away. "fudge." Guylforde's chaplain says of Corfona it treats. The standpoint of the author is scores of cases where both writers use the same verbs and pronouns of identical circumstances. Ex pede Herculem. Will Mr. Loftie and Mr. Tuer give us a cheap edition of the Guylforde Pilgrimage? Far better so than defend a conB. H. COWPER. victed malefactor. APPOINTMents for next week. MONDAY, March 31, 7 p.m. Actuaries: "The Application of the Principle of Non-forfeiture to Ordinary Policies," by Mr. T. B. Sprague. 8 p.m. Society of Arts: Cantor Lecture, "The Alloys used for Coinage," IV., by Prof. W. Chandler Roberts. 8 p.m. Aristotelian : "Hume's Treatise of Human Nature" (continued), by Mr. W. E. Beeton. TUESDAY, April 1, 3 p.m. Royal Institution: "Animal Heat," V., by Prof. Gamgee. 8 p.m. Society of Arts: "The Rivers Congo and Niger Entrances to Mid-Africa," by Mr. R. 8 p.m. Biblical Archaeology: "The Life and Social Position of Hebrew Women in Biblical Times," by Dr. Chotzner; "Technological Terms, Hebraic and Non-Hebraic, marking the Progress of Ancient Culture," by the Rev. A. Löwy. 8 p.m. Civil Engineers: Experiments on the Composition and Destructive Distillation of Coal," Copper. by Mr. W. Foster. 8.30 p.m. Zoological: "The Use of the Remora by Native Fishermen at Zanzibar," by Mr. F. Holmwood; "The Acclimatisation of the Japanese Deer at Powerscourt," by Viscount Powerscourt; "Studies in New Zealand Ichthyology, I. The Parker. WEDNESDAY, April 2, 8 p.m. Society of Arts: "The Dwellings of the Poor of Great Cities," by Mr. E. Hoole. Skeleton of Regalecus argenteus," by Prof. T. Jeffrey 8 p.m. Geological: "The Rocks of Guernsey." by the Rev. E. Hill, with an Appendix on the Microscopic Structure of Some of the Rocks," by Prof. T. G. Bonney; "A New Specimen of Megal ichthys from the Yorkshire Coal-field," by Prof. L. C. Miall; "Studies on Some Japanese Rocks," by Dr. Bundjiro Kotô. Page Renouf has conclusively shown that the deities of the Egyptian pantheon were personifications of natural phenomena, Osiris, Ptah, Tum, Ra, Horus, and Mentu being aspects of the sun, Isis, Hathor, and Neith were the morning or evening twilight, Set the night, and Seb the earth. We cannot, therefore, wonder that, "after full consideration," the discussion of the origin of the Egyptian mythological conceptions, fatal as it would be to the author's theory of a primeval Noachic revelation to all mankind, has been omitted, because it "would have given occasion to interminable controversy " to controversy, doubtless, but possibly not so interminable as he thinks. In a work professing to deal with the origin of language it might not be held unreasonable to expect some reference to the arguments of the teachers who have so profoundly influenced the old traditional treatment of the subject. There is no mention of Steinthal or Schleicher, of Geiger, Noiré, or Waitz; and there is hardly an allusion to current speculations, unless it be a sentence (p. 345) in which the writer says that he attaches "little or no value" to the concluWith sions of "linguistic evolutionists." regard to the origin of religion, there is not In like manner we are taught that the a word about myths or the science of com- history of language is a history, not of evolu parative mythology; there are no references tion, but of degradation; every language is to to the Hibbert lecturers or the works of such be traced back to the primeval tongue spoken writers as Dr. E. B. Tylor or Mr. Herbert by Shem, Ham, and Japhet, existing diver Spencer. The reader discovers with astonish- gences of speech being due to the conment that neither the origin of religion nor fusion of tongues on the plain of Shinar. the structure of language is discussed otherwise aided subsequently by the effects of climate. than incidentally, two essays in which these Such a thesis might be held to be beyond difficult questions were to be treated having the pale of scientific discussion if it had not been omitted from the book, the first for the been propounded-with much ingenuity and conclusive reason that the author "could not considerable learning-by an eminent dignihope to present the facts in a complete or tary selected on account of his sound judg satisfactory form," the other because "itment and great erudition for the important: would have involved far more extensive in- post of editing The Speaker's Commentary. vestigations than he could hope to complete." On these grounds Canon Cook has a clear The parts of Romeo and Juliet having been prima facie right to a respectful hearing. necessarily left out, the title of the play might, without disadvantage, have been changed. allowed to stand, it is not difficult to discover From chance paragraphs which have been the opinions of the author on the professed subject of the book, and he must be congratulated on the sound judgment which has led him to omit the two essays which alone could have justified the selection of his title. It is evident that he regards the subject from 8 p.m. British Archaeological: "Tenby and the what may be called the antediluvian point of Cathedral of St. David's," by the Rev. S. M. May-view. Civilisation, language, and religion are THURSDAY, April 3, 3 p.m. Royal Institution: "The Older Electricity," VI., by Prof. Tyndall. 8 p.m. Linnean: A Revision of the Families and Genera of the Sclerodermic Zooantheria, the Rugosa excepted," by Prof. P. M. Duncan; "Pollen from the Egyptian Mummies." by Mr. Chas. F. White: "The Anatomy and Functions of the Tongue hew. of the Honey Bee," by Mr. T. J. Briant. 8 p.m. Mathematical: "Double Algebra," by Prof. Cayley: "A Direct Investigation of the Complete Primitive Equation F (x, y, z, p, q) = 0, with a Way of remembering the Auxiliary System." by Mr. J. W. Russell; "The Floatation of a Triangular The book does not profess to be an organic whole, but consists of five unconnected essays of unequal merit. One, to which little obthe decipherment of the Persian cuneiform; jection can be taken, contains an account of two are devoted to discussions of the religious ideas found in the Rig Veda and the Zerd Avesta, of which it need only be said that the conclusions arrived at differ widely from those generally accepted; the fourth essay sketch of universal ethnology and philology; while the fifth discusses the Egyptian language. Questions of grammar and structure, referred to the period of the Deluge. All the usually held to be all important, are evaded, races of mankind are descended from Noah. the writer holding that he has established Theories as to the progressive development of the common origin of all languages by means religious ideas or of linguistic evolution cannot of a vocabulary of 250 Egyptian words, which, be allowed, or even discussed, as they are with immense labour and no little ingenuity, contrary to the "fundamental principles" of are compared with words in other languages the author. Primitive religion did not originate-Greek, Latin, English, Welsh, Sanskrit, in ancestor-worship or fetichism, in planetary Arabic, Hebrew, Accadian, Basque, Lapp. or solar worship, or in the personification of Finnish, Samoyed, Tibetan, American, Peru8 p.m. Civil Engineers: "Heat-action of Ex-physical forces, but it began in every case vian, Negro, Chinese, and other tongues too plosives," by Capt. Andrew Noble. FRIDAY, April 4. 