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174 one might add that, apart from helping to the settlement of such more general questions as those just mentioned, they throw light on the sources of particular literary worksbetter than does the haphazard search for parallels, and they often enable the student to see the relations between the literatures of neighbouring countries more clearly than he would be able to do without the perspective gained by a comparative consideration of a single theme in many lands. In ways like these the author hopes that this history of The Grateful Dead may be serviceable.