27 APRIL 1867, Page 22

Histoire de la Republique dAthenes. Par Madame Hortense A. de

Meritens. (Triibner)—Madame de Meritens is apparently a French Mrs. Markham. She does her work agreeably, and with accuracy so far BA we have examined it in detail, but she is true to her nationality. A lady who refers her readers to the Novum Organum for a further sketch of Greek philosophy, who says of Homer and the siege of Troy "ii eat amnsant de chercher un moment l'histoire chez le poete," and who speculates as to whether Sappho had "sine existence domestiqne,q would hardly be accepted by severe English governesses as a safe guide to the bristling facts of history. A girl who stops reading to think of Sappho is lost, so far at least as dates are concerned, and Madame de Ideritens would incur fresh blame by not giving dates. She makes a mistake, too, as to the origin of Pegasus, which was not the horse pro- duced by the earth at the stroke of Neptune's trident.