To say this however, is certainly not to endorse the surprising thesis latterly put forth by Dr. Frazer, to the effect that magic-mongering, after all, has been a great factor in human progress.¹ His first suggestion was, as we have seen, that a recognition of the inherent falsehood and barrenness of magic set the saner men seeking for a truer insight into nature. But after suggesting this "with all due diffidence", he has latterly come to hold with confidence that is was the clever impostors who, by obtaining monarchic power, were the means of breaking up savage conservatism and so of making progress possible. It is a singular argument. The public sorcerer "may readily acquire the rank and authority of a chief or king";