Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/24

.

world of Folklore is, on the whole, a very placid world. In it the happenings are innumerable, but events are rare. In other words, it affords plenty about which one may be busy, but little about which there is any call to raise a fuss. But this must count with us as a Wonder-Year; for it is marked by an event of quite first-rate importance. I refer, of course, to the completion of the third many-volumed edition of The Golden Bough. Dr. Frazer is one of ourselves. He has been a member of this Society for a long time past, has served on the Council, and is actually Vice-President. Besides, he has the entire contents of our manifold publications at his fingers' ends. There is scarcely a page of his encyclopædic work that does not bear witness to the activity of our Society. Hence Dr. Frazer's triumph is likewise our triumph. We participate collectively in his supreme achievement. In fact I am almost tempted to describe The Golden Bough as the "external soul" of this Society. The very spirit of its work is enshrined therein, and so is perpetuated for an indefinite time to come; seeing that, of all the creations of man, there is none so imperishable as a noble book.

But it may be asked,—Is not the prime concern of the author of The Golden Bough with social anthropology rather than with folklore? If anybody were to raise such an