THE ESSAYS of Keightley’s “Fairy Mythology,” which appeared in 1828, are the beginning of the serious attempt to make a science of Folklore; but they are not too serious or too scientific to be delightful reading for people of all ages. Its author, who wrote nothing else to compare with it, was born in Ireland, in 1789, and educated at Trinity College, Dublin. From 1824 to his death in 1872, he lived in England, occupied chiefly with the preparation of educational text-books.