of a book everywhere interesting, is the localization of the mount on which the Lord spoke. Professor Sayce has given all the most recent results of research on the Sinai peninsula, rendering this little book a welcome boon to the Biblical student.

14. British East Africa and Uganda, compiled from CAPTAIN LUGARD'S and other Reports, with Map. (London: Chapman and Hall, 1892. 3d.)

15. Handbook to the Uganda Question, by ERNEST L. BENTLEY, with Map and Historical Notes. (London: Chapman and Hall, 1892. 3d.) These two pamphlets, the maps in which are identical, though evidently written for a special purpose in favour of the British East Africa Company, are deserving of perusal by all who wish to keep abreast with the actual state of affairs there, and to know all that can be said by the party in whose interest they are written. In the first pamphlet, there is, at p. 15, a direct and plain spoken charge against the French priests of trading, and especially in gunpowder. All trade, this in particular,--is so contrary to the spirit of true missionary enterprise, especially by Catholic priests, that we call attention to it, in the hope that those who have been making so much out of the late unfortunate conflict in Uganda may refute, if they can, this odious accusation, to which some colour is lent by the fact of its mention in a formal treaty between Mr. Gedge and Emin Pasha, before Captain Lugard appeared at all on the scene.

16. Aurungzebe and The Chase. (Westminster: A. Constable and Co., 1892. 5s.) This, the third volume of Constable's Oriental Miscellany, reproduces Dryden's forgotten tragedy, Aurungzebe and the second Book of William Somerville's poem called The Chase, and is edited by Mr. Kenneth Deighton. Thirty pages of most unnecessary Biography introduce us to the tragedy, which though obsolete can be still seen in almost any library of the smallest pretension, and the literary worth of which certainly does not require its reproduction. The same may be said of The Chase. The mere fact of their being feebly framed on portions of Bernier's travels hardly entitles them to a place in an Oriental Miscellany.

17. Borneo its Geology and Mineral Resources, by DR. THEODOR POSEWITZ, Member of the Hungarian Institute. (London: Edward Stanford, 1892. 14s.) Dr F. H. Hatch gives us a careful translation of this very painstaking and thorough work. The introduction gives the rather extensive Bibliography of Borneo. The history of its discovery and exploration, the physical geography of the island, and its geological formations in detail are fully and clearly given; and these are succeeded by chapters on each of its mineral productions, among which are petroleum, coal, iron, copper, mercury, gold and diamonds. Four excellent geological maps accompany the book. The author conscientiously sticks to his last, and quits his scientific disquisitions for no side issues regarding men, and manners and customs. His book is, therefore, a perfect repository of technical information only. Too little is yet known of this interesting island; and now that travelling in it is becoming comparatively more safe, the large remainder of the island, which still appears practically a blank on the maps, should be submitted to systematic research. Both the

specialist in geology and the speculator in mining should study this book if they wish to be thoroughly informed on the vast and varied mineral. resources of Borneo. Even the general reader, who cannot be expected to enjoy the details of geological research, will find a good deal of useful information and some pleasant reading in Professor Posewitz's 500 pages. The translator's work is well done, though we object to the use of unnecessary new words: such as "water-parting" for the long accepted "watershed,” and “Theodor" for "Theodore.”

18. Morocco as it is, by STEPHEN BONSAL, JR. (London: W. H. Allen and Co., 1893- 7s. 6d.) Here the author (an American Press Correspondent who was with Sir C. Euan-Smith's mission to Fez and who characteristically publishes in 1893, three months before the close of 1892) gives us his experiences and impressions of that country, after more than one visit to it. There is a great deal of information in it regarding the history of the country and its actual state. Many shrewd observations are made, though most are exaggerated. The book on the whole is pleasant to read, interesting and useful. In history, however, Mr. Bonsal is not strong; nor in botany, for he and others recline under the shade of "a mandragora-tree." While his style is distinctly American, he shows considerable weakness as to the meaning of particular words, thus at p. 185, Moors write their histories upon illuminated missals (sic). He twice fixes the Jewish Sabbath on Friday, and to his American fancy all Sovereigns live in continual fear of assassination! Of Mr. Bonsal's Arabic we say nothing; he does not even profess to know it, though even ignorance should not err in the transliteration of the usual Mussulman salutation. His morality may be gauged by his confessions of lying, his shameful practical joke on the blind, and above all by his having bribed several student youths to steal valuable manuscripts from the Library of the Fez University: all this he himself unblushingly relates. According to Mr. Bonsal's narrative, the Mission deserved a far more signal failure than it met with. To systematic outrage on the religious and other prejudices of the people, they all seem to have added. a swaggering assumption and a bragging tone, equalled only by a thoughtless folly and inconsiderateness, which one does not expect in diplomatists. There was an ostentatious parade of wine-drinking, and much else objectionable; and we note that the first cause of the change which took place in the attitude of both the Sultan and his people was due to the defiant intrusion of the party on the sacred waters of Mulai Yacub. That they got away safe from Fez, is more than, on the showing of our author, they deserved. The second part of the book describes an earlier visit than that paid with the British envoy (absurdly called Bashador all through); but why it is not put in its proper place at the beginning of the book, we fail Our experience is that a visitor cannot easily gain a correct knowledge of a strange people even when he knows their language and stays a long while and mixes with them familiarly. Hence we always add a note of interrogation to most things said by writers who scamper once or twice through a country of which they know not the language, and for the people of which they show a contempt incompatible with intimate association and just appreciation. What real knowledge can they acquire or com

