“[Gla] dstone, the pillar of the People’s hopes,”—­

to be compared with a very old text, referring obscurely to “the People’s William,” and “a popular Bill,” doubtless one and the same thing, as has often been remarked.  Among the epithets of Gladstone which occur in the hymns, we find “versatile,” “accomplished,” “philanthropic,” “patriotic,” “statesmanlike,” “subtle,” “eloquent,” “illustrious,” “persuasive,” “brilliant,” “clear,” “unambiguous,” “resolute.”  All of those are obviously intelligible only when applied to the sun.  At the same time we note a fragmentary curse of the greatest importance, in which Gladstone is declared to be the beloved object of “the Divine Figure from the North,” or “the Great White Czar.”  This puzzled the learned, till a fragment of a mythological disquisition was recently unearthed.  In this text it was stated, on the authority of Brinton, that “the Great White Hare” worshipped by the Red Indians was really, when correctly understood, the Dawn.  It is needless to observe (when one is addressing students) that “Great White Hare” (in Algonkin, Manibozho) becomes Great White Czar in Victorian English.  Thus the Divine Figure from the North, or White Czar, with whom Gladstone is mythically associated, turns out to be the Great White Hare, or Dawn Hero, of the Algonkins.  The sun (Gladstone) may naturally and reasonably be spoken of in mythical language as the “Friend of the Dawn.”  This proverbial expression came to be misunderstood, and we hear of a Liberal statesman, Gladstone, and of his affection for a Russian despot.  The case is analogous to Apollo’s fabled love for Daphne = Dahana, the Dawn.  While fragments of laudatory hymns are common enough, it must not be forgotten that dirges or curses (Dirae) are also discovered in the excavations.  These Dirae were put forth both morning and evening, and it is interesting to note that the imprecations vented at sunset ("evening papers,” in the old mythical language) are even more severe and unsparing than those uttered ("morning papers”) at dawn.

How are the imprecations to be explained?  The explanation is not difficult, nothing is difficult—­to a comparative mythologist.  Gladstone is the sun, the enemy of Darkness.  But Darkness has her worshippers as well as Light.  Set, no less than Osiris, was adored in the hymns of Egypt, perhaps by kings of an invading Semitic tribe.  Now there can be no doubt that the enemies of Gladstone, the Rishis, or hymn-writers who execrated him, were regarded by his worshippers as a darkened class, foes of enlightenment.  They are spoken of as “the stupid party,” as “obscurantist,” and so forth, with the usual amenity of theological controversy.  It would be painful, and is unnecessary, to quote from the curses, whether matins or vespers, of the children of night.  Their language is terribly severe, and, doubtless, was regarded as blasphemy by the sun-worshippers.  Gladstone is said to have “no conscience,”