Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 29, 1918.djvu/186

 176 Reviews.

Without going further it is obvious that Mr. Perry's references require to be verified. We are all liable to jump to conclusions and to find in our authorities what we wish or expect to find. This very human weakness requires watchfulness and discipline, for it is apt to lead us to astonishing results. It is impossible to follow Mr. Perry in all his conclusions — too frequently nothing more than assumptions " according to the scheme of this book." But as the investigation, it appears, is only part of a wider enquiry " into the distributions and associations of these and other cultural elements, and into their mode of dispersal," in the course of which it will be necessary " to examine all the regions of the earth in detail, as well as to synthesize the results obtained," he may safely be left to the task, in the assurance that long before he comes to the end of it he will have learned many things and unlearned many things that will put a very different complexion on the phenomena he has dealt with here.

E. Sidney H.'\rtland.

ERRATUM. Vol. xxix. p. 89, line "&, for "Arnold Burley " ;-f(7r/ " Arnold Bayley."

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