A HISTORY OF THE GREEK AND ROMAN WORLDS. By G.
B. 'Grundy, D.Litt. (Methuen. 22s. 6d.)
This is an exceedingly good hook, of inestimable value to student and history-lover, and it deserves far more space than we are able to afford. Full of minutiae as to social customs, character study of important individtials, legislative proce- dures, &b., it is at the same time generously' conceived as a whole. In consequence, the many Mediterranean civilizations are made real to us; and we are shown, clearly and concisely, the ethnological and ethnographical inter-workings which make a study Of Classical history so•complex and baffling when treated piecemeal. The author very wisely defines early in his book the cardinal difference between the Greco-Ronsan and the earlier Eastern civilizations of Egypt, Chaldea, Asst ea, China. These last were intensive, subjective groviths, il.oCated geo- graphically, and so made self-inspired. The inevitable result was a culture founded in mysticism, tending to morbid quietist social and religious developments. Greece and Rome, on the 'tither hand, fed themselves from without, by conquest, trade and colonization. In modem jargon, we might call them extrovert civilizations, tending always to be practical, assiml.
lative, and scientific. That is the first and most obvious reason why they are the parents of our modem culture ; and from that point of view, indeed, they might be called the beginning of the modern world.
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