8 p.m. Philological: "The Dialects of with a pure and elevated monotheism, revealed numerous to mention. the Lowlands of Scotland, II.-Insular," by Mr. A. J. to the ancestors of the Hebrew race, being subsequently debased by superstitions which arose out of misapprehended traditions relating to the "accidental discovery of alcohol by Noah." The Indian Soma-worship, which was the celebration of this discovery, led to drunken orgies, whence arose false worships, con-repulsive superstitions, and the obscene rites The Canon asserts that savage tribes. primitive religion in no case grew out of the personification of physical forces; but he avoids any discussion of the really crucial case that of the oldest religion of which we have any positive knowledge. He admits, indeed, that we have contemporary Egyptian documents reaching back for nearly 6,000 years, and that there are no monuments of other races comparable with them in authenticity or antiquity." Now Mr. Le Ellis. 9 p.m. Royal Institution: "The Building of the Alps," by Prof. T. G. Bonney. SATURDAY, April 5, 3 p.m. Royal Institution: "Photographic Action," VI., by Capt. Abney. SCIENCE. The Origins of Religion and Language, sidered in Five Essays. By F. C. Cook. (Murray.) A BOOK on the origins of language and religion by the erudite editor of The Speaker's Commentary cannot fail to excite high expectations. This handsome volume exhibits a considerable range of reading, not a little special and original research, as well as conspicuous courage in maintaining opinions diametrically opposed to the accepted axioms of modern science in the departments of which of 66 an account of all Having given this general outline of what the reader may expect, the limits of space render it expedient to confine more detailed criticism to one out of the five essays, and it may be fairest to the author to select that which has the closest connexion with the title of the book. This is the fourth essay, in which the writer attempts the impossible task of giving in eighty pages known languages, ancient and modern." This essay proves to be merely a popular lecture delivered at Exeter more than twenty years ago. To print it as the author has now done. "without substantial alteration," shows a singular unconsciousness of the advances in linguistic science which the last twenty years have witnessed. Unavoidably inadequate and superficial as the treatment of so vast a subject in such small compass must necessarily be, we are entitled, at all events, to look for a competent and accurate knowledge of the subject. Unfortunately, this essay bristles with statements not only doubtful, but positively erroneous. 66 does not represent the oldest form of the Phoenician language; there are inscriptions from Cyprus, Malta, and Sardinia older by many centuries. Canon Cook ingenuously says in his Preface It would be unpardonable to advance so that, "inasmuch as the principal facts that he srious a charge without the production of has collected were for the most part new to evidence sufficient to substantiate it. To himself, they may be new to the generality of begin with, the author adopts, with full his readers." Among these novel facts is the approval, Bopp's theory-now universally statement that Greek art, architecture as well rejected by all sound scholars that the Malay sculpture, was derived from Egypt; that the language and the allied Polynesian dialects phonetic characters in the hieroglyphic writing belong to the Aryan family of speech. Still were not developed out of ideographs; that stranger is the assertion that the Kawi, or the Chinese graphic symbols do not represent old Javanese, which is an agglutinative Malay articulate sounds; that Homer lived two cenlanguage, approaches very near to pure turies after the Éxodus; and that Buddhism Sanskrit." Tibetan, an isolating language arose in the seventh or eighth century B.C. allied to the Burmese, is classed as pure But, to pass from mere blunders and inScythian, nearest to the Mongolian; " and accuracies of detail, the list of which it Tungus, an agglutinative language, is said to would be easy to extend almost indefinitely, be "a branch" of Tibetan. Phoenicia it may be well to state in a few words the whose language was a typical Semitic dialect, author's general theory as to the affinities of hardly differing more from Hebrew than the nations and languages. He has an "undialect of Dorset does from that of Somerset- changeable conviction," which he believes will was, we are told, "the great representative of ultimately be shared "by all unprejudiced the race of Ham," whose name was, however, minds," as to the "original unity of all langiven to Egypt by the Egyptians. The lin- guages." He considers that there were only guistic and racial affinities of the Japanese two primitive families of speech, ultimately being as yet undetermined, no sober ethnol- reducible to one. The first is the Semitic, ogist would venture on the wild statement including the languages spoken by the dethat the inhabitants of Japan are partly scendants of Shem and Ham. This comprises Aryan, partly Malay, partly Scythian or all the languages of Africa as well as those of Turanian, with an infusion of Negro blood, Melanesia and Australia. The second is the who speak a Tibetan language "with a strong Japhetic, which embraces the Aryan as well dash of Negro." The Finns, Lapps, Turks, as the Turanian, American, Polynesian, and and Magyars are certainly not "true Huns," Chinese. The old Egyptian and the modern and it argues a strange confusion of thought African languages branched off from