In all that we say of totemism, as, later, of fetishism, we rely on an
enormous mass of evidence from geographers, historians, travellers,
settlers, missionaries, explorers, traders, Civil Servants, and European
officers of native police in Australia and Burmah. Our witnesses are of
all ages, from Herodotus to our day, of many nations, of many creeds, of
different theoretical opinions. This evidence, so world-wide, so
diversified in source, so old, and so new, Mr. Max Muller impugns. But,
before meeting his case, let us clear up a personal question.
'Positions one never held'
'It is not pleasant [writes our author] to have to defend positions
which one never held, nor wishes to hold, and I am therefore all the
more grateful to those who have pointed out the audacious
misrepresentations of my real opinion in comparative mythology, and
have rebuked the flippant tone of some of my eager critics' [i. 26,
27].
I must here confess to the belief that no gentleman or honest man ever
_consciously_ misrepresents the ideas of an opponent. If it is not too
flippant an illustration, I would say that no bowler ever throws
consciously and wilfully; his action, however, may unconsciously develop
into a throw. There would be no pleasure in argument, cricket, or any
other sport if we knowingly cheated. Thus it is always _unconsciously_
that adversaries pervert, garble, and misrepresent each other's opinions;
unconsciously, not 'audaciously.' If people would start from the major
premise that misrepresentations, if such exist, are unconscious errors,
much trouble would be spared.