Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 15, 1904.djvu/37

Rh perished, and in the field of folklore it is only from tinyfragments that we can gain a knowledge of how far our ancestors were able to maintain and transmit their own knowledge of the past.

Personally I think the transmission-power of tradition has been very much undervalued, since we, in modern days, have so little experience of its possibilities and scope. But unlettered tradition will always be at the mercy of a slight cataclysm. It is not till tradition is committed to letters that its preservation is at all definitely assured. And this is a truth that, even in this century, is not yet sufficiently recognised. Societies such as ours must be the recorders. Our function as Recorders and Remembrancers is even more important than our function as Interpreters. Our opportunities for record are swiftly and silently slipping past. There will always be time for the Systematisers, but at present the Duty of Collection is to my mind paramount.

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