Page:Transactions of the Second International Folk-Congress.djvu/51

 THE CHAIRMAN'S ADDRESS.

The study of folk-tales and folk-songs, with which we have in this section more particularly to do, is, perhaps, the most generally popular of all the departments of folk-lore. The cause of this popularity is not far to seek. It arises less from the scientific interest of the problems to be solved, or of the results of the investigation, than from the beauty, the wildness, the weird enchantment of many of the tales themselves, and from the tender recollections awakened by them in almost every mind of the hours and feelings of childhood, of faces, of voices, and of scenes long since passed away. Of course we have arrived at that pitch of scientific training that we despise all this sentiment, and we should probably be unwilling to admit how far we have been at one time or another influenced by it. But it may be put as a general proposition—quite inapplicable to ourselves—that many persons are influenced by it, and that some of those who are drawn first of all to the study in this way end by becoming serious investigators of the phenomena. The effect of such an advantage in obtaining recruits ought to be a large body of students, and much consequent' progress in the solution of the questions wherewith we have to deal. But, although some progress has been made, it would be difficult to show that it exceeds the progress made in several other branches of folk-lore,—if, indeed, it will compare with it at all. Do we ask why? The answer will, I think, be found in the fact that hitherto most of the energy devoted to this fascinating subject has been spent in accumulating material rather than in examining and digesting it. Not a word is to be said against the accumulation of material. We have, indeed, a wealth of stories from almost all parts of the world. The books which contain them would already of themselves fill a library, and that not a small one. But there is much yet to be done, much most urgently required, in the way of collection before what we, with self-satisfied emphasis, call civilisation stamps out some races of mankind altogether—as, for