Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 24, 1913.djvu/154

 1 38 Reviews.

and Hermann Usener or to realise the hostility towards the com- parative method displayed by German Fhiioiogeti, for whom the apotheosis of Quellenforschung condemned the use of new supple- mentary methods as ' a going over unto idols.' Dieterich's work was not in vain. "Nur das im Menschen ist dauernd, was im Herzen von anderem fortlebt" is a saying of Usener which he quotes in the obituary notice reprinted in this volume. While it is perhaps true that at the moment there ,is no successor of quite the same calibre to take his place, his work is being faithfully carried on, and, to quote but one objective manifestation of his influence, the series of Religloiisgeschichtliche Versuche und Vorar- beiten is evidence of the existence of a rising generation of scholars inspired by his spirit of enthusiasm and devoted industry. The sketch of his life and work, reprinted at the beginning of the book, reveals the influence exercised by a strong and lovable personality on his friends, colleagues, and pupils. And very interesting is the account of his upbringing by a devoted father, a schoolmaster, a strong provincial patriot, a man of forcible character and of pro- nounced, even narrow, religious creed. In his Hessian patriotism lay the roots of Dieterich's interest in the Folk,^ while the respect inculcated for the religious views of his father, which he himself ceased to share, taught him, when analysing the devious tangle of religious beliefs belonging to the age in which Christianity emerged, to avoid a bias, which is as great an obstacle to the attainment of the truth as any prejudice of religious dogmatism. The volume contains the bulk of Dieterich's work apart i'rom his books, reviews, and smaller dictionary articles. The thirty papers arranged in chronological order include the two large articles in Pauly-Wissowa on Aeschylus and Euripides, his enlarged doctorate thesis, and his Habilitatiotisschrift in Marburg, the obituary notice of his master and father-in-law, Hermann Usener, and papers on matters connected with the classics, folklore, and Christian legend. Two have not previously appeared in print. The papers naturally vary in importance, and the range of subjects is too wide to permit of an adequate notice of their contents in detail. The classical articles are probably more familiar to English students than the

^Cf. the eloquent passage in his address Dber Wesen iind Ziele der Volks- kunde, p. 289.