effect. It is to be hoped that if the colouring
shows any sign of fading, a careful copy of it will be made. We know too little of the art of coloured sculpture, of which some day there may be a Renaissance.
SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Under this heading we notice such Books of the week as haw not been reserved for mime in other forms,] Theodore of Studium. By Alice Gardner. (E. Arnold. 10s. 6d. net.)—Theodore, born in 759 A.D., was the son of a high-placed
official in the Treasury of the Eastern Empire. His mother was a woman of studious and ascetic habits. It was by her and her brother Plato that Theodore's career was determined.
Plato had assumed, somewhat late in life, the monastic habit. He became the Abbot of Sacurdio, in Asia Minor, and in course of time resigned this position to his nephew. Sacurdio was not a safe residence—the Empire could not satisfactorily defend its Asiatic provinces—and Theodore in 799 migrated with his community to Studium, a monastic foundation, then more than three centuries old, within the walls of Constantinople. He had already come into collision with the secular power, by rebuking the Emperor Constantine VI. for an illegal marriage, and had been banished. In 808 this trouble came up again. The ecclesiastic who celebrated the marriage had been degraded when his patron was dethroned, and it was now pro- posed to restore him. Theodore opposed, and was again sent into exile. A few years afterwards—Miss Gardner is very sparing of her dates—a dispute which the religious world of the time' regarded as of transcendent importance became acute. Leo V. was a convinced iconoclast, and published decrees conceived in that sense. Theodore replied by having the prohibited icons borne aloft in a Palm Sunday procession. The result was that he was banished for the third time. In 824 Leo was murdered while attending service in his private chapel. The pions Theodore burst forth into a strain of rejoicing at this happy event. Miss Gardner finds that his letters on the occasion are "by no means pleasant reading." But the lues biographica is too strong for her. "After all it was not his business to inquire into the rights and wrongs of an action for which neither he nor his friends were in the least responsible." Let us hope that this is dramatic, the voice of Theodore, not of his biographer. With the iconoclastic controversy we need not meddle. Miss Gardner has very decided views. " No theological acumen is needed to see that the doctrinal basis of iconoclasm was utterly destructive of every belief in a human Christ." This sounds amazing. We take it that the doctrinal basis of the iconoclasts was, in the last resort, the Second Commandment. As for Theodore himself, he goes perilously near to heresy in defence of icons. " The Son of God the Father was formed after our image and likeness." This is a very learned work, if somewhat marred in execution by the writer's prepossessions.
The "Bookman" Illustrated History of English Literature. By T. Seccombe and W. Robertson Nicoll. Part I. (Hodder and Stoughton. ls. net.)—Our authors begin, and that, we think, quite rightly, with Chaucer. To go back beyond him is to enter upon a task which is too large to be accomplished in reasonable limits. And they follow the biographical method. There is an introductory chapter on "Caxton and the Art of Printing." Following this comes Chaucer, the subject being treated in a way that suggests to the reader how he is to follow up the study. The chapter ends with a brief and practical bibliography. Chap. 3 treats of Chaucer's successors and Sir T. Malory ; 4 of the Scottish poets ; 5 and 6 of the verse and prose writers of the early Tudor period, represented, we may say, by Lord Surrey and Sir Thomas More. Only a small portion of Book II., which bears the title of " Drama and Lyric," is included in this part, which is, we should say, the first of a series of twelve.
Nelson and his Companions in Arms. By John Knox Laughton. (George Allen. 2s. 6d. net.)—We are glad to hear all that Pro- fessor Laughton has to tell us about Nelson and his contemporaries, older and younger, the men under whom he served, or who served under him. Even great men are apt to be obscured near such a presence. Many interesting little traits are given. The only thing that we could wish away is Lady Hamilton. Surely it would be possible to banish her, at least for a time. Here she is far too much in evidence. There are, for instance, eight illustra- tions; four are of Nelson and one of Hardy ; three of Lady Hamilton. One would not illustrate a Life of Samson with three portraits of Delilah. John Lyly. By John Dover Wilson, B.A. (Macmillan and Bowes. 3s. net.)—Most of us know little of Lyly but what we learnt, and, it would seem, learnt wrongly, from Sir Walter Scott's caricature of Sir Piercie Shafton. Mr. Wilson sets before us the man's real claims to a place in literary history. These are strong in a way. Lyly wrote the first novel of manners in the language; he was the father of English comedy. The only drawback is that the modern reader cannot put up with him. There is no getting over this fact. However great the merits of a writer may be, the first essential is that he should be readable. Any one with a taste for literature will find it quite pleasant to read what Mr. Wilson says about the man ; for he gives us one side of English literature.
