History of Comparative Literature. By Frederic Loliee. Trans- lated by
Mr. Douglas Power, M.A. (Hodder and Stoughton. 6s. net.)—We cannot imagine a more formidable task than the writing of this book. The severe self-restraint to which the author has had to subject himself is easy to imagine as we turn over the pages. To know, for instance, the literature of Athens as a scholar is bound to know it, and then to have to put all that is to be said about it in three or four pages ! The reader, too, has his work before him. M. Loliee's aim is to present a picture of the literary output of all the centuries: to mark the periods of growth, florescence and decay, and to indicate the relations of one product to another. It is a great work, but it demands no small qualification in the reader. As a rule, no one profits from summaries of things which he does not know. It would be ungracious to apply this principle too strictly ; but it is certainly safe to say that the wider a reader's acquaintance with the litera- tures of the world, the more benefit he will get from M. Loliee's work. It has been well translated by Mr. Power.—We may mention at the same time a book dealing with another province of knowledge, but with a somewhat similar aim, A Brief Survey of European History, by Arthur Hassall, M.A. (Blackie and Son, 4s. 6d.) Mr. Hassall's starting-point is the Coronation of Charles the Great ; the latest events which he records are the separation of Norway from Sweden and the entente cordiale between Great Britain and France. Here again the task is of the greatest difficulty,—three hundred and fifty pages to comprehend more than thrice as many years. But Mr. Hassan is eminently qualified for his task, and his readers ought to find him instructive ; only the more complete the knowledge they can bring to his pages, the more they will take away from them.—A Concise History of Europe, by Avary H. Forbes, M.A. (Ralph, Holland, and Co., 2s. net), attacks the same problem under still more difficult conditions of space. Yet this, too, will doubtless be found useful in its way.
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