The Dawn of History. Edited by C. V. Keary. (Mozley
and Smith.) —We all know that this is an age of manuals. Knowledge has to be popularised, and this little volume is an attempt to popularise what is known, or supposed to be known, about primitive man. Nothing is done in the way of original research or speculation, the editor and his fellow-workers confining themselves to the humbler task of putting average readers in possession of the general results of what we must call pre-historic science, and of the mode and method by which these results have been arrived at. The attempt is, no doubt, a very praise- worthy one, but at the same time it is necessarily beset with unusual difficulties ; and we question whether, in the nature of the case, it can be successfully carried out. Some subjects are really beyond the capacity of ordinary readers, who cannot possibly have the needful equipments with which to grapple with them. Such a subject is the growth of language, which it is certainly hard to popularise so as to make it attractive. It is difficult to deal with it without pre-suppos- ing a good deal of knowledge, or, at any rate, a certain degree of intellectual training. We by no means wish to convey that this work is a failure ; many parts of it explain very lucidly the results of modern research, and in particular, the chapter on "The Nations of the Old World " is one which everybody may read with interest and profit. No pains have been spared with the book, and if it cannot claim to be much more than a compilation from the labours of others, it is sufficiently clear that the authors have undertaken nothing which they bad not themselves mastered. A reader who comes to this work with a certain amount of preparation will learn much from it.
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