Mythical Creatures

Now that the cold ligbt of science has thrown its ray upon the most remote parta oí onr globe, there is no longer room for legendary creatures - save th6 sea serpent - and we are told that the inerinaid is nothing more than a dngong, a unicorn either a rhinoceros or a Tibetan antelope, while the cockatrice, the phcenix and the roe appear to be pare imaginations. But iu the Elizabethan age - an age when the dodo had but recently been discovered - these, aud mauy other rnythical creatures vere, if not, living, at all events actual realities to the ordinary public, and as such were referred to in the works of the great dramatist and other contemporary writers. We meet, for iustance, ia the "VViuter's Tale" the line, "Make me not aighted like the basalisk," and iu "The Tempest, " "Now I will believe that thcre are unicorns. " But not only was more or less of credulity given to the existence of these and such like fabulous monsters, but a web of rnystic lore encircled the most comnion and best 'known of beasts, birds and fishes. Who, for instance, is forgetful of the popular superstitions connected with the salamander, the newt and the blindworm, and who fails to remernber White's account of the "shrewash" at Selborne? And if sueh superstitions still survive among uneducated peasauts of the present day we rnay be assured that two centuries ago thev were fullv believed by the higber classes.