to see.

municate?

19. The Holy City, Jerusalem, by S. R. FORBES. (Chelmsford: E. Durrant and Co., 1892. 3s.) This is a very peculiar book, quite like a circle, as having no proper beginning or end, and being in value a perfect cypher. Its chronological table most unnecessarily goes up to Adam, yet vexatiously stops at A.D. 530. Amid the array of quotations, many of which are not to any point at all, there is a marvellous confusion of ideas, coupled with Dr. Forbes' well-known dogmatism, not always founded on accurate knowledge, and often without any foundation at all. We instance his explanations about Melchisedek (p. 27) and his assertion about the burial-place of St. Stephen (p. 67). The raison d'être of the little book is the discovery in 1882 of the broken bottom of a glass vase, on which is painted a building that Dr. Forbes makes out to be Solomon's Temple, and further, to be its exact representation. That there is not the shadow of a reason for the two suppositions is quite a little matter to Dr. Forbes, who thereupon dogmatizes, as is his wont also in Roman matters. His knowledge of Jerusalem is no ways peculiar; in many matters, like the identification of the hill Golgotha, he is not up to date. In his preface he says: "Avoiding all controversies, but taking the authorities as our guides, we propose . . . get facts out of the fiction, in order to elucidate its topography and antiquities, with a view to rendering service to those of our readers who may or may not visit the Holy City." This is just what he has not done.

(London: Kegan

20. Hindustani Idioms, by COL. A. N. PHILLIPS. Paul and Co., 1892. 5s.) Col. Phillips' thorough knowledge of Hindustani is manifest in this little manual, and well justifies the certificate of High Proficiency which he holds. Every phrase given is in excellent form, though here and there is a wrong termination, especially in gender. It is a useful book; but we do not see in what sense it is a book of idioms. Half of it is a vocabulary of terms all of which can be found in every dictionary. Section VIII., luckily only 3 pages long, called "a few aids to memory," consists of a score of doggrel verses, the right adjectives for which are absurd and atrocious. If legal and official phrases are idioms, Section V has too few of them; if they are not, the section is useless. In fact Col. Phillips does not seem to know precisely what idiom exactly means. Names for family relations (Sect. IV.) e.g. are not idioms. Proverbs are not idioms, though in general idiomatically expressed. Our author gives several proverbs for idioms; but here there are some mistakes. Unt charhe aur kutta kate is not to take a mean advantage of, but expresses the acme of bad luck. As an instance of confusion between idiom and merely correct phraseology let us instance No. 122. Aches from jolting in a carriage are correctly enough expressed as mera tamam badan dard karta hai; but the idiom or thait Hindustani is mere huddi pasli ek ho gai, my bones and ribs have become one (mass). The book will, however, be a great help to students.

21. A Brief History of the Indian Peoples, by SIR W. W. HUNTER, K.C.S.I. (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1892. 3s. 6d.) We gladly welcome this-the 20th edition, revised-of what is now a standard work; for its success shows a growing taste for information on Indian subjects.

To the

It is brought down to date the middle of the current year. praise which we willingly accord to this really excellent epitome of geographical, ethnological, religious and historical information regarding India, we must add, in no unfriendly spirit, a few words of criticism. At page 43, 1827 is a misprint for 1857. It is not fair, while naming Lord Roberts in connexion with the last Afghan War, to omit Sir Donald Stewart whose daring and timely march saved the former. De Boigne, Perron, Thomas and the Begum Sumru, surely deserve a passing half-line. Finally, no History of India can be considered complete without a detailed list of all the feudatory Chiefs of India: the absence of this is perhaps the greatest defect in Sir W. Hunter's justly praised work.

