Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 10, 1899.djvu/175

 Ethnological Data in Folklore. 147

Homeric poems remained the mirror in which he recognised the most intimate, the most deeply bitten lineaments of his individuality, that which set him apart from other men, that which made him a Greek, not a barbarian. It has been said of the stocks of men swarming forth from these islands to people lands innumerable that all are subjects of King Shake- speare. The Greeks were subjects of King Homer, for in Homer their inmost soul, their very self, was expressed.

I would then again urge, and urge with possible emphasis, that folk-literature is that element of folklore whereby we can best test the hypothesis of racial diversity.

Mr. Gomme's further remarks are mainly directed to vindicating the method of inquiry he has himself employed and the results to which it has led him. I may point out that I have said nothing in depreciation of either, or to dissuade disciples, possessing the necessary foundation of knowledge and training, from following in his footsteps. For beginners in our study I still venture to recommend as the more excellent way that which I pointed out — namely to verify our hypotheses by the aid of historic record, so long as the latter is available, to work back from the known to the unknown, before pushing into the dim past where the light of history is denied us. To proceed thus is not to relegate our study to the position of a subordinate and inferior branch of historic science, except in so far as it partakes of that character in common with all studies that essay to reconstitute the evolution of humanity. In so far as dependence is implied I welcome it as part of the whole- some discipline to which the true student willingly subjects himself. But the folklorist who follows to the letter the advice I ventured to give need by no means deny himself the further privilege of using the methods which Mr. Gomme has so ingeniously elaborated ; and if the disciple emulate the acuteness and ardour of the master no one will be better pleased than I.

In spite, however, of my keen appreciation of the value

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