340

dry, pedantic style of one of the editors, by whose name the collection is known, -Kasper von der Roen. The older volume, however, preserved the spirit of the thirteenth century with admirable fidelity, both in its text and in the delightfully naive illustrations which accompany it.

Among the heroic myths which appear in the original Heldenbuch' are the ancient Gothic legends of King Laurin' and The Rose Garden at Worms,' together with three from the Lombard cycle, Ornit,' (Wolfdietrich,' and 'Hugdietrich. These have been rendered into Modern High German in the present century by Karl Josef Simrock, whose scholarly and sympathetic translation makes his Kleines Heldenbuch as valuable a contribution to the history of German literature as was the original collection of the same name.

A"

madis of Gaul, by Vasco Lobeira. Robert Southey, in the introduction to his English version of this romance, «Amadis of Gaul' is among prose, says: what 'Orlando Furioso' is among metrical romances, not the oldest of its kind but the best." It is however so old as to have belonged to the age of the fairest bloom of chivalry, the days of the Black Prince and the glorious reign of Edward III. in the two realms of England and France. It is a tale of the knightly career of Amadis and his two brothers, Galaor and Florestan, the sons of King Perion of Gaul. The name of the knight's mistress is Oriana; but many are the damsels, ladies, and queens, whom he rescues in peril, not without wounding their hearts, but remaining loyal to the last to his liege lady-his marriage with whom terminates, in Southey's opinion, the narration of the original author. The remaining adventures after the Fourth Book are, as he thinks, added by the Spanish translator Garcia Ordonez de Montalvo, and exhibit a much lower type both of literary style and of morals. The author is a Portuguese who was born at Porto; fought at Aljubarrota, where he was knighted by King João; and died at Elvas, 1403. The oldest version extant is that of Montalvo in Spanish, and the oldest edition is supposed to be that of Seville, 1526. But the romance was familiar to the Spanish discoverers of America, and must have enjoyed a wide popularity since the time when, in the

reign of João I., the Infante Dom Pedro wrote a sonnet in praise of Vasco Lobeira, "the inventor of the Books of Chivalry." Cervantes, whose own romance was the death-knell of these unnatural and preternatural extravaganzas, names this as one of the three romances spared in the burning of Don Quixote's library, "because it was the first of the kind and the best." It depicts a time "not many years after the passion of our Redeemer,» when Garinter, a Christian, was king of lesser Britain, Languines King of Scotland, Perion King of Gaul, and Lesuarte King of Great Britain. The scene is laid in such mystic parts of the earth as the island of Windsor, the forest of Angaduza, and "Sobradisa which borders upon Serolis.» The manly love of the three brother knights, their honor, fidelity, and bravery, are noble types of the ideal of the chivalric romance. It is to the interpolations and additions of the Spanish and French translators through whom the romance has come down to us, that we owe the gross and offensive passages which mar the otherwise pure and charming narrative.

Rome,

ome, History of, by Victor Duruy. This History des Romains,' first published in 1879 in Paris, is the most elaborate and complete of the works of Victor Duruy. It is the result very largely of original research. The edition of Mahaffy, published in 1883, has no superior, and perhaps no equal, as a popular history of Rome. The modern edition, as published in 1894, is very attractive; having over three thousand well-selected engravings, one hundred maps and plans, besides numerous other chromo-lithographs.

This work covers the whole subject of Roman history, and is the best work of reference; having, unlike the works of Merivale and Gibbon, a general index, which enables the ordinary reader to find any fact required. Unlike Mommsen, Duruy sifts tradition and tries to infer from it the real value of Roman history. In regard to the illustrations, Duruy's book stands alone; giving the reader all kinds of illustration and local color, so as to let him read the history of Rome with all the lights which archæological research can afford.

Beginning with a speculative description of the geographical, political, and religious conditions of Italy before the

establishment of Roman power, the history of Rome is traced in eight volumes, each of which has two sections, from its founding, 753 B. C., to its division and fall in 359 A. D. The history has fourteen main periods; the first being 'Rome under the Kings,' 753-510 B. C., and the 'Formation of the Roman People'; and the last, The Christian Empire from Constantine to Theodosius' (306395 A. D.).

Decline and Fall of the Roman

Empire, The, by Edward Gibbon. "It was at Rome, on the 15th of October 1764, as I sat musing amidst the ruins of the capitol, while the barefooted friars were singing vespers in the temple of Jupiter, that the idea of writing the decline and fall of the city first entered my mind," wrote Gibbon in his autobiography. In 1776 the first volume of the great work was finished. Its success was tremendous; and the reputation of the author was firmly established before the religious world could prepare itself for an attack on its famous 15th and 16th chapters. The last volume was finished on the 27th of June 1787, at Lausanne, whither he had retired for quiet and economy. In his Memoirs he tells the hour of his release from those protracted laborsbetween eleven o'clock and midnight; and records his first emotions of joy on the recovery of his freedom, and then the sober melancholy that succeeded it when he realized that his life's work was done.

