Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 29, 1918.djvu/122

 1 1 2 Magic a7id Religion

analyse European ideas as to witchcraft in order to discover the real meaning of magic, unless we are prepared to end with a hybrid and illogical complex of ideas. Tf the position of witchcraft in Europe were in the nature of a necessary or a natural development, we could of course •deal with the situation as Dr. Jevons does with the change of content of the religious idea ; but of this there is no suggestion ; we must determine the content of magic, if the category really exists outside Europe, for other areas without reference to European ideas, and trace with care the course of development in Europe both of the meaning of the word " magic " and of the complex which it describes.

Derived perhaps in the main from the reading of the Bible, the idea of necromancy as magical is also found in Europe, though it is not prominent. The association of the dead with magic is, however, of wider distribution, and here too an analysis of sources is needed.

There is prima facie no reason for regarding " magic "

as an exception to the rule that abstract terms are used

vaguely, and it seems probable that this vagueness is due

in part to actual hybridisation of ideas from different

sources. It may be possible to define the content of

magic, so that the definition holds good for all areas ;

but this result cannot be attained by the rough and ready

method of the ipse dixit, divorced from serious study of

crucial cases.

N. W. Thomas.