20 JANUARY 1900, Page 26

The Mysteries of Chronology. By F. F. Arbuthnot. (William Heinemann.

6s.)—We cannot pretend to analyse this book, but we may say that it points out the confusion and general diffi- culties which beset the subject. Whether Mr. Arbuthnot is altogether a safe guide to lead us out of this confusion we cannot say. Now and then he makes us doubt. He praises, for instance, Father Hardonin, who, he says, "knew what he was writing about." Hardouin may have been right in doubting the existence of Dionysius Minor, the supposed author of our pre- sent chronological system, but he doubted many other things, ancl the genuineness of classical literature generally. The construc- tive part of the book is the proposal of a Victorian era. But is every country to have an era of its own P