Preface

PREFACE.

THIS volume gives the substance of my first series of public lectures in Folk-Psychology delivered in the University of Glasgow.

The treatment is objective in the sense that there is throughout a unifying thought. Though I cite widely it is not a mere collection of folk-belief: it is a history of soul-belief, over a given area, treated in a comparative light. That the contents are taken from our own land does not lessen its interest. I use the term Celtic as a linguistic convenience, not as racial: the bulk of the material is from among the Gadhelic-speaking area, where I was naturally able to draw upon my own knowledge of facts which awoke in me an early curiosity.

I am again beholden to the Carnegie Trust for their help by a grant in aid of publication, for which I offer my grateful thanks.

THE UNIVERSITY,
GLASGOW, May, 1911.