NATURE 
157 
THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 10914. 
-TfHE GORDEN -BOUGH > COMPLETED. 
The Golden Bough. Third Edition. Part vii., 
“ Balder the Beautiful.” By Prof. J. G. Frazer. 
Nol; eve ex 346.. Velaiy |. Pp.. xi+ 380. 
(London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1913.) 
Price 205, amet. 
SHE concluding instalment of Prof. Frazer’s 
famous book may be regarded as 
demonstrating in a vivid manner and at an appro- 
priate juncture the qualities both of itself and of 
its author. As has been the case with the other 
editions, this, which, it seems, is final and defini- 
tive, contains more than one change of view. 
It is characteristic of the author’s mind that it 
is receptive of fresh ideas, and grows, instead of 
hardening into dogmatic attitudes. Prof. Frazer 
now, for instance, regards the Aryan god, Zeus- 
Jupiter, as being primarily a god of the sky, as 
the orthodox view has it, and only secondarily 
a personification of the oak. The interesting fact, 
amply proved by statistics, that the oak is more 
frequently struck by lightning than any other 
tree is the chief mediating influence between two 
sets of data. In a similar connection the revised 
account of the lore of the mistletoe shows cause 
for supposing that the parasite was believed to 
be the embodied result of the lightning-flash, “a 
sort of smouldering thunderbolt,” containing 
within itself the seed of celestial fire. 
But it is with a point of extreme importance 
for history and modern sociology that the most 
significant change of view is concerned. Prof. 
Frazer had accepted the explanation of the fire- 
festivals of Europe, which W. Mannhardt had 
suggested—namely, that they were in original 
intention charms to expedite the course and 
ensure the life-giving operations of the sun. But 
Dr. Westermarck’s researches among the Moors 
have convinced the author that the fire-festivals 
are in intention purificatory. This is no mere 
academic or curious conclusion, as by necessity 
much of the substance of “The Golden Bough” 
must be. For “the grand evil which the festivals 
aimed at combating was witchcraft, and... they 
were conceived to attain their end by actually 
burning the witches, whether visible or invisible, 
in the flames.” ‘The wide prevalence and the 
immense popularity of the fire-festivals provides 
us with a measure for estimating the extent of 
the hold which the belief in witchcraft had on the 
European mind before the rise of Christianity or 
rather of rationalism; for Christianity, both 
Catholic and Protestant, accepted the old belief, 
and enforced it in the old way by the faggot and 
the stake. It was not until human reason at 
NO: 2226) VOL. 934 
last awoke after the long slumber of the Middle 
Ages that this dreadful obsession gradually passed 
away like a dark cloud from the intellectual 
horizon of Europe.” Here we have the defect of 
the author’s quality, though we gratefully note 
how well the new theory fits in with modern 
history, and brings, as few other episodes do, 
“The Golden Bough” into touch with living 
humanity. For the fact is that witch-burning and 
heretic-burning (they are essentially the same 
thing, as Westermarck has shown) did not become 
a form’ of social emotionalism until after the 
Middle Ages. Nor is the belief in witchcraft dead 
yet, anywhere in Europe; while its more cultured 
form, resentment against social abnormality, is 
one of the strongest forces in modern life. 
It is a pleasure to see that Prof. Frazer, as he 
lays down his pen, promises us yet other works. 
No man in history has done more for the reason- 
able soul of the human race and its salvation by 
sense. Perhaps he may develop “Psyche’s 
Task” into a treatise which shall give us the 
sociological meaning of religion. In that treatise 
the study of the modern crowd should be an 
essential foundation. A. E. CRAWLEY. 
ASSAY OF PRECIOUS METALS. 
The Sampling and Assay of the Precious Metals: 
comprising Gold, Silver, Platinum, and the 
Platinum Group Metals in Ores, Bullion, and 
Products. By E. A. Smith. Pp. xv+46o. 
(London: C. Griffin and Co., Ltd., 1913.) Price 
15s. net. 
HE advances in the assay of the precious 
ae metals of late years have been directed 
mainly towards improvement in detail, and have 
not resulted in any great change in method or in 
the discovery of new principles. Nevertheless, the 
minor changes have been numerous, great num- 
bers of useful observations have been made, and 
it was high time that a new and complete account 
should be prepared, setting forth the present 
varied practice, with the considerations on which 
it is based. The author of this volume is well 
equipped for such a task, and has produced a 
valuable treatise which may be taken as authori- 
tative. 
Besides gold and silver, Mr. Smith has in- 
cluded the assay of platinum, a course which will 
be convenient to assayers, on account both of the 
importance now attached to the ores of platinum 
and of the increasing use of the metal in jewelry. 
Moreover, platinum is often associated with gold, 
and the methods of assaying gold and platinum 
are so closely allied that they cannot be separ- 
ately treated. Special attention is devoted to 
sampling, a subject hig tia? rreat interest to 
ne Op \ i 
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APR 25 1914 
