subconscious, but apparently no more so than is art or politics. The subconscious life may be a source of new promptings, of new suggestions of knowledge; but so too may our conscious life be, with its controlled reflection, its critical reading, its spirited conversation, its attention to public address. The subconscious is a part but not the whole of us; nor is it clearly the best in us. In some it is the worst. It may well be a special avenue to a larger world, and may cast a special light upon conversion and prayer and a sense of mystic union. But religion is in many forms, having its life in many mansions, and is no more to be tied to this strange region of our minds than is any other kind of companionship. Religion is not doctrine alone, nor is it only passion or useful or symbolic action. Each of these is a facet of its form. Indeed friendship, so plentiful in its attributes and its modes of expression, is perhaps religion's best analogue and illustration. Religion may be understood as an extension of friendship into the region of the Divine. The mind now faces toward the dawning vision of the Perfect, and responds to this naturally and quietly, with the imagery, the thoughts, feelings, emotions, impulses, and acts that are suitable to these larger intimations. Thus we are less bound by meager ideas of religion, and avoid that besetting temptation to confuse religion with science or with psychology or theology or philosophy or with ritual, or with some display of enthusiasm or sentiment for what is wholly visible and limited.

In brief, then, it would seem to me proper to say that psychology leaves religion living, with new means for its great work, and with fresh confidence in the naturalness and the need of the religious life.

A VALUATION OF HASTINGS' ENCYCLO

PAEDIA OF RELIGION AND ETHICS

The completion of this remarkable undertaking puts in the hands of scholars material which must otherwise be sought in a thousand different sources. It seems fitting that an estimate of the value of so elaborate a work should be made in a journal devoted to the study of religion. Several competent scholars have been asked to write, and the following articles embody critical appraisements. [ED.]

GENTILE RELIGIONS OF THE ANCIENT MEDITERRANEAN WORLD

Only within comparatively recent years has anything like adequate account been taken of the religious side of life among the gentile peoples of the ancient Mediterranean world. Formerly, it was customary to regard religion as a peculiar possession of Jews and Christians, while Egyptians, Greeks, or Romans were assumed to have had merely a mythology. This view of the matter was not unnatural in days when the writings of a Homer or an Ovid were treated as fully representative of the Greek or the Roman interest in religion. But in more recent times, when religion in every age is understood to be an affair of real life, and never a mere literary portrayal of deeds of divinities, the gentile inhabitants of the ancient Mediterranean countries are found to have been, indeed, very religious. They were much concerned to establish and maintain suitable relations between the gods and themselves, in order to insure both individual and social safety. Many institutions were devised and perpetuated in the effort to secure an adequate mechanism for the realization of religious values. Nor were the Gentiles any less interested than their Jewish and Christian contemporaries in reflecting upon the significance of religious phenomena. Also, religion left a marked impression both upon individual conduct and upon the activities of the community. In other words, among the peoples of the ancient Mediterranean, religious interests, institutions, ideas, and activities were quite as realistic a phase of life within gentile as within Jewish or Christian circles.

The need for guidance in this field of study has been met, on the whole, remarkably well in Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics. Each of the principal religions in question has usually been assigned a separate article of suitable length, written by an outstanding authority on the subject. At the same time, an extensive array of special topics

is presented, dealing with particular deities, religious customs, interests, and beliefs. Frequently these special studies are in the form of composite articles embracing contributions from different authors on the same topic covering the various religions.

To pursue a classification according to national territories, one finds a general article on "Egyptian Religion" written by W. M. Flinders Petrie. It contains a summary of myths, names of deities, rites, and religious beliefs current from the earliest period down to Roman times. There is also a special article on "Graeco-Egyptian Religion," but, unfortunately, it deals mainly with the names of the various gods and their several positions in the pantheon, instead of portraying the functional aspects of religion in the life of the people. Also, under "Mysteries," the Egyptian rites are described, and a brief additional article is devoted to the far-famed goddess Isis. Under the caption, "Babylonians and Assyrians," the author, H. Zimmern, concerns himself almost exclusively with Babylonia. The pantheon, the myths, and the rites are compactly described, but one gets no very clear insight into the place of religion in Babylonian society. Perhaps no more could be demanded in a ten-page discussion of so large a subject. It is somewhat surprising to find more than half as much space allowed to a separate description of the names, attributes, and myths connected with the Babylonian goddess Ishtar, and a similar honor conferred upon her male associate, Tammuz. An exhaustive list of names of the Phoenician deities, with an account of their cult ceremonies, is given by L. B. Paton, under "Phoenicians." The religions of their less conspicuous Semitic neighbors have not been forgotten. Under "Syrians (or Aramaeans)," "Nabataeans," "Palmyrenes," and "Sabaeans" one finds concise information, given as extensively as the sources of information permit.

