I think this is a strong position upon which to conduct folklore research. It includes the whole of the historical position; it takes due count of historical facts instead of ignoring them. It is based upon a scientific conception of the meaning of a survival of culture. A survival is that which has been left stranded amidst the development that is going on around. Its future life is not one of development but of decay. We are not dealing with the evolution of society, but with the decaying fragments of a social system which has passed away. We have to trace out its line of decay from the point where it almost vanishes as the mere superstition or practice of a peasant or an outcast, back to phases where it exists in more strenuous fashion, and finally back to its original position as part and parcel of a living social fabric. Moreover, the strength of our position is based upon a scientific conception of the development of the nation or people among whom survivals exist. It is not all parts of the nation which develop at the same rate, at the same time, and for the same period. There are social strata in every country, and it is the observance of these strata which has made it possible for the inquirer of to-day to use the evidence they afford for historical purposes. FOOTNOTES: [427] _Religion of the Semites_, 30. It is worth while quoting here Merivale's note in his Boyle lectures, _Conversion of the Northern Nations_, 122. "Pagan temples were always the public works of nations and communities. They were national buildings dedicated to national purposes. The mediæval churches, on the other hand, were the erection of individuals, monuments of personal piety, tokens of the hope of a personal reward." _Cf._ Stanley, _Hist. Westminster Abbey_, 12. [428] Mr. Granger has a very instructive passage on this point in his _Worship of the Romans_, 210-214; _cf._ Robertson-Smith, _Religion of the Semites_, lec. ii.; Mr. MacDonald, _Africana_, i. 64, notes, too, that "the natives worship not so much individually as in villages or communities." Prof. Sayce, studying early religion, says in its outward form it "was made up of rites and ceremonies which could only be performed collectively."--_Science of Language_, ii. 290. [429] Clarke's _Survey of the Lakes_, 36. [430] Pritchard's _Researches into the Physical Hist. of Mankind_, vol. iii., may still be consulted for an account of the tribal movements in Europe. [431] _Early Age of Greece_, i. cap. iv. [432] _History of Antiquity_, iv. 116-17. [433] _Asiatic Studies_, i. 173. [434] _Punjab Customary Law_, ii. 3-59. _Cf._ Baden-Powell's _Indian Vill. Com._, 230; Duncker, _Hist. Antiq._, iv. 115-17. [435] Stubbs's _Const. Hist._, i. 64. _Cf. Essays in Anglo-Saxon Law_, 12. [436] _Celtic Scotland_, iii. 137, note 4. [437] _Anc. Laws of Ireland_, iv. p. 77. _Cf._ also Mr. Andrews' _Old English Manor_, p. 20, and Meyer, _Geschichte der Alterthums_, 2-3. [438] Du Chaillu, _The Viking Age_, i. 488.