A History of the Ancient World. By George Willis Botsford,
Ph.D. (Macmillan and Co. 6s. 6d. net.)—This is a book to which it is not easy to do justice. When we say that eighty pages are given to "the Oriental Nations," about two hundred and fifty to Hellas, and nearly the same amount to Rome and the first eight centuries of our era—Professor Botsford's limit being the corona- tion of Charlemagne—we indicate the cause. Literary form is necessarily made subordinate; the volume is emphatically a teacher's book, and must be judged by the results which a teacher can work out by its help. In this way, so far as our inspection has gone, it seems likely to be useful. Professor Botsford takes the leading facts of the story which he has to tell, puts them dearly, and keeps a due sense of proportion in his treatment of them. We cannot always, indeed, accept his estimates of men and things. Themistocles and Aristeides " were much alike in moral character. In genius Themistocles was vastly superior." This last certainly is true, but does not all the evidence go to prove that he was not personally disinterested? It must be with con- siderable modification that the teaching of Socrates can be said to have "strengthened the traditional faith." If by "traditional" is meant " popular," the absolutely non-moral conception of divine beings that the average Greek accepted, he was wholly against it. It is too broad a statement that "before the period of exile most of the Hebrews were worshippers of the various Semitic gods," that it was a minority which worshipped Jehovah. The
value of the book is greatly enhanced by the many illustrations and bibliographies.
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