The trials of the translator have been recounted too often any longer to require detailed mention. President G. Stanley Hall has suggested that the German proclivity to the use of long, involved sentences, loaded with qualifying words and phrases, and with compounds and supplementary clauses of every description, may perhaps be said to have the merit of rendering language somewhat correspondent with the actual course of thought. The significance of this statement can be appreciated by no one quite so keenly as by a translator, for whom the very fact which President Hall mentions causes many German sentences to be objects of despair. In the present instance, the endeavour has been to reproduce as faithfully as possible both the meaning and the spirit of the original, while yet taking such liberties as seemed necessary either to clarify certain passages or to avoid any serious offence to the English language. In a number of cases, no absolutely satisfactory equivalent of the German term seemed available. The very expression 'folk psychology,' for example, may scarcely be said to commend itself in every respect. Its use seemed unescapable, however, in view of the fact that the author, in his Introduction, expressly rejects the terms _Sozialpsychologie_ and _Gemeinschaftspsychologie_ in favour of _Völkerpsychologie. Bildende Kunst_ has been rendered 'formative art,' not in the belief that this translation is wholly unobjectionable, but because it seemed preferable to all possible alternatives, such as 'plastic,' 'shaping,' or 'manual' art. Those who are familiar with, or who will take notice of, the very precise meaning which the present author gives to the terms _Märchen, Sage, Legende,_ and _Mythus_ will understand without explanation our frequent use of the word 'saga' and the necessity of the term 'märchen' in the translation. Wundt has always attached great significance to the distinctions which he has drawn between the various forms of the myth, and, more especially, to his contention that the earliest and, in a sense, the progenitor of these was the märchen. The crying need of exact definition and of clear thinking in a field so confused as that of mythology led him, on one occasion, to enter a plea for a clear-cut and consistent terminology such as that which he was attempting to maintain (_vide Völkerpsychologie, Band V, Zweiter Teil, Zweite Auflage, s._ 33). In this instance again, therefore, it seemed best to give to the author's own terms a preference over words which, while more familiar to the English reader, are less suited to convey the precise meaning intended.