PREFACE.
IN publishing this somewhat rambling and unsystematic
series of papers, in which I have endeavoured to
touch briefly upon a great many of the most important
points in the study of mythology, I think it right to
observe that, in order to avoid confusing the reader with
intricate discussions, I have sometimes cut the matter
short, expressing myself with dogmatic definiteness where
a sceptical vagueness might perhaps have seemed more
becoming. In treating of popular legends and superstitions,
the paths of inquiry are circuitous enough, and seldom
can we reach a satisfactory conclusion until we have
travelled all the way around Robin Hood's barn and back
again. I am sure that the reader would not have thanked
me for obstructing these crooked lanes with the thorns
and brambles of philological and antiquarian discussion,
to such an extent as perhaps to make him despair of ever
reaching the high road. I have not attempted to review,
otherwise than incidentally, the works of Grimm, Müller,
Kuhn, Bréal, Dasent, and Tylor; nor can I pretend to
have added anything of consequence, save now and then
some bit of explanatory comment, to the results obtained
by the labour of these scholars; but it has rather been my
aim to present these results in such a way as to awaken
general interest in them. And accordingly, in dealing
with a subject which depends upon philology almost as
much as astronomy depends upon mathematics, I have
omitted philological considerations wherever it has been
possible to do so. Nevertheless, I believe that nothing
has been advanced as established which is not now generally
admitted by scholars, and that nothing has been
advanced as probable for which due evidence cannot be
produced. Yet among many points which are proved,
and many others which are probable, there must always
remain many other facts of which we cannot feel sure
that our own explanation is the true one; and the
student who endeavours to fathom the primitive thoughts
of mankind, as enshrined in mythology, will do well to
bear in mind the modest words of Jacob Grimm,—himself
the greatest scholar and thinker who has ever dealt
with this class of subjects,—"I shall indeed interpret all
that I can, but I cannot interpret all that I should like."
PETERSHAM, September 6, 1872.