A Text-Book of Indian History. By the Rev. G. U.
Pope, D.D. (Gladding.)—" This book," says the author, "is strictly a manual for students, and everything has been sacrificed to the one object of making it thoroughly useful in this way." A work of this kind is not a subject of purely literary criticism. A vast amount of information arranged in a series of short paragraphs must, from the necessity of things, be unattractive to the general reader. Its value to the student it is of course very difficult to estimate without the experience which a reviewer cannot command.
Some characteristics of the book may, however, be noted. It does not pretend to be what it really is not. It professes to be an introduction to the real study of Indian history. It has been evidently compiled with much care and industry. The best works on each section of the subject have been consulted. Recourse has been had, where this has been practicable, to original documents and authorities. The facts have the look of being well grasped and arranged, put, so to speak, in proper perspective. And they are given with as much liveliness of style as the method of treatment allows of. The contents of the book may be thus described :--In an introduction we have, illustrated with maps, an account of the "political divisions of India." The very first page shows us that the author under- stands his business of teaching, when he tells the student to note the latitude of the extreme points,—Singapore nearly on the Equator, and Peshawar very nearly thirty-four degrees to the north of it. No one who has noted this can fail to have a lively notion of the vast size of the country he is reading about. The distance is about the same as there is between the city of Mexico and the north of Vancouver's Island, includ- ing three-fourths of Mexico, all the United States, and all the habi- table part of British North America. Each of the great divisions of British India has its map and descriptive text. Then we have "The Central Indian Agency," "The Central States," "British Burnish," chc. After this follows a sketch of the natural geography of Hindostan ; then the history of ancient India, and then the main history itself. Ex- amination papers, chronological and genealogical tables, with full indexes, make up what is a very complete book of its kind.
Previous page
