North American triangle, in a hospitable climate, where they developed their culture to its highest point. When the ice-cap retreated the Amerinds followed it and dispersed into a wide latitudinal area; thus the pressure of civilization in Central America was removed, followed by like phenomena in Mexico, and consequently development in these regions ceased. The people nearest the ice-cap, the Esquimaux, always represented the lowest stages of culture and art; those in the medial regions, the Athapascans, Siouans, et cetera, preserved or lost their culture in greater or less degrees, according to circumstances.

The book is valuable to the general reader of history, as well as for use as a text-book for classes in anthropology and sociology. HUBERT H. S. AIMES.

WHAT I BELIEVE, AND WHY. By William Hayes Ward. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1915. Pp. 333.

Christian Moralism seems to be the term that one is compelled to use in describing this lucid and suggestive book of popular apologetic for that brand of theistic morality touched with emotion which has received from Professor Sanday the comforting appellation, "minimum Christianity."

The author claims to be a "complete rationalist" in his religious faith (p. 155), and expresses lusty disbelief in the "consciousness of God" claimed by the mystic as a direct experience. However, Dr. Ward believes in conversion and repentance; hence he may not be very far from the mystics. He says (p. 153) that he used to pray for the mystic experience, but now refrains from such aspiration. He seems to be afraid that the mystics will become spiritual aristocrats. Inasmuch as love and humility have ever characterized the true mystic, who does not claim perfection nor exclusive salvation, perhaps our author's fears are groundless.

The early chapters of the book contain a stimulating review of recent metaphysical guesses of science. Following these the account of the sympathetic criticism of the Bible ought to prove helpful to the general reader.

The last few chapters have the pepper-sauce of the book. Mr. Ward believes that such theories as the Trinity, the Atonement,

and the like are no more a necessary part of Christianity than are the Church and the sacraments (pp. 316-319). Why a supposedly well-informed man should think that the doctrine of the Trinity is entirely based on Scripture, and that the Trinity, almost a metaphysical statement of love, "has nothing to do with love" (p. 319), is something of a puzzle. Perhaps one can understand depreciation of the importance of the doctrine of the Atonement when he finds that our author regards "love" as the essence of both religion and morality, and "justice" as scarcely moral at all. So invertebrate has become the "love" ethics and theology of the day, that even great nations claim that they can "make up" later for present violations of justice and equity, without which "love" becomes sentimentality. The stern sentences of Sinai precede and condition the Sermon on the Mount. Nevertheless, though insisting that love shall have a backbone, we may well applaud these timely sentences from this mellow and sweetspirited book: "Unperverted, the love of family, of class, of town or nation is beautiful, but true virtue is not limited. Limit is vice. The enlarged soul will have interests in all the nations. of the earth, will rejoice to learn of their progress and welfare, will seek in some way to bring them to a better knowledge of God, to a truer education, to a fuller liberty, and will not confine one's interest to one's own family, section, or nation."

T. P. BAILEY.

INITIATION INTO PHILOSOPHY. By Emile Faguet, of the French Academy. Translated from the French by Sir Home Gordon, Bart. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1914. Pp. 254.

There are so few popular introductions to the history of philosophy that are at once readable and authoritative that one feels it a privilege to call attention to this little book. It does not pretend to appraise recent movements, such as those associated with the name of Bergson and William James, but it does give a clean-cut, interesting, and, on the whole, sympathetic and wellbalanced account of the influential philosophers from the age of Thales to Nietzsche, Spencer, and Comte in our own times.

T. P. B.

HOW WE REMEMBER OUR PAST LIVES. By C. Jinarajadasa, M. A. Theosophical Publishing House, Adyar, Madras, India.

This little book contains four essays, already published in well-known periodicals. They are written in a clear and simple style and the spirit throughout is tolerant and kindly. Though some of the theories advanced will seem to most people chimerical, yet a quality of fine, though not robust or virile, idealism pervades the book. G. T.

THE IRISH ABROAD. By Elliott O'Donnell. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co.

