Our Errors

In 1887, I was not careful to quote what Professor Tiele had said against

us. First, as to our want of novelty. That merit, I think, I had never

claimed. I was proud to point out that we had been anticipated by

Eusebius of Caesarea, by Fontenelle, and doubtless by many others. We

repose, as Professor Tiele justly says, on the researches of Dr. Tylor.

At the same time it is Professor Tiele who constantly speaks of 'the new

school,' while adding that he himself had freely opposed Mr. Max Muller's

central hypothesis, 'a disease of language,' in Dutch periodicals. The

Professor also censures our 'exclusiveness,' our 'narrowness,' our 'songs

of triumph,' our use of parody (M. Gaidoz republished an old one, not to

my own taste; I have also been guilty of 'The Great Gladstone Myth') and

our charge that our adversaries neglect ethnological material. On this I

explain myself later. {28a}

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