocean,' he calls up to the mind of one familiar with our subject, illustrations more vivid and striking than the pencil could furnish, but which are lost to the reader ignorant of mythology."« less