READINGS FROM INDIAN HISTORY.*
IT will be a lazy or a stupid boy or girl who can read these two hundred and forty brightly written and copiously illustrated pages without aegigiring a lifelong,intereat in the groat Dependency. of India. Hero is- the-tale of &civilization older than that of Europeand, in Zenner times„ much more, closely allied to the West than it was when tho spread-of Islam in theNeav East placed a barrier of hostile Smolt is nations between.• the inheritors of Greece and Rome and the heirs of the great literature. which sprang from the• Vedic hymns. From the lion we- may seethe causes gradually showing, themselves.- which in the fulness of time brought about the unwilling and seemingly fortuitous administration of " John Company," to be superseded in turn, by the kindly rule of the Great White Queen. It.is a story full of varied and deep interests and alias Sykes, in spite-of the -narrow limits she has set herself, has, told it with-.unflagging. zeal, knowledge, and sympathy. She is at her. best, perhaps, in the chapters which- deal- with Behar the Lion and his famous Mogul successors, and here she makes skilful use of apt quotations from contemporary records, including tho writings of Babes himself. It was in Shakespeam's lifetime that the first Englishman landed in India, and even then it was clear that only a vigorous administration of kindly and of bient foreigners could bring lasting peace and prosperity to India. A great and ancient' civilization, rich in all the arts, had not produced good and firm government. But through all the terrors and troubles of centuries of misrule and invasion Indian literary and artistic genius flourished, and may yet astonish the world with fresh wonders.
Miss Sykes's account of Hindu India (a- much more difficult period to summarize clearly) is hardly so good as her admirable description of Mogal rule, and professional ethnologists will perhaps question some of her statements. This part of her history will not supersede Mr. Rangaswami Ayengarts excellent little manual. It is very doubtful, for instance, whether the Dravidiana came from Mesopotamia, or the supposed submerged Indo-African tract, or from anywhere out. side India,. Similarly Sir Herbert Risley's speculations as to Indo. Scythians are now regarded with much suspicion. But these inevitable criticisms do not affect the value of an extremely interesting and readable account of India as it was before the Portuguese sailed round Africa .and rediscovered the land of Alexander's famous conquests made three hundred and twenty-seven years before our era. Miss Sykee's Attie book is well worth reading by young and old alike.
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