160
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. i. FEB. 20, 190*.
factory to those who are apt to become confused
when they cannot find all the fragments of the
knowledge they seek arranged in orderly sequence,
as for example, in a treatise on astronomy.
.Such people must wait patiently. Our first duty
is to garner facts. The time for classification is not
yet Some valuable attempts have, however, been
made, which, though they may call for revision as
time goes on, have laid a sound foundation for the
Outworks. ' The Folk-lore of Human Life,' in the
Edinburgh Review for January, is one of these.
We cannot speak of it too highly if we bear in
mind that the facts at present amassed are not
exhaustive in any one direction. It is possible
many scholars, indeed, think highly probable
that some of the folk-lore that has come down to
us is the earliest relic of the human race we possess,
older by untold generations than any palasolithic
implement or bone-scratched picture to be found in
the richest of our collections. However this may
be, it is certain that there are ideas which still
remain imbedded as fossils in human thought which
-are so remote in their origin as to have become
dispersed, in slightly varying forms, throughout
almost the whole of the families of mankind.
When, for example, did the spring and autumn
festivals originate? Were they established in
honour of gods now unworshipped, or did they
originate ages before savage man had evolved a
coherent theistic belief? Did they indeed furnish
in some way or other one of the factors that safe-
guarded the dawnings of primeval faith ? The May-
pole yet exists in some few of our parishes, and
May-games are happily not forgotten ; they indicate,
,as the writer points out, "that the road beneath
our feet was trodden by other May-keepers whose
symbols are now but relics, their sense forgotten
and out of mind. Heathendom is with us still; it
walks incognito, but the domino is threadbare
which masks its features." The reviewer does not
point out that the May Day or Martinmas house
cleanings which occur with rigid uniformity are
also survivals of the spring and autumn festivals
which, however old they may be, assuredly come
down to us from remote antiquity. Housewives
now explain them on strictly "common-sense"
principles, which would have done honour to the
most ardent of the utilitarians regarding whom
.Sir Leslie Stephen has discoursed to us; but it is
evident that those who search for origins will have
to go back to a state of mind parallel with that
which impels the bird to build its nest. 'Some
Aspects of Modern Geology' contains little that
will be new to the serious student of the science,
but even the writer must have been compelled to
glean good part of what he knows from the trans-
actions of learned societies or from books which are
avoided with equal care by the many who have an
antipathy for all reading which compels thought.
The essayist writes with becoming caution. He is
never contemptuous of opinions which differ from
his own. The idea that vast catastrophes were not
infrequent in remote geological time has revived of
late. We are glad to find, however, that this writer
sees no reason for accepting it. Whatever may
have been the state of our planet when life did not
exist thereon, he believes that from the period when
organized creatures, even in their lowest forms,
came into being there is "no suggestion of cata-
clysms or abnormal tides, or, in fact, of conditions
materially different from those which now obtain."
The paper on Galileo is well worth reading. So
much nonsense has been written on the subject
that it is cheering to have his life discussed by a
competent person who does not hold a brief either
for the old or the new theology. Galileo was a
mathematician and scientist as well as a hard
worker, and is therefore worthy of admiration.
Had he been more circumspect and less given to
irritating those in power it would have been far
better. The paper on ' Jacobite Songs ' is inter-
esting, but we wish that the writer had noted the
earliest appearance of each one of them. We do
not call in question the genuineness of any, but
there are others, more sceptical than ourselves, who,
we feel sure, will cherish doubts. It is not easy to
understand how so much good verse could be pro-
duced by the adherents of the fallen dynasty at
a time when most other song-writers were turning
out such arrant rubbish. There are articles on
' Franciscan Literature ' and on ' Robert Herrick '
which will interest our readers.
M. Louis THOMAS is bringing out an edition of
Chateaubriand's correspondence and would be much
obliged if any one would give him information on
this subject. As Chateaubriand stayed in England
on several occasions, M. Thomas presumes that
some at least of his letters must be in the pos-
session of English amateurs. Copies of any of these
will be gladly received by M. Louis Thomas,
26, Rue Vital, Paris (XVI.).
WE hear with much pleasure that a fourth volume of the ' Catalogue of Early English Printed Books in the University Library, Cambridge,' re- viewed ante, p. 138, is in the press, and will supply the index for which we asked.
We must call special attention to the following
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