Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 7, 1896.djvu/317

Rh us is so valuable, because it must find its way into every student's library, we think it right to indicate thus briefly certain of the limitations of his authority. A portion only of the volume contains anything like reasoned statement, and that is merely introductory to the great work which was to have been written. But how vigorous, how ably put, much of it is! The chapter on the mode of handling the evidence is excellent, though perhaps a little overstated in regard to the rejection of recent evidence, if taken to express a general rule. Recent evidence must, of course, always be used with caution; and it may have been wise on M'Lennan's part, writing when he did and as he did, to deny himself the assistance of contemporary evidence. But for the student in these days to do so would be to refuse to avail himself of the investigations of im Thurn, Colonel Ellis, Risley, Boas, Dorsey, and a number of other travellers and enquirers whose publications are of the greatest importance. The chapters on Succession and Exogamy, and on Fabricated Genealogies, may likewise be pointed out as worthy of careful and minute study. The latter part of the volume is a wide and valuable collection of information on the subject of marriage laws and totemism, that will remain a permanent part of the apparatus of the science.

We cannot put the book down without one other reflection. If this, which is little more than disjecta membra, prove so stimulating, what must have been the personal intercourse of M'Lennan? He seems to have possessed in an eminent degree the power of infusing into those with whom he came immediately into contact the enthusiasm for scientific research which possessed him, and of inspiring them with his own opinions and aspirations. This is one of the most enviable gifts; and his work is not to be measured by the mere writings he has left us, valuable as they are, but by the impetus, yet unspent, which he has given to anthropological enquiries.

apology is due for noticing in these pages the life of Dr. Callaway. A man so eminent and devoted, a model missionary.