We have all heard that the Irish rule every country except their own. But after perusing this book, and learning of the presence and the deeds of Irishmen in all parts of the world; after reading, for instance, that in America the Southern States were chiefly colonized by the Anglo-Irish, that during the Revolutionary period seventy per cent of the American Army and fifty per cent of the Navy consisted of Irishmen, and that six Presidents have been of Irish stock,- after learning such facts as these, we begin to wonder what the rest of the world would have done without the Emerald Isle. The compilation is done with diligence and care, and there seem to be few omissions of note (St. Gaudens, who, if we mistake not, was of Irish blood, is one of these).

The author shows a general knowledge of the history and the peoples of the various countries concerned and, as an Irishman telling of the Irish, he writes with a sympathy and a buoyancy that make his book pleasant reading. G. T.

THE RISE OF English LITERARY PROSE. By George Philip Krapp. New York: Oxford University Press.

This book covers the period from Wyclif to Bacon and exhibits the development of prose as an efficient means of expression, the author's purpose being to "trace the growth of a temper and attitude of mind towards the use of speech, to show the development of taste and feeling for prose expression by directing attention to those writings which reveal some skill and originating power in the practice of the art of prose composi

tion." Such a task calls extensive and intensive reading, the exercise of keen insight, nice taste, sound judgment, fine discrimination, and the scholar's unrelaxing attention to details. All these requirements are fully met in this volume of more than five hundred pages, but the result is not easy reading. The book is suited only to the most advanced classes in the undergraduate department and is better adapted as a model for similar investigations in the graduate school.

A LITERARY Middle-English READER. Edited by Albert S. Cook. New York: Ginn & Company.

Arranged according to literary species and not according to dialect or chronology, and furnished with brief notes at the foot of each page, these selections are designed, not for the study of grammar or philology, but for the purpose of literary enjoyment; and they are grouped together to afford opportunity for the college student to acquaint himself with various phases of an interesting, but-with the exception of Chaucer-comparatively unfamiliar, period of English literature.

THE STORY Of the Bible: How IT GREW TO BE WHAT IT IS. By Harold B. Hunting. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.

Though this account of how the various books of the Bible came to be written embodies the results of modern scholarship, it is popular in its presentation and more comprehensive than Patterson Smyth's well-known little book How We Got Our Bible. Beginning with the earliest New Testament Writingsthe nearer and more familiar the book traces the growth and interrelation of the various gospels and epistles, setting forth the essential unity of the whole. Then, taking up the Old Testament, the author in similar fashion traces its growth from supposedly tribal lays sung by Hebrew nomads around the camp-fire, through the different phases of Israel's history down to and including the revolt of the Maccabeans. Then follow

chapters dealing with the making of the Old and New Testaments, the various translations of the Bible, the results of modern archæological discoveries, and a brief outline of the

history of the higher criticism, with its new interpretation of the Scriptures. On the whole, it is a readable, reliable book, made especially attractive by the numerous full-page illustrations in color.

A NEW THEORY CONCERNING THE ORIGIN OF THE MIRACLE PLAY. BY George R. Coffman. University of Chicago Dissertation. Menosha, Wisconsin: George Banta Publishing Company.

The author defines a Miracle Play as "the dramatization of a legend setting fourth the life or the martyrdom of a saint." After briefly summarizing and rejecting the traditional theories which found the germ of the Miracle Play in the Church services, Mr. Coffman treats at some length the cult of the saints, including pilgrimages and festivals in their honor. Though admitting that the Church had a large share in the growth of such pilgrimages and festivals, and that "the immediate environment of the Miracle Play in its origin is the monastery," he emphasizes the "unecclesiastical" influences of the mediæval renaissance, and asserts, with little direct evidence to support his assertions, that "our earliest Miracle Plays developed in connection with monastic schools," and that these plays were "one expression of the eleventh and twelfth-century movement to free the drama from the Church." More specifically Mr. Coffman, again basing his conclusion on assumption rather than fact, declares that "the Miracle Play originated as an unecclesiastical feature of St. Nicholas' feast-day celebration." Attractive and probable as such theories are, they should be supported by greater weight of evidence than that brought forward in this pamphlet. Mr. Coffman promises to make further investigations into the subject and will doubtless bring out additional material to strengthen or modify his position.

THE EVERYMAn EncyclopæDIA. Compiled by Andrew Boyle. In twelve volumes. New York: E. P. Dutton & Company. $6.00.

This handy set of reference books is based on Knight's Encyclopædia, which in its turn was derived from the great Penny Encyclopædia. The original basis, however, had to be so altered