Report on Housing and Industrial Conditions in Dundee, with Inspection of School Children. (J. Leng, Dundee.)—We take the "Inspection of School Children" (published separately last February) first. The average height of boys of thirteen in primary schools was 4 ft. 6i in., the secondary school 4 ft. 8 in. ; weight, 5 st. 4 lb. and 5 st. 10 lb. (Weight was reckoned with clothes, but without shoes.) Galton's figures for the artisan class are 4ft. 8 in. and 6 st. (very nearly), and for all classes 4 ft. 9 in. and 6 st. Dundee therefore shows the usual difference between classes, while it is generally below the average. Colour blindness is very rare, only one decided case being found. Vision was absolutely normal in not more than a half, but then slight astigmatism is very common. Numerous cases were found, however, in which spectacles were needed to prevent serious injury. Parents were commonly unaware of the need. The report on cleanliness is painful reading ; well-cared-for children obviously suffered from contact with the neglected. Disease, also, was lament- ably common. One case of untended ringworm occurred. This, at least, might have been prevented without an Act of Parliament. The rest of the Report is not less painful. The chief industry of Dundee is the spinning of jute, and it is exposed to the formidable competition of Calcutta. India used to export jute as raw material ; it now manufactures it, and Dundee is, of course, heavily weighted in the competition. It must have cheap labour, and so employs women. Of every five Dundee people between twenty and forty-five, three are women and two are men. The evils here exposed are chiefly overcrowding and infant mortality. Three rooms is the commonly accepted minimum allowance for a house which is to accommodate a family ; but only one-sixth of the Dundee houses come up to it ; nearly two-thirds have two rooms or less, the proportion of one- roomed to two-roomed houses being rather more than one to five. In more than half the houses more than two persons live in each room. One of the most formidable single cases is that of sixteen people in two rooms, though this yields to the three eases in which ten people live in one room. From this we pass to infant mortality. Out of 20,095 children born in 4,384 families, more than one-third were dead. Another enumeration divides the families into two groups; (1) where the mothers worked before and after marriage ; here the dead children were 682 to 711 living, 582 dying under the age of one year. This is nothing less than appalling.
Newspaper Reader's Companion. By Albert M. Hyamson. (Routledge and Sons. ls. net.)—This little volume, substantially bound, and measuring 4 in. x 21 in., weighs something less than 3 oz. It is, therefore, distinctly a book that may be conveniently kept in the pocket. It gives working definitions of the terms that may be found in the columns of a newspaper,—i.e., the Parlia- mentary debates, leading articles, and the news generally ; strictly financial terms are not included. " Consols" is explained, but not Bank-rate, nor what is meant when it is said that the cheque "moved against Paris," nor the meaning of a "tired bull." But we can do without these, and the little book is certain to be useful. Here are the subjects of a page taken at random : Geneva Convention," "Gentleman-at-Arms," "Gerrymandering," " Ghetto," " Giaour," " Gothenburg System," " Governor General," " Grand Committee."
Fishes I have Known. By Arthur H. Beavan. (T. Fisher Unwin. 5s. net.)—The writer of this notice is in complete sympathy with Mr. Beavan. He, too, remembers " catching his first fish," but owns that it was nothing like so fine as the half- pound tench which Mr. Beavan captured near Bexhill. Our author's experiences have been many and varied. Ulysses-like, he has visited the abodes and learnt the ways of many fishes. He has caught, or aided at catching, a shark, if, indeed, the shark is a fish,—he gives a 'gruesome account of what he saw in its stomach. Dolphins, turtles, pilot-fish—very seldom caught, it seems—the Australian barracouta, the Murray cod, the cat-fish, and other antipodean fishes, have been among his prey. He hag something to tell us also about the inhabitants of South American waters, and another of his chapters describes the "harbour fish " that he and his companions caught at Diego Garcia (in the Chagos Archipelago, about midway between Zanzibar and Java). After these experiences bl far-away waters he comes back to England, and, always an entertaining guide, conducts us to more familiar scenes.
The Golden Reciter. With Introduction by Cairns James. (Seeley and Co. 3s. ad. and 5s.)—This is an admirable collection of pieces, both in prose and verse, for recitation. There are between two and three hundred passages, in five divisions,—narra- tive and descriptive, humorous, romantic, dramatic, and pathetic. The compiler seems to have been fairly successful in getting over copyright difficulties, though Tennyson, we see, is not represented by any pieces still in copyright. Mr. James gives some season- able advice on elocutionary matters, pronunciation, voice, attitude, &c.
Book Prices Current. Vol. XIX. (Elliot Stock. .21 7s. ad. net to subscribers.)—A few books dearer—sixty-nine were sold for £24,000—and most books cheaper, is the upshot of this record, reaching, it may be said, from October, 1904, to June, 1905. It has been, therefore, a good time for buyers, and a bad one for sellers, among whom, of course, we do not reckon the exceptional possessors of first-folio Shakespeares, first editions of Walton, and the like. A Shakespeare, the copy having been somewhat repaired, sold for 4255. The Family Bible of Robert Burns fetched £1,560,—it is to go, we see, to the poet's cottage at Alloway. Other prices are "Robinson Crusoe," 2 vols., £121; the "Latin Psalter" of Fust and Schoeffer, A4,000; Vignier's "Bibliotheque Historiale," £305; Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, 410 (1694), £2,000.
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