Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 18, 1907.djvu/153

TRANSACTIONS OF THE FOLK-LORE SOCIETY.

. XVIII]

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE IDEA OF HADES IN CELTIC LITERATURE.

(Read at Meeting, 21st November, 1906.)

chief object that I have in view in bringing before you the subject which, for lack of a better word, I have called the Idea of 'Hades' in Celtic Literature, is to plead for a better method in the study of Celtic legend and tradition. In every department of thought, in historical and literary investigation, in classical studies, nay, even in the hitherto close domain of Biblical studies, historical methods of criticism have been fully accepted as those most likely to lead to accurate results. It is no longer possible to accept as a sufficient explanation of some difficulty the dictum of persons living in a different age and under conditions and methods of thought which have nothing beyond a surface similarity with the fact or theory we wish to explain, or to appeal to statements or legends or circumstances drawn from a totally