study of ballads from his boyhood.

This fact may exempt him, even in the eyes of too patriotic
American critics, from "the common blame of a plagiary." Indeed,
as Professor Child has not yet published his general theory of the
Ballad, the editor does not know whether he agrees with the ideas
here set forth.

So far the Editor had written, when news came of Professor Child's
regretted death. He had lived to finish, it is said, the vast
collection of all known traditional Scottish and English Ballads,
with all accessible variants, a work of great labour and research,
and a distinguished honour to American scholarship. We are not
told, however, that he had written a general study of the topic,
with his conclusions as to the evolution and diffusion of the
Ballads: as to the influences which directed the selection of
certain themes of Marchen for poetic treatment, and the processes
by which identical ballads were distributed throughout Europe. No
one, it is to be feared, is left, in Europe at least, whose
knowledge of the subject is so wide and scientific as that of
Professor Child. It is to be hoped that some pupil of his may
complete the task in his sense, if, indeed, he has left it
unfinished.



Ballad: Sir Patrick Spens