Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/98

88 hold out. Since Grimm died the special subject of Teutonic mythology has not been dealt with by a true master-hand and but rarely by a really ingenious mind (such as Rydberg). Bugge has indeed tried one key most skilfully for all it is worth; but the doctrine of infection is like the doctrine of analogy, that is called in when regular phonetic change fails to account for an extraordinary case. There is plenty of room for earnest and observant students of Mr. Chadwick's type.

the first publication of the Asiatic Studies, eighteen years ago, the book has become a classic in its way. Sir Alfred Lyall writes largely of things which he knows, quorum pars magna fuit; and to the problems he deals with, brings a lucid and sane intellect, with a power of cautious generalisation which reminds us of Sir Henry Maine. The scholar-soldier and the scholar-administrator seem to be products almost unknown outside the English race; and a man who lives and acts has a great advantage over the student who writes within the four walls of his library. Sir Alfred owes it to his practical training that he has been able to call attention to certain aspects of popular religion which have been unduly neglected, or flatly denied; to the same cause, that he carries his attempt too far. But although he needs the scholar's research as a corrective, he can give him points as to style. These pages are not only free from pedantry and phrase-hunting, but are expressed in language singularly vigorous and strong, and pervaded by an urbane humour which makes them very pleasant to read.

In this feast of fatness many dishes call for no comment here. We shall leave aside the essays which deal with politics and the art of government, with the coming war of religions in Asia, and with other topics of the day. We are now concerned with those