Mr. Max Muller avers that his moral character seems to be 'aimed at' by
critics who say that he has no right to quote Mannhardt or Oldenberg as
his supporters (1. xvi.). Now, without making absurd imputations, I do
not reckon Mannhardt a thorough partisan of Mr. Max Muller. I could not
put _our_ theory so well as Mannhardt puts it. 'The study of the lower
races is an invaluable instrument for the interpretation of the survivals
from earlier stages, which we meet in the full civilisation of cultivated
peoples, but which arose in the remotest fetishism and savagery.'
Like Mr. Max Muller, I do not care for the vague word 'fetishism,'
otherwise Mannhardt's remark exactly represents my own position, the
anthropological position. {42a} Now, Mr. Max Muller does not like that
position. That position he assails. It was Mannhardt's, however, when
he wrote the book quoted, and, so far, Mannhardt was _not_ absolutely one
of Mr. Max Muller's 'supporters'--unless I am one. 'I have even been
accused,' says Mr. Max Muller, 'of intentionally ignoring or suppressing
Mannhardt's labours. How charitable!' (1. xvii.) I trust, from our
author's use of the word todtschweigen, that this uncharitable charge was
made in Germany.