Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 3, 1892.djvu/14

6 for us to bear in mind is that, in both Christian and savage countries, Christian influences, though great, are not absolutely absorbing—if paganism, in short, is still to be traced in Europe, we should be chary of admitting too much as due to Christian influences in savage countries, for we have not yet properly traced out the elements of Christianity in Europe that are due to non-Christian sources.

I do not intend to-night to touch upon the influence of Christianity upon savage tradition. I would rather turn your attention to the evidence of the survival of paganism in Europe; for, though this has frequently been proved, it is well to bear the nature of the proofs in mind. That the Fathers of the early Church met with it, and recorded it, is to be expected, and it is one of the duties which this Society owes to the folk-lore student to collect together the passages from the patristic writings which relate to this epoch. Eusebius, St. Jerome, St. Columba, and the venerable Bede are among those who at once occur to the mind as bearing testimony to this part of our subject; but the testimony wants a fair statement, and a complete collection of its constituent parts. When it is got together, it will be found that the chronology of the evidence extends down far later than most of us are inclined to think. It was only in the 17th century that a learned divine of the Church of England was shocked to hear one of his flock repeat the evidence of his pagan beliefs in language which is explicit as it is amusing; and I shall not be accused of trifling with religious susceptibilities if I quote a passage from a sermon delivered and printed in 1659—a passage which shows not a departure from Christianity either through ignorance or from the result of philosophic study or contemplation, but a sheer non-advance to Christianity, a passage which shows us an English pagan of the 17th century.

"Let me tell you a story," says the Reverend Mr. Pemble, "that I have heard from a reverend man out of the pulpit, a place where none should dare to tell a lye, of an old man