the to affirm that "the Huns" under Arpad Semitic stem before the system of triliteral conquered Hungary in the ninth century. roots was developed. The Japhetic language The Huns, who occupied Hungary in the was originally inflectional, but in the Turanian fourth century, were after a short period branch the inflections were lost owing to the ucceeded by Teutonic tribes, Ostrogoths and influence of climate. We have a very definite Lombards, who in turn were expelled by the and curious account of how this came to pass. Ugric Magyars under Arpad. If any descend- Soon after the deluge certain hot-headed and ants of Attila's Huns survive in Europe they unruly young men led off into the Asiatic must be sought for among the Bulgarians, deserts the illegitimate children of the primiwho are said, by Canon Cook, to be descended tive Aryans, together with the servile classes, from "a Slavonic family in Esthonia." and plunged into dreary regions, exposed to The confusion of thought which identifies the vicissitudes of intense heat, and winters of Magyars and Huns is shown in the statement all but perpetual duration. Naturally, in that "at present the old languages of the such an extraordinary climate, the inflections Hindoos are represented by the Hindustani, of the language were lost, and it became either used throughout those portions of the penin- monosyllabic like the Chinese or agglutinative sula which are not peopled by Dravidians." like the Turkic and Malay. How the AccaA more misleading statement it would be dians, the oldest civilised race of Asia, who, difficult to frame. Hindustani or Urdu, the unfortunately for the theory, continued to language of the camp, is a mere lingua franca, occupy the plain of Shinar, lost their ina dialect based upon Hindi, but mingled with flections, we are not told. Similarly, the Arabic and Persian forms. The old Prakrit Negro and other African languages are de languages of India are represented not only generated forms of Egyptian, produced by the by Hindi, of which Hindustani is only one speakers living enervated and degraded lives dialect out of fifty-seven, but also by thirteen in alluvial districts. A portion of the Negro other languages, such as Bengali, Marathi, race, however, instead of remaining in alluvial Gajarati, Sindi, Punjabi, Kashmiri, and districts, became a race of enterprising mariners Nepali. Hindustani has less claim to repre- who successively colonised Ceylon, the AndaBeat the Prakrits than any of the others. mans, Borneo, Melanesia, and Australia. The Afghans, again, do not call themelves Pushtus, which is the name of their anguage; we might as well say that the lians call themselves Sanskrits. It is not true that "the ablest ethnologists agree" that Carian was an Aryan language. There is no evidence for the assertion that Poenician was spoken in Cornwall for ages. Maltese is not a dialect of Phoenician, but of Arabic. The Punic inscription from Marseilles Canon Cook takes no account of chron ological difficulties, and ignores or evades the conclusions of anthropologists. In tracing all the existing races of mankind to the family of Noah, he does not attempt to account for the early evolution of the Negroid type as portrayed on the Egyptian monuments, and he disposes of recent researches into the antiquity of man by the bold assertion that the palaeolithic implements discovered in Central France are not really older than the Roman period. It is impossible to share the writer's confident anticipation that his views will be accepted by all unprejudiced minds; and it is a matter for regret that the publication of this volume will not add to the reputation of its author. ISAAC TAYLOR. CORRESPONDENCE. TRANSLITERATION OF ORIENTAL LANGUAGES. London, March 22, 1881. In recommending the use of modified letters, such as italics, for representing modified sounds in Oriental languages, I had alluded to the fact that in Sanskrit, for instance, palatal consonants are often interchangeable with gutturals. As vâk becomes in the genitive vâkas, or as vakmi, "I say," becomes vakti,"he says," the mere change of a roman into an italic k to mark the phonetic change from guttural to palatal has its advantages. But I meant to say no more. It was an additional advantage only, not the primary reason. However, as every scholarly objection has a right to be heard, I send you a letter from the He writes: Rev. J. Knowles, a missionary in Travancore. "As to palatals and gutturals being organically and grammatically closely connected, I must remark that the grammatical relation does not hold good in the Dravidian elements of the South Indian languages. It holds good partially in words tense in Malayalam is -tu (supposed to be part of derived from the Sanskrit. The affix of the past the demonstrative atu, 'it'). After a crude form ending in a palatal vowel, this tu becomes chu. This class of verbs includes almost all the verbs from the Sanskrit, about half of the whole number of verbs in the language which end-present tense, -ikkunnu; past, -ichchu; future, -ikkum. In all these cases, ichchu is not from -ikku, but from -ittu (according to Dr. Gundert). In the verb âkunnu, 'to be,' the past tense is âyi, and so in many others where y is from k. In all these cases to use italic k for ch would mislead. Again, in the derivation of nouns, even from the Sanskrit, Malayalam chanti is derived from the Sanskrit sandhi (joining), châttan from sâstâvu (ruler), châttam from srâddham, châram from ksharam chala from pittala, where we have ch from s, (alkali), chûtu from dyutam (gaming), pichsr, ksh, dy, tt. So also chakkyâr from Sanskrit root slaghyâr, chêvakâr from sêvakâr, and udayâdichcha from âdityan, and, worse still, chûtu from dyûtam. In all these cases to chut print ch as italic k would be worse than useless. And as in Malayalam, Sanskrit, &c., there is a separate letter for ch, why not use a separate letter in transliteration? the palatal ch, j, they are now pronounced as may have been the ancient pronunciation of ch in church, and j in judge, by the Brahmans here; and no difficulty is found in passing from the present tense in -ikkunnu to the past in -ichchu You will find in Malayalam, or as in Tamil -ittu. Grammar; but I think italick for ch would only more, I think, in Caldwell's Comparative Dravidian mislead in the South Indian languages. In the missionary alphabet, why is sh used for the lingual sibilant, instead of an italics, so that we get ishtam for istam ? From