ALL these explanations; but naturally each school for
the time being makes the most of its own contention. Mr.
J. M. Robertson (Pagan Christs and Christianity and
Mythology), who has done such fine work in this field,[1]
relies chiefly on the solar and astronomical origins, though
he does not altogether deny the others; Dr. Frazer, on
the other hand--whose great work, The Golden Bough, is
a monumental collection of primitive customs, and will
be an inexhaustible quarry for all future students--is
apparently very little concerned with theories about the Sun
and the stars, but concentrates his attention on the
collection of innumerable details[2] of rites, chiefly magical,
connected with food and vegetation. Still later writers, like
S. Reinach, Jane Harrison and E. A. Crowley, being mainly
occupied with customs of very primitive peoples, like
the Pelasgian Greeks or the Australian aborigines, have
confined themselves (necessarily) even more to Magic and
Witchcraft.

[1] If only he did not waste so much time, and so needlessly, in
slaughtering opponents!

[2] To such a degree, indeed, that sometimes the connecting clue
of the argument seems to be lost.


Meanwhile the Christian Church from these speculations
has kept itself severely apart--as of course representing a
unique and divine revelation little concerned or interested
in such heathenisms; and moreover (in this country