24 DECEMBER 1881, Page 25

A Book of the Beginnings. By Gerald Massey (Williams and

Norgate). 2 vols.—These massive and well printed volumes are devoted to "an attempt to recover and reconstitute the lost engines of the myths and mysteries, types and symbols, religion and language, with Egypt for the mouthpiece, and Africa as the birthplace ;" but the great bulk and problematic character of their contents preclude us from attempting the task of a review.