'The Decline and Fall' has been pronounced by many the greatest achievement of human thought and erudition in the department of history. The tremendous scope of the work is best explained by a brief citation from the author's preface to the first volume: "The memorable series of revolutions which, in the course of thirteen centuries, gradually undermined, and at length destroyed, the solid fabric of human greatness, may, with some propriety, be divided into the three following periods: I. The first of these periods may be traced from the age of Trajan and the Antonines, when the Roman monarchy, having attained its full strength and maturity, began to verge toward its decline.

II. The second may be supposed to begin with the reign of Justinian, who by his laws as

Iwell as his victories restored a transient splendor to the Eastern Empire.

III. The third from the revival of the Western Empire to the taking of Constantinople by the Turks.» It is, then, a history of the civilized world for thirteen centuries, during which paganism was breaking down, and Christianity was superseding it; and so bridges over the chasm between the old world and the new.

The great criticism of the work has always been upon the point of Gibbon's estimate of the nature and influence of Christianity.

Aside from this, it can safely be said that modern scholarship finds very little that is essential to be changed in Gibbon's wonderful studies; while his noble dignity of style and his picturesqueness of narration make this still the most fascinating of histories.

Edward Gibbon, the Autobiography

of. What goes at present under this title is a compilation made by Lord Sheffield, Gibbon's literary executor, from six different sketches left by the author in an unfinished state. The first edition appeared in 1796, with the complete edition of his works. "In the fiftysecond year of my age," he begins, "after the completion of an arduous work, I now propose to employ some moments of my leisure in reviewing the simple transactions of a private and literary life." This modest, unaffected tone characterizes the book. The sincerity of the revelations is full of real soberness and dignity. The author of the 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' recounts the years of preparation that preceded his masterpiece, and the difficulties conquered. Macaulay's "schoolboy» doubtless knows the lines concerning the origin at Rome of his first conception of the history-when he was "musing amidst the ruins of the capitol, while the barefooted friars were singing vespers in the temple of Jupiter." And many other passages are hardly less familiar. Had he lived, Gibbon would doubtless have completed these memoirs; but as they are, the simple, straightforward records of a famous student's labors and aims, who by his manly character made many lasting friendships, they form one of the most interesting, brilliant, and suggestive autobiographies in the English language.

other work. It begins with the siege by Titus, 70 A. D., and continues to the fourteenth century; including the early Christian period, the Moslem invasion, the medieval pilgrimages, the pilgrimages by Mohammedans, the Crusades, the Latin Kingdom from 1099 A. D. to 1291, the victorious career of Saladin, the Crusade of the Children, and other episodes in the history of the city and of the country. The use of Crusading and Arabic sources for the preparation of the work, and the auspices under which it has been published, give this history a value universally recognized.

Egypt and Chaldæa: The Dawn of

Civilization, by G. Maspero. Revised edition. Translated by M. L. McClure. Introduction by A. H. Sayce. With map and over 470 illustrations. A work devoted to the earlier history of Egypt and Babylonia; especially full and valuable for the early history of Egypt, which Maspero puts before that of Babylonia. "Chaldæa» is a comparatively late name for Babylonia; and since Maspero wrote, new discoveries have carried the ❝dawn" very far back in Babylonia, to a date much earlier than that of the earliest known records of origins in Egypt.

In a later volume, Egypt, Syria, and Assyria: The Struggle of the Nations,> M. Maspero has carried on the story of the early Oriental world, its remarkable civilization, its religious developments, and its wars of conquest and empire, down to a time in the last half of the ninth century B. C., when Ahab was the King of Israel in northern Palestine. Babylon had risen and extended her influence westward as early as 2250 B. C.; and even this was 1,500 years later than Sargon I., who had carried his arms from the Euphrates to the peninsula of Sinai on the confines of Egypt. As early at least as this, Asiatic conquerors had founded a "Hyksos» dominion in Egypt, which lasted more than six and a half centuries (661 years, to about 1600 B. C.). At this last date a remarkable civilization filled the region between the Euphrates and the Mediterranean; and to this, M. Maspero devotes an elaborate chapter, including a most interesting account of the Canaanites and their kindred the Phoenicians, whose commerce westward to Cyprus and North Africa and Greece was a notable fact of the time. The conquest of the region by Egypt from the

southwest, and again by the Hittites from the north, prepared the way for Israelite invasion and settlement; upon which followed the rise and domination of Assyria, under which Israel was destined to be blotted out. The story of all this, including the earliest rise, and the development for many centuries, of Hebrew power and culture, gives M. Maspero's pages very great interest. The wealth of illustration, all of it strictly instructive, showing scenes in nature and ancient objects from photographs, adds very much to the reader's interest and to the value of the work. The two superb volumes are virtually the story of the ancient Eastern world for 3,000 years, or from 3850 B. C. to 850 B. C. And the latest discoveries indicate that a record may be made out going back through an earlier 3,000 years to about 7000 B. C.

