Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 1 1883.djvu/268

 260 that of grouping the incidents properly round the centre of interest, and no training is more likely to give skill in it than a careful study of the anatomy of standard folk-stories, as they will appear in our Society's tabulation.

With respect to proverbs, it is equally obvious that much has been done by folk-lorists in the direction of classifying proverbial sayings. But we want proverbs classified, not merely according to their connection with each other, but also in their relation to the different periods and orders of society, so that we may light at once on the group best suited to the various points of morality that we desire to instil. And this is important, because, from the research I have myself been able to make, I think that if a classification by subjects and periods, similar to that suggested by Mr. Long, were carried out, we should find that proverbs will fall of themselves into social groups, and that, as one period of society gives way to another, new proverbs come up without always driving out the earlier ones. We thus get contradictory proverbs, and it is very necessary to the educator who deals in proverbs to know which form contains the highest social morality.

Even more important than either the story or the proverb alone is the combination of the two into the moral story. It is not easy to construct a good story, but a moral story is almost always a failure. Either the story is undramatic or the moral dubious; and not infrequently a bad moral is tagged on to a worse story. I lately read a choice specimen which was printed in a German educational periodical as a model for kindergarten teachers. It narrated the fortunes of two spiders, one of whom was an uralte spinnenmadam, to whom another and younger spider paid a morning call. This apparently polite attention irritated the elder lady to such an extent that she fought the younger one, and after a prolonged struggle slew her and sucked her blood, afterwards returning thanks in the historical German manner that she knew how to help herself in time of need. The proceedings had been watched with intense interest by a cheerful sparrow (ein