13 
actually adopted by some of the Greek writers, Plato and 
_ Huripides for instance, to explain away some of the more repulsive 
features of Greek legends, which shocked the thinking minds of 
Periclean Athens. That it in many cases is perfectly correct 
_ Ido not doubt ; but its advocates push it to an inordinate extreme, 
and it is peculiarly liable to be misused. Even its leading 
practitioners disagree among themselves to an extent quite 
- exceptional. Thus the change from Dahana to Daphne has been 
violently attacked by several of Max Miiller’s compeers, as 
opposed to the natural phonetic decay of words. 
The actual verbal inspiration of the Hebrew Scriptures is no 
longer considered a reasonable theory among educated men, and 
accordingly I trust I offend nobody by referring, asa very salient 
and familiar instance, to the many cases of the use of this method 
in the Old Testament. A miraculous appearance is described, or 
perhaps an ordinary event, then we read, “ Therefore the name 
of that place was called So-and-so unto this day.” I personally 
have perfect faith in the general historical accuracy of the Old 
Testament ; and our modern antiquariesexplain plenty of familiar 
names of places in exactly the same way, as, for instance, the two 
Sussex hamlets called Dane Hill, a singular parallel to the place 
_ which, as we read in the 18th chapter of the Book of Judges, was 
called Mehaneh-dan, that is, the camp of Dan. 
These two methods are applied by the two principal schools 
of folk-lorists. There are, however, other methods, such as the 
one to which Euhemerus has given his name ; he explained all 
myths as the distorted accounts of natural facts, and declared 
that the gods and demigods had been actual men, whose exploits 
had‘been magnified and misrepresented by traditions. All the 
methods, however, must be applied, as each one will be correct 
occasionally. 
To leave this part of the subject, and examine the origin of 
folk-lore. With the veriest rudiments of civilization man begins 
to ask certain questions which, as far as we know, other animals 
_ have never thought of. He asks, why do men die, and what 
‘becomes of them when they are dead? Why do we see the sun 
for a time, and then lose it for a time? Why does the moon con- 
tinually go through its unvarying cycle of changes? Why are 
certain plants useful and others noxious? Why does a hunter 
sometimes obtain prey, at other times find it escape him, at other 
times sees none, and at other times has the prey turn upon him 
and kill him? Atthat stage of civilization man has not come to 
look upon himself as something fundamentally different from the 
