16 NOVEMBER 1895, Page 13

The Teaching of the Vedas. By Maurice Phillips. (Longmans and

Co.)—We cannot undertake to analyse the contents of this volume, the outcome, it is evident, of long and careful study. But it is interesting to note the conclusion to which this study has brought the author. "The theory of a Primitive Divine Revelation alone is capable of explaining all the religious ideas of the Vedas." These ideas, it is pointed out, are, in a large degree, foreign to Nature. Hence, their existence tells against the idea of an Evolution of Religion, and for that of Primitive Reve- lation. The tendency of modern thought is so decidedly towards the former that an able statement of the rival doctrine is peculiarly interesting.