my experience I mispronounce the dentals t d n than the cerebrals, should say Englishmen are much more likely to and the employment of italics for the cerebrals diverts the attention too much to the cerebrals at the expense of the dentals.” Whatever The reason why, in the missionary alphabet, sh is used for the lingual s is because the It is quite italic s is required for the palatal s. true that Sanskrit dentals are to us more 8 more difficult to pronounce than Sanskrit linguals; but, grammatically, the dentals are typical than the linguals, and have therefore a right to the unmodified signs. F. MAX MÜLLER. SCIENCE NOTES. SOME important researches on the liquefaction of the refractory gases have been recently conducted by Messrs. Von Wroblewski and Olszewski. In their ingeniously constructed apparatus they are able to liquefy oxygen under a pressure of about twenty atmospheres at a temperature of – 130° C. The oxygen then appears as a colourless, transparent, exceedingly mobile liquid. In order to liquefy nitrogen and carbon monoxide, they require a pressure of at least fifty atmospheres. In the course of their researches they have succeeded in solidifying alcohol at about - 130-5° C., the substance appearing first as a viscous liquid, like thick oil, and then as a white solid body. The method of operation has been described in Poggendorff's Annalen and in the Annales de Chimie. A COMPREHENSIVE work on British Mining, by Mr. Robert Hunt, the Keeper of Mining Records, will be published early next month by Messrs. Crosby Lockwood. PROF. T. G. BONNEY, President of the Geological Society, will on Friday next (April 4) give a discourse at the Royal Institution on The Building of the Alps." PHILOLOGY NOTES. flints discovered by him at Larne and other parts CAMBRIDGE PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY.-(Thursday, vision of the accounts of Tillemont and Gibbon. first he held no Roman command; and his forces together with Bedouin auxiliaries. Odaenathas must have been those of his family and clients, rendered two great services to Rome: he saved her empire from Sapor, and put down the rivals of Gallienus in Syria. Of these the chief was Macrianus, who held Egypt and Syria till 261. After his death his son Quietus (Quintus) was attacked in his capital and slain by Odaenathus As Emesa is the nearest city of Syria to Palmyra, this shows that up to 262 or 263 Odaenathus' power could not have extended beyond the desert. This success of Odaenathus, who acted in Gallients' name, naturally secured him a formal recognition of his title over the regions he had reduced. This agrees also with Pollio's statement (Gall. c. 10 who says that he received the command of the East in 264, and then marched against Persia to avenge Valerian. Although the evidence is some what contradictory, it would seem that this must have been a first, not a second, war against Sapor. Pollio's date is confirmed by an inscription wit assigns to Septimus Worod-an active merchat: who had enjoyed every municipal honour and had been recognised by Rome as procurator ducenario—– PROF. SKEAT, President, in the Chair.-Prof. the Persian (.e., non-Roman) title of "Argabed," and Zenobia," of which the following is an ab- Argabed between April 263 and April 264, and Robertson Smith read a paper on "Odaenathus or "commander of the fortress." Worod becanstract. In spite of the interest attaching to the this marks the period at which Odaenathus bega history of Zenobia, it is only lately that the to play, at least in Palmyra, the part of an innumerous inscriptions, Greek and Aramaic, which dependent Oriental monarch. There are grave have been collected from the ruins of Palmyra, objections to Pollio's next statement, that, in co and a more accurate comparative study of the coins sequence of Odaenathus successful war agains of Zenobia and her son Wahballat or Athenodorus, Persia, Gallienus bestowed on him the title MR. H. SWEET has nearly finished a Primer have made it possible to undertake a serious reAugustus consulatu (so we must read for consul of Middle English, similar in character to his The character of the literary documents (to which 271 Odaenathus is not called Augustus, but “K Valeriani... et Lucilli-i.e., 265. On his stattet Anglo-Saxon Primer, but somewhat longer. only one important addition, the fragments of of Kings," a purely Eastern title importing It consists of extracts from the Ancren Riwle Dio's anonymous continuator, published by Mai in breach with Rome. Zenobia and her son only and the Ormulum, as the purest representatives his Noua Collectio, has been recently made) is became reßaoth and σeßartós after the final breach of the Southern and Midland dialects respect- notoriously bad. The Augustan historians, Tre- with Aurelian. A comparison with Zonaras and ively, printed as in the MSS., but with dia- bellius Pollio and Vopiscus, are rather anecdote- other places in Pollio seems to show that this critics to show the length and quality (open-mongers than serious historians. Zosimus is better double diguity is due to a confusion of tw ness, closeness, &c.) of the vowels, so as to on the whole, but his text is in a deplorable state. accounts, which assigned his promotion to enable the beginner to trace the rigorous laws In order to sift, decipher, and restore the facts as services against the usurpers and against Saper which underlie the apparently arbitrary spell-presented in these writers, we have often to turn respectively. The next point is the assassinatio ings of Middle English, together with grammar, to the monuments. They have, first of all, settled of Odaenathus. According to Pollio, he could n who Odaenathus and Zenobia were. notes, and a glossary. It will be published by Odhainat son of Odhainat son of Hairan son of Gallienus sent an army against the Persians what have been killed later than 266-67, as "on his des the Oxford University Press in the Clarendon Nasor-names distinctly Arabic. His father was Press series. was destroyed by Zenobia." This latter statement a man of senatorial rank. He had an elder brother is at variance with Zenobia's policy of cultivating Hairan, who appears on an inscription of A.D. 257 friendship with Rome as well as with the coins of as a senator (Aаμжρóтатоs συYKANTIKós) and head- Wahballat. As a matter of fact, the inscript man (, capxos). The vague title "headman" on the statue to Odaenathus in August 271 (miscannot refer to any Roman or civic dignity. The