There is no single article describing the religion of the Persians from its earliest period to the close of its history. This is surely a defect, although there are several articles on different portions of the history. In a meager two pages on "Iranians," J. H. Moulton covers the preZarathushtra period, while A. J. Carnoy has six pages on "Zoroastrianism." The religious situation in the time of Achaemenian and the Sasanian rulers is expounded under the respective names of these dynasties. There is also a two-page account of "Magi." A comparatively full description of still another phase of Persian religion is found in "Mithraism," by H. Stuart Jones. A. V. Williams Jackson writes on "Avesta," but only as a literary work and without referen e religious content. A reader who may desire a conspectus of " will find in

the Encyclopaedia ample material out of

but he may experience no slight agony of spirit before the task is accomplished, particularly if he is approaching the subject for the first time.

"Greek Religion," by L. R. Farnell, and "Roman Religion," by W. Warde Fowler, are masterly surveys by well-known specialists. If "Aegean Religion," by D. G. Hogarth, and "Etruscan Religion," by G. Herbig, seem less well done, the deficiency lies in the defective character of the available sources of information rather than in the presentation. An account of religion in the territory comprising the peninsula of Asia Minor appears under the entry "Phrygians," from the competent hand of W. M. Ramsay.

In addition to this description by territories, particular cults have occasionally been singled out for special treatment. The principle upon which this choice has been made is not always apparent. Cults that were restricted in their operation within specific territories naturally did not require independent exposition. But in the complex religious situation within the Mediterranean world, especially in Graeco-Roman times, various cults overstepped all territorial boundaries and became veritable world religions. To appreciate their significance, they have to be studied as specific movements within society at large, in various places and in relation to different environments. The need for guidance along these lines is only partially satisfied by the Encyclopaedia. The article "Mysteries (Greek, Phrygian, Roman)" is of the proper sort, but is all too brief. Better proportion is shown in the space assigned to "Mithraism," but the widely influential cults of Isis and Cybele-Attis, and especially the cult of the emperors, would seem to have deserved more elaborate exposition. Least satisfactory, in this connection, is the treatment of emperor-worship, under the caption "Caesarism." Apparently the writer of the article was unacquainted with the standard literature on this subject (e.g., Beurlier, Kornemann), as well as with the phases of the subject to be stressed in an up-to-date treatment. The deficiency is partly remedied by a more satisfactory article on "Deification (Greek and Roman)" in a subsequent volume, to which a cross-reference should have been given. The Greek and Roman sections of the composite articles, "Heroes and Hero-Gods" and "Health and Gods of Healing," particularly the latter, furnish an opportunity to describe certain special cults of a popular character.

Other movements in ancient society which are more commonly classed as philosophies, but which have a distinctly religious significance, receive in most instances appropriate attention. E. V. Arnold writes a compact article on Stoics, Dean Inge contributes one on Neoplatonsim, and R. W. Wenley one on Neopythagoreanism. And Epicureanism,

which might be characterized as religiously antireligious, is described by the well-known scholar, R. D. Hicks. Certain individual philosophers of the Graeco-Roman age are also listed for special articles, as "Cleanthes," "Chrysippus," "Seneca," "Epictetus," "Marcus Aurelius,' "Lucretius," "Apollonius of Tyana." No separate article on Plotinus was needed, in view of the extended attention given to him under "Neoplatonism," but other representatives of the school, especially Porphyry and Iamblichus played so important a part in the religious affairs of the later Roman Empire that one would gladly hear much more regarding them than is contained in the single short paragraph with which each is dismissed in the article, "Neoplatonism." Even more just occasion for complaint lies in the fact that Posidonius is not listed for separate study, although under "Stoics" he is passed over with the mere mention of his name. His leaning toward a mystical type of philosophy gave a new religious trend to Stoicism under the influence of orientalism, and astral speculation in particular. This fact has only recently been appreciated, but it was already clearly discernible before the tenth volume of the Encyclopaedia was prepared. In this connection, one might also remark upon the failure to provide fuller information than is contained in "Sun, Moon, and Stars" regarding the religious significance of astrology in Imperial times, as well as the mystico-religious tendencies in philosophy prior to the rise of Neoplatonism. This need for an article on GraecoRoman mysticism of the first and second centuries, A.D., as a philosophical interest, presented in its more distinctly religious aspects, is not sufficiently satisfied by mere cross-references to "Mysteries (Greek)" and "Mysteries (Roman)." It was not in the mystery cults, but in the schools of the philosophers, that this particular type of religious interest manifested itself, and "Posidonius" would have been a suitable rubric for introducing readers to the subject, although its history should have been followed through the two succeeding centuries. Yet one should observe that a late product of this tendency has been noted in an informing article, which, however, is more descriptive than interpretative, on "Hermes Trismegistus."

In the sphere of religious institutions, ritual practices, formal beliefs, and popular activities there are many excellent articles. One is somewhat surprised, however, to find so little on "Temples," even though their structure is described under "Architecture." Yet there are good treatments of "Altar," "Images and Idols," "Priest, Priesthood," "Sacrifice," and "Worship" as seen in the various religions, to cite only a few instances of this type of composite article. A wide range of specific ritual performances or of other religious acts in different cults