Notices of Recent Publications. [pp. 650-656]

(3~2 ~Toticcs # f~cccn1 Pitb~ica~Thn~. [(JcTOBIfR
its weapons in the strife. and all, ~~ien tl~c smoke and dust of battle bave
cleared a~ay. are found to have been driven from tlie field. The combatants,
~~4tli v4~ou~ it l~as had to contend. have always been tlie master-mii~ds of d~e
world. and its champions have been of the same calibre. Its believers have
risen to the rank of U~e highest civilization, by force of the teaching an~l training
it has givcn. It is tl~e religion which prospers best tl~c more thoroughly it is
tested. CO(l where intellect is str~ngcst, most active and clear.
Inc1tiiry into the origin of such a religion, and the character and lal~ors of its
first teacl~ers cannot fail to be of intense interest at a time of profound and
earnest thinking, when some of its effects are pervading tlie world to an liii pro.
cedented extent, while its enemies wore never more insidious or better armed.
Pc-examination of the facts of ea4y Christian history, and tlie sources of its
po~cor. is at present the great subject of serious fl~oii~lit. Tl~o Life of Christ
and the lives of his Apostles are discussed from tbe separate points of view of
all the different parties, as divided in relation to the subject.
In this controversy none have attained a more honorable distinction tl~an Pr.
Pressonse. His work on tlie religions before Christ, on the Life of Christ, and
now on tlio Apostolic Era, cover the whole of that period of lii story. Ills treatment of the subject is animated and rapid, biit packs much iuforu~ation and
cogent argument into small space, and in a style clear and tttractivo. This
volume, though not large, will be an important addition to the literature of the
controversv.
`LiJ(/tt-II()?iscs anti Li9ht-~hi~s, a Bescriptive anti IlistorThal Acco?tnt of
titir (~~~istr~ictioaanti Or~aaization. By ~`t. II. Daveiiport ~daius.
New York: Charles Scribuer & Co.
~lr. Scribner~s Illustrated Library of~~ondors l~as already ostablisl~cd for itself
a standing of high scientific importance. It has already presented some of tlie
most valuable discoveries in nature, iii anfiquities, in the structure of tlie unman
frame, and many of the achievements of art, in forms riot only accessible, biit
highly attractive to the common reader. In the style of effort, now so generally
made by scientific men themselves, to bring truth and recondite facts before tlie
general public, this series of books is a happy success. Guided by tlio practical
sagacity and Christian spirit of the publisher, whose conception it is, it will no
doubt continue to be, as it has so far been, a means of making useful knowledge
exceedingly entertaining.
A Jfao~ei of tire Ancient History of tire East to the Comnieneewent of the
~~Ctiir(ii J1~t?-8. ~)y Francois ~~enoriuant, Snb-I~il~rariati of tlio Im perial Institute of Prance and L. Chevalier, iiieiuber of ti)O loyal
Asiatic Society, London. Philadelphia J. B. Lippiiieott & Co.
London: Asher & Co.
In continuation of their history of the pre-Ilellenie world, Loriormant and
Chevalier have presented, in this volume, tlie first great Aryan empire, and the
latest of tire Semitic following the latter down to tlio extinction of their independence, and the former up to il~o summit of persian success. Under tire bead
of Aryan it may he thought that the Greeks and Hiiidoos should have been included but tire Greeks, inasmuch as they created a now style of eultirro, wlrid~
had not yet been generally recognizoQ belong, not to the earlier, but to the later