ained copy of the method,
applying it to Mr. Gladstone, Dr. Nansen, or whom you please. And though
a jest is not a refutation, a parody may plainly show the absolutely
capricious character of the philological method.

ARTEMIS

I do not here examine our author's constructive work. I have often
criticised its logical method before, and need not repeat myself. The
etymologies, of course, I leave to be discussed by scholars. As we have
seen, they are at odds on the subject of phonetic laws and their
application to mythological names. On the mosses and bogs of this
Debatable Land some of them propose to erect the science of comparative
mythology. Meanwhile we look on, waiting till the mosses shall support a
ponderous edifice.

Our author's treatment of Artemis, however, has for me a peculiar
interest (ii. 733-743). I really think that it is not mere vanity which
makes me suppose that in this instance I am at least one of the authors
whom Mr. Max Muller is writing _about_ without name or reference. If so,
he here sharply distinguishes between me on the one hand and 'classical
scholars' on the other, a point to which we shall return. He says--I
cite textually (ii. 732):--

Artemis

'The last of the great Greek goddesses whom we have to consider is
Artemis. Her name, we shall see, has received many interpretations, but
none that can be considered as well established--none that, even if it
were so, would help us much in disentangling the many myths told about
her. Easy to understand as her character seems when we confine our
attention to Homer, it becomes extremely complicated when we take into
account the numerous local forms of worship of which she was the object.

'We have here a good opportunity of comparing the interpretations put
forward by _those who think that a study of the myths and customs of
uncivilised tribes can help us towards an understanding of Greek deities,
and the views advocated by classical scholars_ {138} who draw their
information, first of all, from Greek sources, and afterwards only from a
comparison of the myths and customs of cognate races, more particularly
from what is preserved to us in ancient Vedic literature, before they
plunge into the whirlpool of ill-defined and unintelligible Kafir
folklore. The former undertake to explain Artemis by showing us the
progress of human intelligence from the coarsest spontaneous and
primitive ideas to the most beautiful and brill