25 JUNE 1910, Page 49

CRETE, THE FORERUNNER OF GREECE.

Crete, the Forerunner of Greece. By C. H. and H. Boyd Hawes (Harper and Brothers. 2s. 6d. net.)—Both Mr. and Mrs. Hawes have done work in the field of Cretan discovery,—the first in the province of anthropometry, the second by the excavation, when she was Miss Harriett Boyd, of the Minoan settlement of Gournia. Their book conies with a recommendation from Dr. Evans, and no one is more competent to judge in this subject. Moreover, it is a subject of the greatest interest, not for its own sake only, though what has been discovered is noteworthy, but for its far- reaching significance in the historical field. Crete is the most remarkable example of the rehabilitation of legend. What could seem more absolutely fabulous than the Minos legend ? And yet we find it to be full of reality. The book, a volume of " Harper's Library of Living Thought," is all that could be wished.