The Religions of the Ancient World. By George Rawlinson, M.A.
(Religious Tract Society.)—These eight chapters, founded on lectures which the author delivered from the Camden Chair of Ancient His- tory in Oxford, form an admirable résumé of the whole subject. We may note in the chapter on "The Religion of the Ancient Egyptians" some valuable remarks on the so-called Egyptian Trinity. "It is true," he writes, "that they had a fancy for triads, but a triad is not a trinity. The triads are not groups of persons, but of attributes; the three are not coequal, but distinctly the reverse, the third in the triad being always subordinate ; nor is the division regarded as in any case exhaustive of the divine nature, or exclusive of other divisions. Moreover, as already observed, the triad is frequently enlarged by the addition of a fourth person or character, who is associated as closely with the other three as they are with each other. Cudworth's view must, therefore, be set aside as wholly imaginary." The chapter on "The Religion of the Ancient Romans" may be commended as especially useful to those who are following the common line of study.
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