The Myth of the Phœnix is one of the most ancient in the world. Originally a temple-type of the immortality of the soul, its birth-place appears to have been the sunny clime of the fanciful and gorgeous East. Even in the days of Job and of David it was already a popular tradition in Palestine and Arabia. Afterwards it passed over to Egypt, Greece, and Rome; but, as it went, lost feather after feather, until the spiritual, and delicate, and beautiful parable sank into the tangible folk-legend of a nine days' wonder. The fathers of the Christian Church were the first to restore to it its original form and hidden meaning.