Genius of Christianity, The, by Fran

çois Auguste de Châteaubriand. This favorite book was begun by Châteaubriand during his period of exile in England; though it was first published in France at the moment when Bonaparte, then First Consul, was endeavor. ing to restore Catholicism as the official religion of the country. The object of the 'Genius was to illustrate and prove the triumph of religious sentiment, or more exactly, of the Roman Catholic cult. The framework upon which all is constructed is a sentence found near the beginning of the work, to the effect that of all religions that have ever existed, the Christian religion is the most poetic, the most humane, the most favorable to liberty, to literature, and to the arts. The book is divided into four parts, the first of which treats of the mysteries, the moralities, the truth of the Scriptures, the existence of God, and the immortality of the soul. The second and third parts bear upon the poetics of Christianity, and upon the fine arts and letters. The fourth is devoted to a minute study of the "Christian cult." However pious the feeling which prompted the composition of the 'Genius,' it by no means entitles its author to a position among religious writers. Critics have shown us that, at most, he was devoted only to the rude Christianity of the Dark Ages, vague and almost inexplicable. It was but the external, the picturesque, the sensuous side of religion that impressed him. He loved the vast and gloomy

cathedral, dimly lighted and sweet with incense, the low chanting of the priests, the silent movements of the acolytes, all the pomp, magnificence, and mystery of the holy rites. It was this only that gave him pleasure, and through his artistic sensibilities alone. In short, he regarded religion much as he did some old Gothic ruin by moonlight,-a something majestic, grand, romantic, a fit subject to be treated by a man of letters.

Future Life, A Critical History of

the Doctrine of a, by Wm. R. Alger, with a complete bibliography of the subject by Ezra Abbot, Jr., 1860. The aim of this book is to exhibit, without prejudice or special pleading, the thoughts and imaginations of mankind concerning the eternal destiny of the human soul,— as these thoughts and imaginations have spontaneously arisen in the consciousness of the race. The volume is divided into five parts. Part First treats of the theories of the soul's origin, the history of death, the grounds of the belief in a future life, and theories of the soul's destination. Part Second, devoted to ethnic thoughts concerning a future life, sets forth the barbarian notions, the Druidic doctrine, the Scandinavian doctrine, the Etruscan, Egyptian, Brahmanic and Buddhist, Persian, Hebrew, Rabbinical, Greek and Roman, and Mohammedan doctrine of immortality, with an explanatory survey of the whole field and its myths. Part Third contains the New Testament teachings, with the theories of Jesus, of Peter, Paul, John, and the authors of the various gospels. Part Fourth explains the Christian doctrines, -the patriotic, the mediæval, and the modern. Part Fifth presents historical and critical dissertations, - the ancient mysteries, metempsychosis, the resurrection of the flesh, the idea of a hell, the five theoretic modes of salvation, recognition of friends in a future life, the local fate of man, a chapter on the critical history of disbelief in the life after death, and one on the morality of the doctrine of a future life. Purposely setting aside any argument from revelation, but comparing the beliefs of all peoples in all times; reasoning from analogy; and philosophically regarding the vast scale of being revealed to us in this world, the essayist regards the existence of a future life as a scientific probability. But he admits that we are yet far from

a scientific demonstration of this hope. Yet he asks with earnestness, why, when living in harmony with eternal truths, we should ever despair, or be troubled overmuch. "Have we not eternity in our thought, infinitude in our view, and God for our guide?» The book is one of enormous labor and research, several thousand books having been consulted in the twelve years given to its production. An appendix which is a masterpiece of bibliography, compiled by Ezra Abbot, Jr., contains the titles of more than fiftythree hundred distinct works chronologically arranged.

Foundations of Belief, The, BEING

NOTES INTRODUCTORY TO THE STUDY of THEOLOGY, by Arthur James Balfour. A work answering to its title, as the author states, in only the narrowest sense of the word "theology"; the writer's purpose being, not immediate aid to theological study, but attention to certain preliminaries to be settled before coming to that study. "My object," says Mr. Balfour, "is to recommend a particular way of looking at the worldproblems which we are all compelled to face.» He also states that he has designed his work for the general reader. It is a study calculated to assist thoughtful inquirers to adjust the relations of belief to doubt, and to maintain a healthy balance of the mind in presence of general unsettlement of traditional beliefs. Its specific question addressed to the doubter is whether belief in "a living God is not required even by science, and still more by ethics, æsthetics, and theology. Near the close of his book Mr. Balfour says: "What I have so far tried to establish is this,-that the great body of our beliefs, scientific, ethical, æsthetic, theological, form a more coherent and satisfactory whole if we consider them in a Theistic setting, than if we consider them in a Naturalistic setting." In a few concluding pages the further question is raised whether this Theistic setting is not found in its best form in Christianity as a Doctrine of Incarnation and Supernatural Revelation.

Freedom of the Will, On the, by Jona

than Edwards, D. D., 1754. A book of American origin, made famous by the closeness of its reasoning, the boldness of its doctrine of necessity, and its bearing upon the religious questions raised concerning Calvinism of the old type by the