17 JUNE 1899, Page 25

SCHOOL-BOOKS. —If. Tuili Cieeronis Pro A. Cluentio Oratio. With Introduction

by W. Peterson. (Macmillan and Co. 3s. Cd.)—Dr. Peterson has had the way smoothed for him by Professor Ramsay's edition (now some forty years old), and by the more recent work of Mr. W. Y. Faussett. His own transla- tion, noticed in these columns about three years ago, was the result of study which has made the completion of his work more easy. But the Pro Cluentio is a speech which can scarcely be exhausted, so full of matter is it, and so suggestive of questions. There is first the difficulty,—how much truth is there in Cicero's story ? Probably he had a bad case, but the case of his adversaries was worse. Whatever Clnentius may have been, Sassia and Oppianicus must have been worse. Dr. Peterson's introduction is a fair summing up. The commentary, com- pressed as it is—a page and a half to a page of so difficult a text is very moderate—will probably be found to leave few or no difficulties untouched.—The Orations of Cicert. against Catiline. By Charles Haines Keene, M.A. (Blackie and Son. 2s. 6d.)—Professor Keene gives in his introduction a general sketch of Cicero's career as an advocate and politician. His notes will be found useful; but we do not always see for whom they are intended. The presence of a vocabulary indicates that the book is not for advanced scholars. But such a caution as the notes on " Teneris undique ; lute aunt clarion nobis tua consilia omnia"—" teneris not teneris,"" lace, daylight,' ablative after comparative "—are really too elementary.—The Odes of Horace, Book II., edited by Stephen Gwynn (same publishers, ls. Cd.), is a continuation of a useful edition of which we have already had a specimen.—The 2Eneid of Vergil, Book II. Edited by A. Sidgwick, M.A. (Cambridge University Press. ls. 6d.)— Mr. Sidgwick is an adept in putting what is wanted into his notes, and will be found not to have lost the art.—Cwsar's Gallic War, Book IV., edited by A. H. Allcroft, M.A., and 1'. R. Mills, M.A. (W. B. Clive, 1s. Gd.), is a volume in the " Univeray Tutorial Series."—In the " Warwick Shakespeare" (Blackie and Son), a series of which we have spoken more than once, we have King Henry VIII., edited by D. Nichol Smith.—In the series of " Books of the Bible " (Rivingtons), The Book of Judges, edited by the Rev. H. F. Stewart, M.A.—Le Tresor de Monte- Cristo, edited by R. Proper (Blackie and Son).