Fifty-two Classic Stories. Edited by Francis Storr. (Hutchin- son and
Co. 5s.)—Mr. Story, with the help of five contributors, has made an attractive book on a subject which never can be exhausted. Every land has its folk-tales, but there is something about the Grecian-born which gives them a special charm. The editor has, we may suppose, some good reason for the order in which he has placed the "fifty-two" ; we should have preferred an order of time. Time, it may be said, belongs to history, not to fable ; yet fable sometimes looks the better for having a history garb. And quite young readers may be puzzled by reading of the fall of Troy after the home-coming of Ulysses. Why, we would ask, has Mr. M. M. Bird altered the story of Polycrates ? This is real history, not as to the strangely recovered ring, of course, but as to the manner of his death. Tho rebel soldiers did not kill him ; he baffled the attacks of the Spartans and of the Samians ; it seemed as if nothing could harm him. And then he fell a victim to his ambition. Oroetes enticed him with the promise of a treasure which would give him the lordship of Greece, and then slew him.
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