Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 7, 1896.djvu/45

 Rh PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS.

accepting the honour of re-election to this Chair, and, with that position, the duty of delivering an address, one feels the difficulty of saying anything into which novelty can enter. There is, however, some consolation in the thought that in folklore what is new is not true. For, in that matter, the ages of invention are behind us. But whatever else it lacks, I think that the annual address should have the aim of seeking to interpret, rather than to recapitulate, the materials which, from time to time, come before us. Such of these as have permanent value are accorded a place in our Journal so that he who runs may read and ponder thereon. Not dwelling upon the papers thus accessible, let me express pleasure at the increased space given to "Miscellanea" in the Journal. The publication of these is to be encouraged, because they show interest on the part of our fellow-members generally; they foster intercourse between those whom space divides, and they encourage the observation and record of facts which, seemingly unimportant, are, by publicity, brought into comparison with other facts, and thereby often related to some generic group.

The Report of the work done during the past year shows that, as becomes a Society still in its teens, ours is the activity of youth. One recurring paragraph reminds us that "there were strong men" before the Folk-Lore Society was founded, and it is with no light regret, and no merely formal tribute to their pioneer work, that, in reviewing the losses of the year, we have to include the names of Professor George Stephens, Dr. Robert Brown, MM. Ploix, Luzel, Dragomanov, and Fleury.

In surveying our series of annual Reports, it is well to remember that the work accomplished by the Society (of