Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 10, 1899.djvu/83

 Rh regard for marriage," and that the resemblance of the foodrestrictions and so forth to Leviticus was that there were taboos in both, I can only »ay that the resemblance is hardly greater than that between Macedon and Monmouth, and that he expressed himself unfortunately by his parenthetical quotations, and his allegation that "much of the Decalogue and a large element of Christian ethics are divinely sanctioned in savage religion."

There are many more points in Mr. Lang's Reply to which I should like to refer. I must content myself, however, with inviting a careful comparison, by readers who are interested in the subject, of that reply with the chapters in The Making of Religion and my criticisms thereon. Such readers will not assume that contentions I have passed over in silence are not amenable to an effective rejoinder. I have been compelled to frame my observations for the most part in general terms; but I think they will apply to all the more important details discussed by Mr. Lang. We always read with pleasure and instruction what he writes. It would be impertinent in me to offer words of praise to a master of literary exposition and controversy, to whom the science of anthropology owes so much. His foregoing Reply, whether sufficient or (as I venture to think) not, displays all his entertaining skill and geniality. After all, I do not desire, and I am sure he does not desire, victory, but truth. "More facts and more careful criticism" are, as he says, what we want. In scientific inquiry a dialectic triumph may be a disaster.