CURRENT LITERATURE.
—4— A History of the World from the Earliest Records to the Present Time. By Philip Smith. (Walton and Maberly.)—Mr. Smith, one of the principal contributors to "The Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities," has undertaken a bold enterprise, and one which the world has for some time agreed to consider an impossible one. He proposes to write the history of the world, or rather, we should say, of the human race, in eight volumes of demi-octavo, dividing the narrative into three parts, ancient, mediaeval, and modern history, the last to commence from the fall of the Byzantine Empire. The excessive com- pression rendered necessary by such a plan will with all students of history be fatal to its value, but the work is not intended for them. There is a class now growing among us to whom a reasonably accurate but very brief summary of the facts which historians have as yet dis- covered, a well-written index, as it were, to all received histories, will be of very considerable value. They have not the time to read more, and must at present either be content with ignorance, or study only the special points which happen to come before them. Mr. Smith proposes, we imagine, to fill up the gaps in their knowledge, and we wish him every success in his work. He writes with a power and spirit most .unusual in a compiler, can lay controversy aside without appearing to dogmatize, and so far as his task is capable of performance at all will, to judge from this first part, perform it well. Will he permit us to suggest that with the clear type wisely adopted the separate Parts should not be too short ?
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