historical records preserved from the past must necessarily be
incomplete. An accident preserves one, and an accident destroys
another. An incident strikes one historian, and is of no interest to
another. And it may well be that the lost document, the unrecorded
incident, is of far more value to later ages than what has been
preserved. This condition of historical research is always present to
the scientific student, though it is not always brought to bear upon
the results of historical scholarship.[1] But the scope of the
historian is gradually but surely widening. It is no longer possible
to shut the door to geography, ethnography, economics, sociology,
archaeology, and the attendant studies if the historian desires to work
his subject out to the full.[2] It is even getting to be admitted that
an appeal must be made to folklore, though the extent and the method
are not understood. After all that can be obtained from other realms
of knowledge, it is seen that there is a large gap left still--a gap
in the heart of things, a gap waiting to be filled by all that can be
learned about the thought, ideas, beliefs, conceptions, and
aspirations of the people which have been translated for them, but not
by them, in the laws, institutions, and religion which find their way
so easily into history.

The necessities of folklore are far greater than and of a different
kind from those of history. Edmund Spenser wrote three centuries ago
"by these old customs the descent of nations can only be proved where
other monuments of writings are not remayning,"[3] and yet the descent
of nations is still being proved without the aid of folklore. It is
certain that the appeal will not be made to its fullest extent unless
the folklorist makes it clear that it will be answered in a fashion
which commands attention. It appears to me that the preliminary
conditions for such an appeal must be ascertained from the folklore
side. History has not only justified its existence, but during the
long period of years during which it has been a specific branch of
learning it has shown its capacity for proceeding on strictly
scientific and ever-widening lines. Folklore has neither had a long
period for its study nor a completely satisfactory record of
scientific work. It is, therefore, essential that folklore should
establish its right to a place among the historical sciences. At
present that right is not admitted. It is objected to by scholars who
will not