Encyclopreclia of Chronology. By B. B. Woodward and William L.
Cates. (Longmans.)—It is quite beyond the power of any man to criticise the matter, whether as regards its accuracy or its completeness, of so vast a work as is included in the volume before us. Briefly, then, we may say as to these points, that we have looked at some of the few of the vast number of subjects treated to which our knowledge happened to extend, and have found nothing that looked like an error; and that if we have been able to discover omissions, we are not by any means sure that such omissions have not been deliberately and rightly made. There is no article, for instance, on "Rubicon," but then there are limits to all human things ; these fifteen hundred pages, closely printed as they are, cannot contain all the information that everybody may want. The line must be drawn somewhere, and we cannot say, having regard to tho vast amount of knowable things, but that Rubicon is quite properly put on the outside of it. Of the method of the book it is more possible to form a definite judgment. In volumes of the kind the information about persons is commonlyjdivided from the information about things. Here the two are combined, and we are inclined to think with good effect. It is obvious that the worktof compilation must be easier when the com- piler feels that he is not bound to distinguish very strictly, and that the information to be communicated will be given in one way or the other. A certain amount of confusion, perplexity, and probably of repetition, is
thus avoided. The mechanical arrangement of the book is admirable ; the typography very clear. In short, it is as good a book of reference as one could wish to have.
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