Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 9, 1898.djvu/57

 Rh elements is a task of extraordinary delicacy. The objects of that philosophy are universally human—man must eat, must defend himself, ever seeks to gratify the overpowering impulses Ave style passion. It is a priori unlikely that different groups of mankind should elaborate markedly distinct philosophies, and this unlikelihood is intensified by examination of such groups or individuals as still live, or have lived in the the past, in the folklore stage. We find amazingly close kinship all the world over, and at all stages of recorded history, between practices intended to ensure plenty of crop or herd, to avert defeat or pestilence, to enable the gratification of lust or hate. I have already stated that communities living for a long lapse of time in the same stratum of culture will naturally develop special details of practice suited to their special needs. A community of fishermen of several centuries' standing brought suddenly into contact with one of nomad herds, or of fixed tillers of the soil, will certainly have a vast number of folklore items to exchange with its newly-found neighbours, but the philosophy under which these items have assumed form will be found to be largely identical. The only marked variation that is likely in my opinion to take place in the practical philosophy of communities living in the folklore stage is when one of them devotes itself exclusively or almost exclusively to war as a means of winning food and gratifying passion. Such large sections of the philosophy fall into desuetude when man pits himself mainly against his fellows, instead of mainly against other animals and nature generally, that a new and clearly discriminated type is likely to result; this likelihood can, I believe, be confirmed by historical investigation, especially of the communities of antiquity, and the result of such investigation sheds, I believe, considerable light upon the development of ancient beliefs and rites.

Let us apply these general considerations to the special conditions of the British Isles. We know that shortly prior