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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. i. FEB. 20, 190*.

factory to those who are apt to become confused when they cannot find all the fragments of the knowledge they seek arranged in orderly sequence, as for example, in a treatise on astronomy. .Such people must wait patiently. Our first duty is to garner facts. The time for classification is not yet Some valuable attempts have, however, been made, which, though they may call for revision as time goes on, have laid a sound foundation for the Outworks. ' The Folk-lore of Human Life,' in the Edinburgh Review for January, is one of these. We cannot speak of it too highly if we bear in mind that the facts at present amassed are not exhaustive in any one direction. It is possible many scholars, indeed, think highly probable that some of the folk-lore that has come down to us is the earliest relic of the human race we possess, older by untold generations than any palasolithic implement or bone-scratched picture to be found in the richest of our collections. However this may be, it is certain that there are ideas which still remain imbedded as fossils in human thought which -are so remote in their origin as to have become dispersed, in slightly varying forms, throughout almost the whole of the families of mankind. When, for example, did the spring and autumn festivals originate? Were they established in honour of gods now unworshipped, or did they originate ages before savage man had evolved a coherent theistic belief? Did they indeed furnish in some way or other one of the factors that safe- guarded the dawnings of primeval faith ? The May- pole yet exists in some few of our parishes, and May-games are happily not forgotten ; they indicate, ,as the writer points out, "that the road beneath our feet was trodden by other May-keepers whose symbols are now but relics, their sense forgotten and out of mind. Heathendom is with us still; it walks incognito, but the domino is threadbare which masks its features." The reviewer does not point out that the May Day or Martinmas house cleanings which occur with rigid uniformity are also survivals of the spring and autumn festivals which, however old they may be, assuredly come down to us from remote antiquity. Housewives now explain them on strictly "common-sense" principles, which would have done honour to the most ardent of the utilitarians regarding whom .Sir Leslie Stephen has discoursed to us; but it is evident that those who search for origins will have to go back to a state of mind parallel with that which impels the bird to build its nest. 'Some Aspects of Modern Geology' contains little that will be new to the serious student of the science, but even the writer must have been compelled to glean good part of what he knows from the trans- actions of learned societies or from books which are avoided with equal care by the many who have an antipathy for all reading which compels thought. The essayist writes with becoming caution. He is never contemptuous of opinions which differ from his own. The idea that vast catastrophes were not infrequent in remote geological time has revived of late. We are glad to find, however, that this writer sees no reason for accepting it. Whatever may have been the state of our planet when life did not exist thereon, he believes that from the period when organized creatures, even in their lowest forms, came into being there is "no suggestion of cata- clysms or abnormal tides, or, in fact, of conditions materially different from those which now obtain." The paper on Galileo is well worth reading. So

much nonsense has been written on the subject that it is cheering to have his life discussed by a competent person who does not hold a brief either for the old or the new theology. Galileo was a mathematician and scientist as well as a hard worker, and is therefore worthy of admiration. Had he been more circumspect and less given to irritating those in power it would have been far better. The paper on ' Jacobite Songs ' is inter- esting, but we wish that the writer had noted the earliest appearance of each one of them. We do not call in question the genuineness of any, but there are others, more sceptical than ourselves, who, we feel sure, will cherish doubts. It is not easy to understand how so much good verse could be pro- duced by the adherents of the fallen dynasty at a time when most other song-writers were turning out such arrant rubbish. There are articles on ' Franciscan Literature ' and on ' Robert Herrick ' which will interest our readers.

M. Louis THOMAS is bringing out an edition of Chateaubriand's correspondence and would be much obliged if any one would give him information on this subject. As Chateaubriand stayed in England on several occasions, M. Thomas presumes that some at least of his letters must be in the pos- session of English amateurs. Copies of any of these will be gladly received by M. Louis Thomas, 26, Rue Vital, Paris (XVI.).

WE hear with much pleasure that a fourth volume of the ' Catalogue of Early English Printed Books in the University Library, Cambridge,' re- viewed ante, p. 138, is in the press, and will supply the index for which we asked.

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E. LEGA-WEEKES. Your reply on Fellows of the Clover Leaf cannot be traced. Please repeat.

BLAZON. Apply to the Heralds' Office.

CORRIGENDA. P. 119, col. 2, 1. 4 from foot, for "Archbishop Wrangham " read Archdeacon Wrang- ham. P. 136, col. 1, 1. 21, for " necessitatem " read necessitate.

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