Address to Sir James George Frazer 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

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ADDRESS TO SIR JAMES
GEORGE FRAZERONTHE
OCCASION OF THE FOUNDA-
TION, IN HIS HONOUR, OF
THE FRAZER LECTURESHIP
IN SOCIAL NTH ROPOLOGY
IN THE UNIVERSITIES OF
OXFORD, CAMBRIDGE,
GLASGOW AND LIVERPOOL

I

THE LIBRARY

OF

THE UNIVERSITY

OF CALIFORNIA

LOS ANGELES

ADDRESS

TO

Sir yames Qeorge Frazer^
LL.D., D.C.L., Litt.D.,

on the occasion of the foundation,

in his honour,

of the

FRAZER LECTURESHIP

in Social Anthropology

DDRESS to Sir James Qeorge 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.

ANNO DOMINI MCMXXI

T

H E friends and admirers who have united to
found in your honour an annual lectureship
in Social Anthropology, a science requiring
no such link to connect it with your name, are not alto-
gether content to set up their monument and withdraw
in silence. They feel, and they hope that you will un-
derstand, the wish to approach more nearly an author
whose works have bound to him in familiarity and af-
fection even those to whom he is not per sonally known ,
and to indulge, by this short address, an emotion war-
mer than mere intellectual gratitude.

The Golden Bough, compared by Virgil to the
mistletoe but now revealing some affinity to the ban-
yan, 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 dis-
guised in ease, and a museum of dark and uncouth
superstitions invested with the charm of a truly sympa-
thetic magic. There you have gathered together, for
the admonition of a proud and oblivious race, the scat-
tered and fading relics of its foolish childhood,whether
withdrawn from our view among savage folk and in
distant 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

'ssaog?

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 yo ur
contemporaries.

They return you thanks for all that they have re-
ceived at your hands, and they wish you years of life
and continuance of strength to crovv^n with new sheaves
that rich and various harvest of discoveries which has
already rewarded your untiring industry and your
single-hearted quest of truth.

My Friends and Fellow Students: —

1AM deeply sensible of the honour you have done
me by founding in my name a Lectureship of
Social Anthropology at four great Universities.
Such an honour is usually reserved till the world can
judgemore fiillyand impartially of a man's work than
it is possible to do in his lifetime. I can only hope that,
if posterity should concern itself with my writings,
it will not reverse the verdict which you have passed
upon them. In any case you have erected a monument
which will no doubt survive him whom you desire to
commemorate, and will carry on his work when he
himself has long been mingled with the common dust.
It is my earnest wish that the lectureship should be
used solely for the disinterested pursuit of truth, and
not for the dissemination and propagation of any
theories or opinions of mine. As you know, I have
never sought to formulate a system or to found a school,
being too conscious of the narrow limits of my know-
ledge and abilities to attempt anything so ambitious.
I have been content to investigate a few problems in the
history of man; but I am well aware, and I have en-
deavoured to keep my readers constantly aware, of
the extreme uncertainty of all the solutions which I
have ventured to offer of these problems, always
remembering that the study of man's mental evolution.

like the study of the physical universe in which he ap-
pears to exist as an insignificant particle, is still only in
its inception,and that the views which we of the present
day take of that evolution, as of that universe, are
necessarily but temporary and provisional, destined
with the progress of knowledge to be superseded by
truer and more comprehensive views in the future. To
that progress I trust that the lectureship which you
have founded may in some measure contribute. At the
least, it will be a monument of your generosity, if not
of my fame: it will serve to show to those who come
after us that in an age when the world was torn into
hostile camps and exhausted by internecine conflict,
scholars could still meet on common ground, above
the clash of arms, in the serene air and untroubled
light where truth is sought by her votaries. Whatever
else comes of it, the approbation of so many of my
contemporaries will act as a spur to my industry: it
will encourage me to labour yet a while for the ad-
vancement of knowledge, that so I may the better
deserve the honour which you have conferred upon

me.

I BRICK COURT, TEMPLE,
LONDON.

30 APRIL I92I.

y. G. Frazer,

LIST OF SUPPORTERS.

