2 MARCH 1901, Page 24

SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.

Under thie heading we notice such Books of ths ueek a have no been reserved for review in other forms.]

: a Judge of the Underworld. By W. M. L. Hutchinson. (Macmillan and Bowes, Cambridge. ls.)—Miss Hutchinson has collected and put together in a very agreeable fashion a great amount of information about the .acids. These personages occupy a very prominent place among the Hellenic heroes. Their best-known appearance is, of course, when they came- ti.e., the Egina section of them—to give their help at the battle of Salamis. But this is only one of a number of legends or observances which are connected with the name. From this part of her subject Miss Hutchinson proceeds to speak of that which gives a title to her book. In the genuine necuia of the Odyssey the "Judge of the Underworld" does not appear. Hades was "not a place of retribution, but reflected a former existence." The King, whom the visitor sees Beato-r‘voera sbctiairry, simply belongs to an "underworld where it was still possible to go to law with your neighbour." The future judgments for deeds done in the body was a later idea which we owe to the development of Greek thought, which, as far as we know, first found expression in Pinder, the most religious of Greek poets, and which was further elaborated by Plato. Miss Hutchinson has given us a most interesting paper on these matters.