The Land of Greece Described and Illustrated. By Charles Henry
Hanson. (Nelson and Sons.)—We naturally compare this book with Bishop Wordsworth's, and do not find the comparison to its advan- tage. The illustrations are distinctly inferior in number and quality. Mr. Hanson gives us forty-four, all, it is true, of the full-page size. In Bishop Wordsworth's volume there are twenty-seven full-page steel engravings, besides the vignette in the title, and several hundreds on wood interspersed through the text, many of both kinds being of very high merit indeed. Sometimes, of course, Mr. Hanson's pictures—as in the instance of the "Lion Gate at Mycenao "—break new ground, and have, therefore, an interest of their own. Bishop Wordsworth has very little about Argolis. One little sketch of the wall of TroezNa and a "Sketch on the Road from Argos to Corinth" are all that we get. The text, again, does not show well by the side of the Bishop's scholarly work. Mr. Hanson has gone to Grote and Thirlwall. There could not be better guides. Bat no writer is safe who is not familiar with the original authorities. The Theban% to take an instance from the account of Thermopylm, did not "elect to remain" with Leonidas. No one who had read Herodotus would write thus. To speak quite frankly, this book might have been spared.
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