"The Golden Bough, compared by Virgil to the mistletoe but now revealing some affinity to the banyan, has not only waxed a great tree but has spread to a spacious and hospitable forest, whose king receives homage in many tongues from a multitude resorting thither for its fruit or timber or refreshing shade. There they find learning mated with literature, labour disguised in ease, and a museum of dark and uncouth superstitions invested with the charm of a truly sympathetic magic. There you have gathered together, for the admonition of a proud and oblivious race, the scattered and fading relics of its foolish childhood, whether withdrawn from our view among savage folk and in different countries, or lying unnoticed at our doors. The forgotten milestones of the road which man has travelled, the mazes and blind alleys of his appointed progress through time, are illuminated by your art and genius, and the strangest of remote and ancient things are brought near to the minds and hearts of your contemporaries."
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Lawyers from ScotlandUniversity of Cambridge facultyPeople from GlasgowAnthropologists from ScotlandNon-fiction authors from Scotland
Original Language: English
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A. E. Housman, Address to Sir James George Frazer LL.D., D.C.L., Litt.D. on the occasion of the foundation in his honour of the Frazer Lectureship in Social Anthropology in the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Glasgow, and Liverpool (1921), in Warren R. Dawson (ed.), The Frazer Lectures 1922–1932, By Divers Hands (1932), p. xi
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James Frazer
Sir James George Frazer (January 1, 1854 – May 7, 1941) was a Scottish social anthropologist influential in the early stages of the modern studies of mythology and comparative religion. He is often considered one of the founding fathers of modern anthropology.
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