Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 3, 1892.djvu/124

116 night; but at least we are entitled to some arguments to that effect. It is the more incumbent on the author to give some sort of proof of his position, since he admits that his theory is "nowadays completely out of fashion". Instead of doing this, he confines himself to a simple exposition of the mythical tales—as distinguished from the apologues and the drolls—in Grimm's collection, from the point of view of the sun-myth. Eloquent and ingenious his exposition often is, but convincing he hardly seeks to be. This is to be regretted, because so little has been attempted by any partisan of the theory identified with the names of Professor Max Müller and the Count de Gubernatis in the way of reply to the attacks made upon it during the last ten or fifteen years. The consequence of this persistent abstention from polemic has been that the theory has become discredited, perhaps beyond its deserts; and many students would welcome, in the interests of scientific truth, a thoroughly searching examination of the conflicting theories, and an argumentative restatement of the grounds on which rests the naturalistic system, as M. Ploix calls it, of explanation of the mythic element in folk-tales. It seems to me, therefore, that the president of the Société des Traditions Populaires has missed an opportunity. An exposition, such as he has written, may have its value to those who hold with him: a controversial work would have had a value far beyond that limit; and coming from the hands of one so distinguished as M. Ploix, it might have formed a substantial contribution to the controversy.

Meanwhile the work of collection proceeds. A portion of M. Meyrac's large and laborious work on the traditions of the Ardennes is devoted to tales. These, the author tells us, he gives just as they have been related to him, without addition or ornament. But it is rarely that he vouchsafes us the name of the person to whom he is indebted; and then it is usually not a man or woman of the folk, but some instituteur, or institutrice, or commandant de gendarmerie. The impression left upon the