Christianity and Islamism: the Bible and the Koran. By the
Rev, W. R. W. Stephen. (Bentley.)—Loctures delivered in the Cathedral Church of Chichester can scarcely have but one dominant fooling. No one can doubt to which of the two contrasted religions the lecturer would give his preference. But he is distinctly fair and candid. He recognises the solid stratum of truth which underlies Mohammedanism, without which its enormous success would be the most unintelligible event in the history of the world. But he does not yield to the strange partiality—a reaction, doubtless, against the unreasoning prejudice of • former days—which writers like Mr. Bosworth Smith display. Among other good things in the volume, we may note what he says on a sub- ject about which very erroneous notions commonly prevail, the culture of the Saracens. That culture was not their own, " They taught in Persia and in the western part of the Roman Empire what they had learned in the eastern part of it, and reproduced, perhaps with improve- , ments, in Cordova or 'Bagdad what they bad soon in Byzantium. Their range of study amongst Greek authors was limited, and confined to translations of books on physical and metaphysical science. The re- search of Gibbon failed to discover a record of any Arabic translation of any Greek poet, orator, or historian."
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