Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 4 1886.djvu/215

 THE SCIENCE OF FOLK-LORE. 207

that there was a contact between the peoples of Holland and India : then that researcli should go on to see if in both lands the custom is traceable beyond the point of contact. If so, simple comparison is useless. If it only makes its appearance for the first time in one of them after the point of contact, the process of derivation can be continued on sound principles. This mode of investigation has been so effectively used in such books as the Philological Society's English Dictionary and Yule's Glossary above mentioned, that I would earnestly recommend it to your notice.

There is one thing more that savans will demand of the Science of Folk-lore. It must have a definite object, and occupy a definite place in the category of sciences. On this point I will, with your leave, repeat what I have already said elsewhere, which is this : " The wide term anthropology covers all the subjects, from the examination of which we are led to grasp the details of that complicated structure— the modern human being in his mental and physical aspects. Folk- lore is, or at least should be, one of these subjects. Just as physio- logists are enabled by a minute and exact examination of skulls or teeth or hair, and so on, to differentiate or connect the various races of mankind, so should Folk-lorists, as in time I have no doubt they will, be able to provide reliable data towards a true explanation of the reasons why particular peoples are mentally what they are found to be. Folk-lore then, as a scientific study, has a specific object, and occupies a specific place."

In short, let it be clearly understood that Folk-lorists know what they are driving at, and that they moreover know how to set about their business, and they may take it for granted that there will not be much difficulty in procuring a general acceptance of the view that Folk-lore is a science.

Great as the temptation is, I will make no attempt on this occasion to enter into the examination of the various branches of the general subject of Folk-lore, or to discuss the proper method of conducting the inquiry into such matters as folk-tales, superstitions, customs, &c., partly because the time at my disposal will by no means admit of it, and partly because it seems that what we have to settle now are general principles. The exact manner of application of these will of