interpreted by Vogué and Waddington to refer to place had its Bovλn and duos and its orparnyol, the his "memory"), compared with that on the corre of Palmyra naturally threw the chief power into survived till that year-that is, lived to throw highest administrative officers. But the position sponding statue of Zenobia, shows that Odaenath the hands of the man whose influence with the the suzerainty of Rome and to be counted am Arabs along the trade-route could ensure the safe the Thirty Tyrants. There yet remains an obje conduct of its caravans. The rise of the house of tion. Extant coins of Wahballat show that he Omayya from the merchant families of Mecca (a reckoned as his first year that which began city far inferior to Palmyra) makes the elevation August 29, 266, which is therefore supposed to be of Odhaynat's far from surprising. Hairan must the year of his father's death. But nothing have died early, and his brother succeeded to his more natural than that Odaenathus should do what influence. He is called λaurpóтаTOS VTаTIKÓS-i.e., Pollio, XXX Tyr., actually said he did—viz., assconsularis-in an inscription of 258. This high ciate his wife and children with him in the Roman dignity could only have been conferred sovereignty. It is true that there are no coins of upon him for services in connexion with Valeri- Odaenathus during this period; but there are n anus' ill-fated march against Sapor, such as a of Zenobia either. And Zenobia was alive and Palmyrene noble thoroughly acquainted with the claimed precedence over her son, as we see from routes and possessing great influence with the the inscriptions. The explanation of this is clear. Arabs alone could render. At this time he must The sovereigns of Palmyra could not afford to have been already married to Zenobia, for his son, brave Rome by coining on their own authority, nat though beardless on his coins, must have been to circulate an acknowledgment of subjection t shows her Palmyrene origin, and her character did not apply to their son. Zenobia's name, born by 259. Bath Zabbai, her in every bazaar in the East. These objections The first coins of points to Arab blood. Her boasted descent from Wahballat (probably memorial pieces) are those of Cleopatra and the Ptolemies was a politic fiction; his fourth year (which is the first of Aurelian, and and Athanasius' strange mistake in calling her a bear the royal name and diadem as well as the Jewess, refuted by the heathen emblems on her Roman titles and insignia. Valerian's succes coins, may be explained by the favours she conin Europe made it impossible to maintain these ferred on the Jews in Alexandria, witnessed to by pretensions without open war. In 270-71 Wahballat an extant inscription. Odaenathus and Zenobia's assumes the title of Augustus, and Zenobia greatness lies between 260 (Valerian's captivity) and the same year coins as Augusta. The assassina 272 (not 271), the capture of Palmyra by Aurelian. tion of Odaenathus followed immediately, and Gallienus and the "Thirty Tyrants," when the Emesa had been his rival's capital, and was fir Odaenathus rose to importance in the time of much more intelligible when we remember that Persians threatened to absorb the whole East. His success was due to his taking the Roman side-Mr. Fennell defined and explained the utilit from loyal to Zenobia in the war that succeed 1. and always acting in Gallienus' name, until his vigour, capacity, and fidelity secured him formal recognition as dux or imperator of the East. At THE thirteenth part of the Palaeographical Society's facsimiles, which is now ready for issue, contains thirty-one plates. Among them are reproductions from: a Greek inscription found at Cape Tacnarus, of the fifth century B.C.; a MS. of Nicephorus, ninth century; the illustrated Latin Pentateuch, of the seventh century, belonging to Lord Ashburnham; the Liber Vitae of Durham, of about A.D. 840; the Durham Ritual, tenth century; Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, A.D. 1045; Domesday Book, A.D. 1086; Occleve, A.D. 1411-12; various illuminated and other MSS., from the ninth to the fifteenth centuries; and several charters of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The part is accompanied by an Introduction and tables for the series. WE understand that the Rev. Lawrence H. Mills, an American scholar now at Hanover, has undertaken to translate the third volume of the Zend Avesta for "The Sacred Books of the East," which M. James Darmesteter has found himself unable to finish. It will contain the Yasna, Visparad, Afrigan, and Gahs. THE last number of Trübner's Oriental Record prints a long reply by Dr. C. Abel to a criticism of his Ilchester Lectures by Prof. Whitney which appeared some time ago in the New York Critic. MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE.—(Tuesday, March 11.) PROF. FLOWER, President, in the Chair.-Mr. A. L. He was of the two general objects of the scheme of th book of reference for English readers who know "Stanford Dictionary"-first, to provide an ampie no language except their own; secondly, to exhibit the increase of the national vocabulary since the introduction of printing through the importation of alien words. He gave examples showing that existing dictionaries recognised the necessity for giving and explaining alien words and phrases, but did not treat this department of lexicography systematically. With respect to the second object there were certain classes of words adopted from French in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries with altered form, which it would be well not to exclude altogether, Most of these might be treated under kindred catch-words-e.g., amper, scamp, under decamp; spinnet, spinney, spine, under spinach; stanchion under stanza; ticket under quette; tinsel, stencil, under scintilla. The advantage of fresh independent effort was illustrated by examples of corrections of, and additions to; materials already furnished. A list of words to help contributors will soon be printed. existing dictionaries which the "Stanford " care. ART BOOKS, Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, Edited by R. E. Graves. Parts I., II., and III. (Bell.) It is certainly high time for a new edition of "Bryan." The last was issued in 1849, and is almost useless. The task which has been undertaken by Mr. Graves is one not, perhaps, of very great difficulty, but it needs unusual patience and book required to be rewritten from cover to It is scarcely too much to say that the cover, and the editor's sense of his responsibility is shown on the title-page, where the present edition is stated to be "thoroughly revised." Further evidence of the necessity ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY.