Note 3 — Chapter III · ROOTS OF THE MYTH

If there is any principle of comparative mythology that might fairly have been claimed as generally accepted by experts a generation ago, it is that “the ritual is older than the myth: the myth derives from the ritual, not the ritual from the myth.”3 This principle, expressly posited by himself as by others before him, Sir James Frazer resolutely puts aside when he comes to deal with the Christian mythus. Disinterested science cannot assent to such a course.