16 DECEMBER 1837, Page 18

Unirrrsa Mythology, by the Reverend HENRI* CnnisTm es, is not

a mere dictionary of the gods and goddesses of the Greeks and Romans, but a comprehensive survey of national religions important from their peculiar character or the numbers or conside- ration of the people which adopted them.

Commencing with the myths or fables of the Egyptians, Mr. CHRISTMAS proceeds to those of the Hindoos, of the Chaldeans, Syrians, and other Western Asiatics, as well as of the Greeks and Romans. Again, travelling eastward, he describes the Bud- hism of the further Indians, and the religions of the Chinese. From Asia beyond the Ganges, he jumps to America, and surveys the gods of the Mexicans. He then investigates the mythology of the Northerns, or Scandinavians, with a brief notice of that ( our Saxon progenitors. A history of MAuereser, and an analysis of Malmometenism, with a short account of the Talmud and a selection of some of its more striking traditions and notions, close the exposition of the mythologies. A section devoted to coinpsring the connexion and tracing the origin of them all to patriarchal sources, completes the work. This volume does not lay claim to the merit of profound research or high literature. It, however, accomplishes its object; which is to supply a desideratum in our popular books, in a succinct and readable style, and at a low price. Mingled with this, however, is the religious purpose of tracing all the different mythologies to the Mosaic narrative, or more properly, to patriarchal traditions; and hence to infer the truth of Genesis. This aim has of neces- sity given somewhat of a forced or one-sided view to certain parts of the work, but, carried to the extent to which Mr. CHRISTMAS pushes it, causes a graver fault. It may be admitted that some traces of the creation, the serpent, the fall of man, the deluge, the longevity of primeval men, and the translation of Enoch, are to be found in the myths of most people. All this, however, does not of' itself prove the truth of the Mosaic account, but merely a knowledge of the facts by the people of Mesopotamia and the adjacent countries at a very early age,—a circumstance which no sceptic who admits the antiquity of the Scriptures would be likely to impugn. These arguments, moreover, should be cau- tiously urged, for they are likely to give the enemies of religion a pretext for denying the inspired character of Genesis. If the leading facts of the Scripture narrative were so distinctly known as to have spread from the Etruscans to the further Hindoos, and even to have reached the Iroquois Indians, an in'erence might be raised that Moses could have compiled his narrative from patriarchal tradition, without the aid of revelation. This, we re- peat, is not very safe ground.