20 MARCH 1920, Page 20

A Short History of Celtic Philosophy. By IL M. Pim.

(Dundalk : W. Tempest. 7s. 6d. net)—Part of this work consists of an exposition, brief and necessarily incomplete but sound within its limits, of the philosophic work of John Scotus Erigena, John Duns Scotus, Berkeley, and Hutcheson ; the remainder is devoted to a brilliant endeavour to discern a philosophy akin to, if not identical with, the theories of the Neo-Platonists, underlying the legends of Druidic Ireland. Mr. Pim's view of the allegorical nature of these legends is undoubtedly illuminating, and whatever may be the ultimate verdict on its correctness, it gives them a unity and a coherence which hitherto they have lacked. The style throughout is forcible and exact, but at times too com- pressed for clearness ; doubtless in the more comprehensive treatise which Mr. Pint intends to undertake he will have sufficient space to correct this minor fault.