will be still as they are at present, greater than they know.
For in truth these men do something far more godlike than studying legends;
they create them.

There are two kinds of stories which the scientists say cannot be true,
because everybody tells them. The first class consists of the stories
which are told everywhere, because they are somewhat odd or clever;
there is nothing in the world to prevent their having happened to somebody
as an adventure any more than there is anything to prevent their
having occurred, as they certainly did occur, to somebody as an idea.
But they are not likely to have happened to many people.
The second class of their "myths" consist of the stories that are
told everywhere for the simple reason that they happen everywhere.
Of the first class, for instance, we might take such an example
as the story of William Tell, now generally ranked among legends upon
the sole ground that it is found in the tales of other peoples.
Now, it is obvious that this was told everywhere because whether
true or fictitious it is what is called "a good story;"
it is odd, exciting, and it has a climax. But to suggest that
some such eccentric incident can never have happened in the whole
history of archery, or that it did not happen to any particular
person of whom it is told, is stark impudence. The idea of shooting
at a mark attached to some valuable or beloved person is an idea
doubtless that might easily have occurred to any inventive poet.
But it is also an idea that might easily occur to any boastful archer.
It might be one of the fantastic caprices of some story-teller. It
might equally well be one of the fantastic caprices of some tyrant.
It might occur first in real life and afterwards occur in legends.
Or it might just as well occur first in legends and afterwards occur
in real life. If no apple has ever been shot off a boy's head