22. Indian Field Sports, after designs by CAPTN. T. WILLIAMSON. (Westminster: A. Constable and Co., 1892. 10s.) With every beauty of paper and printing, this enterprising firm gives us here 10 very pretty coloured plates, in oblong 4to, of Indian hunting-scenes, accompanied with a short letterpress, sufficient to describe the plates: there is a mistake at p. 3, about the Bombay and Bengal mode of spearing boars. Messrs. Constable and Co. have done their work most thoroughly and excellently; and if there are some inaccuracies of drawing, as in the forelegs of the elephant in the right foreground of the first plate, the fault is not theirs. Their book is excellent value.

23. Buddhism, Primitive and Present, by R. S. COPPLESTON, D.D., Bishop of Colombo. (London: Longmans and Co., 1892. 16s.) We have here a most valuable contribution to the study of Comparative Religion. Dr. Coppleston is candid, fair, and just in his work, and his wide experience in Ceylon and acquaintance with its ecclesiastical literature render him well qualified to treat of his subject. He limits his investigation to Sinhalese Buddhism only; and it is open to question whether, in a study of Buddhism, professedly undertaken for purposes of comparison with Christianity, it can be fair to the former thus to limit the inquiry, which in consequence is left simply incomplete. Nor can we say that confining his studies (apparently at least) to particular schools of interpretation, notably Professors Oldenberg and Rhys Davids, Dr. Coppleston has not lost a good deal which French and other authors, especially Bishop Bigandet of Rangoon, have contributed to the personal history and the tenets of Buddha. Having begun, as all Christians in such case necessarily must, with a parti pris, Dr. Coppleston, though he laudably tries to be fair and generally is, falls into occasional harsh judgments; as when he complains that there is no detailed list of virtues, as there is of vices: the former are surely understood by their contraries. He does not seem to allow tradition its full value; for in the East, above all, tradition is eminently conservative, and generally reliable in its main features. We fail to see that Dr. Coppleston has proved that Buddhism acknowledges no God and no soul, as is assumed by him and many others. Whether a soul be distinctly mentioned or not, Karma cannot be conceived as continuous without a real soul to cleave to, any more than accidentals can without their substance. Nor does it follow that because Buddhism is pantheistic in the widest sense, that therefore it owns no God. Again we must object

to the assumption that Nirvana is plain annihilation. This has never been demonstrated; on the contrary much of what Dr. Coppleston himself gives us tends to show that the Buddha still survives in some unknown form of absorption and rest, which again gives us the original form of the heaven. of pure reason, rest and union with God of the soul, enfranchised from the mundane passions of concupiscibile et irascibile. With these remarks we end our fault-finding in this excellent work, which we have read with pleasure. Excellent it is throughout, in form, spirit, judgment and learning. We note particularly Chapter XXI., Critical History of the Canonical Literature, which for painstaking research, careful deduction, and general correctness of conclusion, is deserving of every attention. Dr. Coppleston has given us a book of the highest merit and greatest interest, one without which no one can hope to form a true idea of one of the purest forms of Buddhism. He notes the many parallels between Buddhism and Christianity-some as he rightly says real, and others simply accidental or merely apparent but one of the impressions left on our mind after enjoying the perusal of his work is that there is room still for a side-by-side comparison of the words and phrases used in the Christian and Buddhist Scriptures.

CYRIL HAVILAND. This is a neat little Almost everywhere we

24. Voices from Australia, by PHILIP DALE and (London: Swan Sonnenschein and Co., 1892. 35.) book of poems, in two parts-one by each author. have pretty touches of local colouring, as in the Christmas wish, which all would gladly see realized:

'A sunbeam taken from the plenty here

To melt thy snowflakes, I would send thee, dear.'

Among others, there is (of course) a poem on kissing; but considering the antiquity and frequency of that operation, we cannot say that the poet has here told us anything new, or told the old, old story in a new way. There is plenty of good rhyme, and a good deal of sound reason—as sound at least as is generally found in average fugitive poems, giving us a very readable little book, many of the pieces of which are quite appropriate to this season.

25. Modern Guns and Smokeless Powder, by ARTHUR RIGG and JAMES GARVIE. (London: Spon and Co., 1892.) To the well-known series of scientific books for which this firm is so justly celebrated, this volume just out is a good addition, giving much information regarding modern substitutes for the now antiquated gunpowder, especially in connection with modern fast-firing and far-reaching guns of large calibre.

26. From Adam's Peak to Elephanta, by EDWARD CARPENTER. (London: Swan, Sonnenschein and Co., 1892. 15s) The style of this book is a credit to both printers and publishers. The author, though labouring under the serious drawback of not knowing the languages of the countries through which he travels, has given us a series of good sketches of men and things from Colombo to Delhi. They are well-drawn, chatty, and graphic. If not always exact, they have the great merit and charm of being written in a spirit of sympathy and admiration for the good