The Honourable John Abercromby

MissAHceAcutt

Mrs. James Adam

Professor Sir ClifFord Allbutt

Professor E. V. Arnold

The Reverend P. Arthur

The Reverend H. J.Dukinfield Astley

Cyril Bailey

The Right Honourable A. J. Balfour

W.W. Rouse Ball

Mrs M.M. Banks

The Reverend W. T. A. Barber

Thomas' Baring

F.T. Barrett

H.J.Barton

Mr. andMrs. B. Berenson

Professor A. A. Bevan

George Bidder

Charles J. Billson

John S. Black

F. F. Blackman

Professor Franz Boas

Professor R. C. Bosanquet

Sir Edward Brabrook

Professor E. G. W. Braunholtz

Professor Karl Breul

James Brown

Professor E. G. Browne

The Right Honourable Viscount Bry ce

Professor F. C. Burkitt

MissC.S. Burne
fThe Very Reverend H. Montagu Butler

Miss Emily Carey

The Reverend J. Estlin Carpenter

Miss Janet E. Case

Dr. Richard Caton

A.H.Charteris

Professor Conrad Cichorius

Edward Clodd

Professor R. S. Conway

Professor A. Conze

Arthur Bernard Cook

S.A.Cook

F. M.Cornford

W. L. Courtney

The Reverend W. A. Cox

The Right Honourable the Marquess of Crewe

James E. Crombie
tThe Right Honourable the First Earl of Cromer

Professor Franz Cumont

Miss Violet M.Dale

Sir Francis Darwin
t William Darwin

Professor Gilbert A. Da vies

Professor T. Witton Davies

Professor R. M. Dawkins

Professor Ludwig Deubner

Professor Hermann Diek
tThe Reverend S. A. Donaldson

Professor Wilhelra Dorpfeld

W. L. H. Duckworth
tProfessor E. Durkheim

G.M. Edwards

Mr. and Mrs. Arundell Esdaile
L. R.Farnell

The Right Honourable Herbert Fisher
Sir Walter Fletcher
Professor Richard Foerster
Daniel Folkmar
E. J.Forsdyke
W. Warde Fowler
Ernest Foxwell
Miss Barbara Freire-Marreco
Douglas W. Freshfield
H.von Fritze
Professor E.A.Gardner
Professor Percy Gardner
Professor JohnGarstang
M. Gaster

Professor B. L. Gildersleeve
Professor H. A. Giles
P.Giles
L.deGlehn
Laurence Gomme
W.W.Greg
A.C.Haddon
J. Rendel Harris
Miss Jane E . Harrison
E. Harrison
E. Sidney Hartland
Professor }. E. Harry
Anthony Hope Hawkins
The Reverend James Hastings
^Professor F. Haverfield

E.S.P.Haynes
Professor Harold Hazeltine
W.E.Heitland
R.D. Hicks

Professor F. Freiherr Hiller von Gaertringen
T.C.Hodson
D.G.Hogarth
T.Rice Holmes
Professor A. E. Housman
William Evans Hoyle
H.Hubert

Baron Anatole von Hiigel
Professor C.SnouckHurgronje
TheVery Reverend W. R. Inge
tJ.M. Image
Sir E verard im Thurn
Professor Henry Jackson
Professor F. B, jevons
MissK. Jex-Blake
Sir H.H.Johnston
Miss E.E.Constance Jones
Miss Bettina Kahnweiler
Arthur Keith
J. Scott Keltic

The Reverend Professor R.H. Kennett
Sir Frederic G. Kenyon
Professor W. P. Ker
Professor J. N. Langley
Sir Joseph Larmor
Walter Leaf

Professor C. F. Lehmann-Haupt
Professor L. Levy-Bruhl

Professor W.J. Lewis
Professor F. Liebermann
George G.Loane
Professor G. Loeschcke
Professor Emmanuel Lowy
Professor F. von Luschan
Professor William McDougall
R. C. Maclagan
Norman McLean
Sir Frederick Macmillan
George A. Macmillan
J. Ellis McTaggart
Professor Grace Harriet Macurdy
Ludovic McL. Mann
R. R. Marett
E. W. Martindale
Marcel Mauss
Professor Eduard Meyer
Professor Richard A. Meyer
Sir Henry A . Miers
Ellis H.Minns

The Right Honourable Viscount Morley
tThe Reverend Professor James Hope Moulton
Professor Gilbert Murray
The Reverend J. O. F. Murray
Edmund K. Muspratt
C. S. Myers
Henry Myers
Professor J. L. Myres
W. L. Newman
Reynold A. Nicholson
fj. E.Nixon

The Reverend J. E. Odgers
tProfessorL. Oppenheim
Professor Arthurs. Peake
L. Pearsall Smith
A.C.Pearson
Miss Emily Penrose
^Principal Sir William Peterson
Professor W. M. Flinders Petrie
Professor J. A. Piatt

The Right Honourable Sir Frederick Pollock
Professor J. P. Postgate
Sir George Prothero
Professor Sir Walter Raleigh
A.B.Ramsay
Professor G. G. Ramsay
Professor Sir William Ramsay
Sir C. Hercules Read
Professor Carveth Read
Sir Harry R. Reichel
Professor J. S. Reid
Salomon Reinach
Vernon Rendall

tProfessor the Right Honourable Sir John Rhys
Professor Olijffe Richmond
Professor Sir William Ridgeway
W.H.R. Rivers
Professor Carl Robert
Donald S. Robertson
Professor W. Rhys Roberts
The Reverend johnRoscoe
Professor j. H. Rose
Sir John Rotton

I

W.H.D. Rouse

G.McN.Rushforth

Sir John E.Sandys

Professor Rudolph von Scala

Professor R. Schone

Professor Hans Schrader

W.J. Searle

C.G.SeHgmann

Professor A. C. Seward

ColonelJ. Shakespear

A. Shewan

E.E.Sikes

Professor S. Singer

H.N.P.Sloman

Dr.V. Sta'i's

The Reverend Professor V. H. Stanton

MissF. Melian Stawell

Professor Karl von den Steinen

Professor E.G. Stirling

Professor G. F. Stout

Mrs. Arthur Strong

Colonel Sykes

W.W.Tarn

Arnold C. Taylor

E.Torday

Professor A. Trendelenburg

Major A.J.N. Tremearne

Mrs.Tremearne

Professor G.Treu

Chr. Tsountas

G. M. Trevelyan

J.Venn

fMrs.A.W.Verrall

A.J.B.Wace

Sir Charles Walston

Sir Adolphus Ward

Professor James Ward

Mr. and Mrs. N.Wedd

Miss A. Werner

Professor E. Westermarck

Charles Whibley
■j-ProfessorJohn Williams White

Dr.Th.Wiegand

Professor U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorf

Professor Georg Wissowa

Professor Sir G. SimsWoodhead

W. Wyse

PRINTED AT S. DOMINIC S PRESS, DITCHLING.

*J \ Vvri •

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