-(Monday, March 17.) which has been felt for radical changes is found SIR H. C. RAWLINSON, Director, in the Chair. in the employment of a few contributors of Mr. G. Pinches read a paper entitled "Observations on the Early Languages of Mesopotamia," authority, such as Mr. W. B. Scott, who has commencing with a short notice of the Akkadians undertaken all the "Little Masters" of Gerand Sumerians, who, he thought, must have come many, Dr. J. P. Richter, and the late Mrs. from the North-east, his authority being state- Charles Heaton, whose accurate scholarship ments on certain tablets referring to the cardinal and well-balanced judgment are shown in points and the moon. He then mentioned the several of the most important articles, among several languages or dialects of Mar or Martu, Su, which may be mentioned those on Blake, Sag, of Nin or Elam, of Lulubi, and of the Kassi Correggio, and Michel Angelo. All this Cossaei), and gave the names for "God," ""God- is in the right direction; and we cordially dess," and the "God-Rimmon" in several of agree in the alterations made in the arrangethese districts. He considered the dialects of ment of the names. Akkadian (the so-called Sumerian) the direct this new edition, when compared with the old, There is no doubt that descendant of the Kassi, and quoted words almost identical in form and meaning that, when finished, its bulk will be at least many will be very greatly superior. It is computed He next discussed the Akkadian language and its double that of the edition of 1849, and its dialect (Sumerian), and traced up the polyphony of these languages partly to the assimilation of practical value will doubtless be increased the forms of certain characters which were in in still greater proportion. While, howearly times quite distinct, and then, dealing with ever, we wish to recognise the right spirit the homophony of the language, showed that this which has up to a certain point animated arose from its being so largely affected by phonetic the undertakers of the present enterprise, we decay. Thus the syllable ge (for example) is are quite unable to understand why it has not weakened from no less than twelve words, origin- carried them a good deal farther. It is, for ally distinct-viz., gê, new; gên, "seed; get, instance, difficult to appreciate the principle "root () of a seed; ,, "battle; ge, gê, "to which has directed the selection of those artists obay; gig, "night; gig, "sick; geme, "like;" whose biographies have been entrusted to ge, in gi-num, "fire; "gin, in za-gê, "bright;" gin, a shekel;" and gis, "one." writers of authority. Why, for instance, The Akkadians, however, were not without the should an honour which is paid to Correggio be means of distinguishing between these differing denied to both Giovanni Bellini and Andrea del words, as the lost consonants were often restored Sarto? Is Jacobo de Barbarj of more imon the vowel-lengthening being added. Mr. portance than Giorgione, and is Baldovinetti Finches then gave a short but fairly complete out-worthy of greater consideration than Antonello me of Akkadian accidence, showing the formation of the compound verbs and nouns, and noticing some of their peculiarities. The rest of the paper treated, inter alia, of the numerals and of the verb, and explained, in most cases, the use and meanings of the various prefixes and suffixes. Mr. Pinches showed, in this part, that the first and second persons of the singular of the verb were pressed, as a rule, by the insertion of the vowels and respectively, and that these vowels, wing principally to the defective system of writing, often assimilated with the vowels of ther prefixes, thus constantly making no distinction between the three persons. ex da Messina? If we wished to insist further on the apparent capriciousness with which names have been selected for the labour of specialists, there is ample opportunity in relation to engravers, who seem to have been specially a matter favoured. But the absence of initials to an article is of little importance provided the article itself is full and trustworthy. Unfortunately, in the present case this absence of initials condemns the article, almost as of course, to a rank far below the level to be expected in a dictionary of such pretension as "the latest edition of Bryan." We have not examined these three parts with anything PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY.—(Friday, March 21.) like microscopic care, but in turning over DR. J. A. H. MURRAY, President, in the Chair. the pages we have been struck with several The paper read was "The Dialects of Norway,' statements which are not up to the mark of by Mr. H. Sweet, and was a narrative of a journey current knowledge. For instance, in the article st summer in the South and West of Norway, on Andrea del Sarto we find the part taken together with Prof. J. Storm, of Christiania, who by Francia-bigio in the frescoes at the Scalzo red a stipend from the Norse Government to not only ignored, but, by implication, denied; ble him to investigate the dialects. The in that on Antonello da Messina, Vasari's fable character and customs of the people, as well as their dialects, were described. The paper conded with a protest against the neglect of pleeties by our own Dialect Society, and a stateut of the necessity of establishing regular thing of phonetics if England is to keep on a level with other countries, not only in dialectology, but also in the practical study of modern lan ages; with all of which the President expressed Es entire agreement. of the artist's journey to Bruges to learn the secrets of oil painting is repeated without question; and in the account of Giorgione no reference whatever is made to what Morelli has written on the subject, although the indebtedness of the editor to this important critic is specially mentioned in the "Notice" to readers. With regard to English artists, we might reasonably expect some approach to absolute accuracy, but our confidence is shaken by such a statement as that Barry completed his great works at the Adelphi in the space of three years. Important, however, as accuracy is in a dictionary of this kind, full references to sources of information are of even greater value. We hope the editor will see his way to give more information of this kind as the work proceeds. 66 GIRTIN'S Liber Naturae has now been published by Messrs. Neill & Sons, of Haddington. It consists of twelve plates by S. W. Reynolds, one of the abler mezzotint engravers of sixty two plates of the Liber Studorium-viz., "East years since, who was employed by Turner for Reynolds was not so great an engraver of Gate, Winchelsea," and Woman of Samaria." landscape as C. Turner or T. Lupton, and, if the plates of "York Cathedral" and "Kirkstall Abbey" suffer a little in comparison with those executed by Lupton from the same drawings for Turner and Girtin's Rivers of England, we must remember that the latter were touched by Turner himself. The plates have been very carefully printed in a deep brown ink, and are rich, soft, and luminous. They include the famous drawing of the " White House at Chelsea," which is generally considered Girtin's masterpiece, a view of Snowdon, a fine Rainbow scene, Bridges at York and Morpeth, and views in Devonshire. On the title-page is a portrait of Girtin from the portrait by Opie, still in the possession of the Girtin family. Two hundred impressions and the plates have been destroyed. only of this interesting work have been printed, twenty years after Girtin's death, and the were engraved about 1823-24, more than title was no doubt chosen by the engraver in imitation of other pictorial Libers, the Liber Studiorum especially. It of course bears no relation either in execution or intention to the works of Turner and Claude. It is but a produced without regard to each other; but it collection of engravings from finished drawings is a very interesting collection, giving a very distinct impression of Girtin's peculiar style and feeling. In addition to the twelve published plates, there are three in an unfinished but forward state, from which a few proofs of considerable beauty have been struck. They Eugene Fromentin. By Louis Gonse. Translated by Mrs. Robins. (Boston, U.S.: Osgood; London: Trübner.) The translation of this admirable study of a French painter and writer of rare refinement and distinction cannot read the book in the original we comes to us from America. To those who can cordially recommend Mrs. Robins' translation. It is not perfect by any means, but it is only here and there that it is not clear; and the book is one which should be read by all lovers of art and literature, and, we are inclined to add, by the rest. There are, indeed, few men born of such fine tone and high taste as Eugène Fromentin; and to read what such men have written, or what a kindred spirit like that of M. Louis Gonse has to say of them, can scarcely fail to raise the reader's esteem for humanity and his ideal of existence. The book is well printed, and the illustrations are characteristic and well executed. The History of the King's Manor House at York. By R. Davies. With Etchings by A. Buckle. (York: "Daily Herald" Office.) Mr. Davies' notices of this interesting old edifice, extracted from the thirty-ninth Report of the Yorkshire Architectural Society, form a continuous history of it from the year 1338, when the Abbey of St. Mary shared the fate of other religious houses, and was suppressed, and all the buildings, except the abbot's house, were destroyed. From that time till 1641 it was the seat of the Great Council of the North, and the residence of the Lord President. Close to it Henry VIII. erected a palace for himself, of which nothing now remains but the huge cellar; and it was greatly enlarged by the Earl of Huntingdon in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, by the Earl of Sheffield in that of James I., and by the great Earl of Strafford-the last Lord President. This venerable collection of buildings, which forms a history of domestic architecture in England, well deserves the careful research of Mr. Davies. The author has supplemented his accurate monograph by a ground plan of the structure in its present condition which clearly indicates, by different kinds of shading, to what periods the several parts of it belong. A portion of the King's Manor is now occupied by the Wilberforce School for the Indigent Blind; and it seems partly in his interest for this institution, and partly for the love of the old buildings themselves, that Mr. Buckle has executed the admirable etchings with which the volume is illustrated. Mr. Buckle's method of etching is very pure, and his treatment broad. His plates owe none of their effect to the printer. "The Entrance to Lord Huntingdon's Rooms" is a good instance of how much of light, and how much of texture also, can be suggested by comparatively few lines when rightly laid. In his representation of the grand old Elizabethan fireplace, the nature of the old wood-work, with its panels and boldly carved lozenges, is thoroughly felt; and in two or three etchings of external doorways he expresses weather-beaten stone with just as much freedom and skill. Altogether, the book is a sound and good piece of work, and will, we hope, be of material assistance to the Yorkshire School for the Blind. Trees, how to Paint them in Water-colours. By W. H. J. Boot. (Cassell.) Mr. Boot is no doubt a sound and able exponent of the elementary practice of tree-painting, and the illustrations in chromo-lithography are good of their kind. Linear Perspective. By David Forsyth. (Glasgow: MacLehose.) This useful graduated course of instruction in linear perspective embodies the experience of many years of teaching, and can be safely recommended. The same author has also published a series of Test Papers in Perspective which can scarcely fail to be useful for testing the progress of pupils. THE DUDLEY GALLERY. AT the Dudley Gallery, as at Nazareth aforetime, there is an antecedent unlikelihood of "any good thing." It would be ungracious to carp at want of excellence, and quite futile to enumerate the works which stop short of mediocrity. There remains an easy task of temperate commendation for a critic who cannot praise and would not condemn. As if in reaction, as well against the formal compositions of the classic as against the "arrangements" of the modern aesthetic school, we have now every day a greater number of law-forsaking landscapes which show neither composition nor arrangement; intemperate and incontinent things which have often the elan of an effective study, but never the durability and dignity of perfected art. Mr. Bagehot somewhere quotes an old lady's criticism upon Thackeray: "Mr. Thackeray is such an uncomfortable writer." Mr. Herbert Marshall, we would say, is a clever but " uncomfortable" painter. There is an elaborate disorder in his pictures of colliding steamboats and random barges that dispels all thoughts of rest. Yet he is a fine painter, and few things in the aspect of the city and its river, and the murky pall that o'erhangs it, have escaped his eye. Only to him, and all his kind, we com mend the saying of Aurelius: "Thou seest how few the things are the which, if a man lays hold of, he is able to live a life which flows in quiet, and is like the existence of the gods." W. T. Hawksworth is a painter not unlike Mr. Marshall in manner, but he practises more restraint. His "Pool from Cherry Garden Pier" is a masterly sketch. We have noticed some tiny pictures by M. L. Mempes as among the most delightful things in that disheartening show at the Princes' Hall. He appears at the Dudley as an "impressionist." Nos. 130 and 131, "Anxious to Learn" and "Alarmed," are two most clever studies of children at the sea. Those small quiet paintings of Breton life at the Institute, however, are more to our mind. No. 122, "Still Waters in South Devon," is a truthful and rather wonderful painting by Kate Macaulay. "In Fold," by Edwin Ellis, is the most remarkable landscape in the exhibition. It shows a strange effect at nightfall, painted in black and deepest blue in the broadest manner. It induces much awesomeness and gloom in the spectator. Leonard Zorn is a very young artist, who has contrived to raise a considerable stir over his works in his native Stockholm, in Seville where he studied, and in Paris. No. 593, "Rosila," gives an idea of his brilliant style, but is hardly a favourable example. The "Hayfield" and "Bray on the Thames " are two small, but well representative, drawings by George Fripp. Mr. Brett sends a tiny drawing of the "Serpentine Rock, Kynance.' C. J. Watson's "Spring Showers" will not be overlooked. No. 368, "Gone," by Mary Eley, is the best figuredrawing in the room. It is a large and effective picture of a woman gazing after a departing visitor. She is beautiful, and so is the dog by her side. How dear was the visitor we are not to know, nor whether his going was final. There is here imagination and good drawing, ease and restraint, and large treatment. THE CAMBRIAN ACADEMY LOAN EXHIBITION. A LOAN exhibition of exceptional interest and importance has been opened at Cardiff, to assist the newly invigorated " Royal Cambrian Academy" to do for art and artists in Wales what the Scottish Academy does for Scotland and the Hibernian Academy for Ireland. Though the exhibition contains admirable examples of the work of Mr. G. F. Watts, Mr. Alma-Tadema, Mr. Herkomer, Mr. Edwin and other living painters, whose work is seen Hayes, Mr. Knighton Warren, Mr. Aumonier, with special interest by those who have not frequent access to London galleries, it is made, to Londoners at all events, more noteworthy by its extremely interesting display of English water-colours of our earlier school, and of rare porcelain. Lord Cawdor lends pictures by old masters, and Col. Tynte a series of Knellers, while the Mayor of Cardiff exhibits some excellent contemporary painting. Among Lord Bute's many contributions nothing is really more memorable than the series of four drawings by Paul Sandby, wrought a hundred years since, and recording with admirable art, as well as with topographical accuracy, the aspects of the Cardiff of that day. The finest of these drawings, in artistic effect, is the "View of Cardiff from the Southward," in which this learned father of English water-colour has concentrated in the middle of his long panorama the chief buildings of the place Cardiff Castle, the old Cardiff Arms Inn (a famous hostelry), and the parish church of St. John, with its noble Somersetshire tower of the fifteenth century. Drawings by Turner, David Cox, Copley Fielding, Cotman, and David Roberts carry on the story of English waterdepartment, to which Mr. Pyke Thompson and colour art to later days; and in the print Mr. Lascelles Carr contribute somewhat ex tensively, there is a very representative selection of Turner's engraved work, including chosen proofs of Liber Studiorum, Southern C and England and Wales. Armour and tapestry, fans and chatelaines-the latter contributed by Lady Wyatt-add to the interest of the show in the miscellaneous departments. Dr. Weir lends a wonderful speci men of Chinese needlework. In the department of porcelain, to which Sir Hussey Vivian, Mr. Drane, and Mr. E. Seward make contributions of exceptional value, Mr. Drane, whe has superintended this part of the exhibition has rightly insisted upon a perfect display of the old local fabric of Nantgarw, famous for the beauty of its translucent paste and for the exquisite flower-painting of one artist, Bilingsley. The period from about 1810 to 1833 is that in which the porcelain of Nantgarw wa produced. Billingsley himself was apprenticed | at Derby, wrought at Pinxton, then came Nantgarw and ensured the excellence of a fabric which was finally "swallowed up st Coalport." But though the Nantgarw, with its lovely Billingsley roses, holds an important place in the exhibition, the larger fabrics have› not been forgotten, and there is a specially beautiful display of the rarest and finest Worcester. A Catalogue of the exhibitio prepared by Mr. Hughes and by the energet director, Mr. T. H. Thomas, is an excelent example of what such a volume should be There have been attractive musical recitals by Mr. Turpin and by Mdme. Clara Noved Davies. THE MASPERO FUND. THE French are responding with liberality and Sir Erasmus Wilson (President of E. Poynter D. D. Heath Miss Kennedy. Gen. Codrington A. Russell should . £25 0 0 20 00 10 0 0 NOTES ON ART AND ARCHAEOLOGY. MISS MARY FORSTER AND MR. ALBERT MOORE have been elected Associates of the Roya. Society of Painters in Water-Colours. the public on Monday next-the Society of AT least three picture exhibitions open to British Artists, the French Gallery in Pall Mall, and Mr. McLean's Gallery in the Haymarket. MR. J. P. MAYALL, the photographer of Messrs. Sampson Low, has recently taken in Artists at Home, now being published by outdoor group, in the courtyard of Hathell, Egyptian Monuments," by Miss Amelia B. Ed See "The Destruction and Preservation of wards: the ACADEMY, February 23, 1884. |