apparatus has been relegated, and had all reflections and explanations been incorporated in it still more room would have been left for vivid narrative. The teacher can supply the analysis, but he is seldom able to tell the story accurately and dramatically. The plot-interest should, therefore, be made prominent in the text-book-a wizard's task, when the events of a millenium and a half have to be compressed into two hundred and fifty pages. Professor Abbott's handbook is very much to be

commended-may it prosper and grow larger!

The text-book has fifteen chapters, each introduced by a concise description and ended by an admirable summary. The whole text is subdivided into sections with appropriate headings, and is followed by a chronological list of important events, a brief bibliography and a good index. The book is well equipped with maps and illustrations, and, taken as a whole, is well planned and well written. The best chapters, despite a certain nervousness as to Augustus and his work, are those devoted to the principate; but they are too short, and do not give sufficient attention to municipal life.

Professor Abbott, as in his Roman Political Institutions, has accepted Mommsen's conception of the growth of the early Republic. This has no longer the endorsement of the leading historians. In fact, its main strength was taken from it by Mommsen himself, when he demonstrated clearly, what with Meyer, Niese, Neumann, Kornemann, Schwartz, De Sanctis, Beloch and others is now axiomatic, that Diodorus gives us by far the most, if not the only, reliable data on Roman history for the period prior to Pyrrhus. The pre-Gracchan annals, moreover, which, because of their brevity, Diodorus did not need to alter for use in his Historical Library, represent the prototype from which Livy and Dionysius depend indirectly; and the way in which these annals seem to have misinterpreted the fasti is incompatible with the existence in contemporary governmental circles of a genuine detailed tradition as to the rise of a constitution. Accordingly, the most that we can do is to insert into the framework of the fasti, with as little specific connective as possible, the disconnected items which Diodorus found in his sources, and this Edward Meyer has done with results that are fast becoming canonical. His conception, which owes little to the parts of Diodorus attacked successfully by Ettore Pais, deserves the adhesion of conservative scholars.

Professor Abbott narrates first external, then internal, events. This practice is commendable in dealing with the periods of the Italian and foreign conquests, but, when continued into the post-Gracchan era of the Republic it tears far apart things that belong closely together. The successive stages of the revolution were marked off in advance by external disasters; and the governmental crises should be described in each case directly after the fiasco in the conduct of foreign affairs. If this were done, the Spanish wars would not be mere episodes, and Caesar's conquests would not be narrated before the Gracchan reforms.

At the same time, the reader's attention could be fixed more firmly upon the demagogue and the victorious general, and the reason made clear why Augustus did not succeed in restoring a stable government on the old lines except through giving to the prince proconsular imperium and tribuniciary potestas-powers fatal to republican initiative.

W. S. FERGUSON.

Outline for Review: Greek History and Outline for Review: Roman History. By Charles Bertram Newton and Edwin Bryant Treat, of the Lawrenceville School. (New York, American Book Company, pp. 51; 62.) These little books contain outlines of ancient history for use in review, and typical questions from college entrance examination papers. They are certain to be serviceable to both pupils and "coaches". In fact, every experienced teacher must use something of the sort. Those by Messrs. Newton and Treat are not to be especially recommended. They contain most of the false notions which have been discarded during the last twenty-five years, and many new ones in addition-such as the confusion of neolithic and paleolithic on the opening page of the Greek manual. They are, however, compiled with much skill and knowledge of conditions.

W. S. FERGUSON.

A Political History of Modern Europe from the Reformation to the Present Day. By FERDINAND SCHWILL, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Modern History in the University of Chicago. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1907. Pp. xiv, 607.) THIS is a readable, readily assimilated and generally reliable textbook of Modern Europe history. It appears to be suitable for work in high-schools of high grade, for elementary college work and especially for the interested general reader who wants an introduction to the subject. In regard to the dividing line between medieval and modern history (so far as we can make one at all) and in regard to the proper subject-matter for history, the author adopts the views (with which the reviewer does not happen to be in accord) that "the one thousand years before 1500 are generally agreed to constitute the medieval period" (p. 6) and that "history is primarily concerned with politics" (p. 2). After an excellent preliminary survey of the modern nations and the church before the Reformation, which we venture to think the best part of the whole book, the general plan and allotment of space to the Reformation, the Absolute Monarchy, and Revolution and Democracy, is conventional but unusually clear and simple. English history is included. and given in more detail than that of any other country. A final chapter on the Threshold of a New Century suggests the great inventions of our day and their effects, the problem of socialism and the international prevention of war, and the European advance into Africa and Asia.

The author has a sprightly, almost Gallic, vivacity; he often gives his reader the confidential and picturesque impression which usually goes only with the spoken word. At the same time, however-and this is the chief criticism of the book-there is too often a surplus of adjective, a deficiency of definite fact and an occasional looseness in the use of terms (e. g., Bund, pp. 418, 470) which we fear will leave an elusive haziness in the student's mind and make the book difficult to quiz upon. It is not true that the "Prussian and Austrian troops . . . entered the duches [of Schleswig-Holstein] side by side" (p. 471), nor that Napoleon "persuaded the French legislature to declare war" in 1870 (p. 475). Murillo died in 1682 and not 1681 (p. 118), and Rembrandt in 1669 and not 1674 (p. 176). For Lasalle (p. 510) read Lassalle and for Roussilon (map p. 36), Roussillon. But let not this criticism obscure the far more important fact that here is a text-book which is interesting.

The eighteen maps, especially those in black and white, are simple, clear and well-adapted to their purpose. An excellent feature is the side-note on each map telling the student the principal things he ought to see. The map of Germany on the eve of the Reformation is an exception in being poorly done; Wittenberg and Leipzig find no place on it, and the Albertine line in Saxony is wrongly indicated as the electoral line; it was not electoral until Maurice's perfidy in 1547. In an appendix there are more than a dozen very helpful genealogical tables, a "$25 list of books for a small library" and a brief general bibliography. This might have well included a few books in French—at least a mention of the new Lavisse or of the more convenient and very easy French articles in Lavisse and Rambaud. No one ought to be referred any longer to the sixth edition of Dahlmann-Waitz (p. vii) when the seventh edition which has been out two years is so much more complete.

SIDNEY B. FAY.

(New York:

Atlas of European History. By EARLE W. Dow. Henry Holt and Company. 1907. Pp. v, 46.) In his modest, dignified and scholarly preface the author states that he has sought to meet the long felt need of a small atlas of European history which should be in the English language, which should treat of the different peoples of Europe impartially, which should not obscure general views by too many details, and which should have a serviceable key to its contents". He has succeeded; and for his effort he deserves the thanks of all teachers and students of European history. To what he has drawn from the best German, French and English atlases, he has added by original research.

The thirty-two double-page colored plates contain eighty-one maps, sometimes a single map occupying an entire plate, other times as many as five being placed on a single plate. On the reverse of the colored plates are twenty-two additional maps printed only in black and white.

Four plates containing thirteen maps illustrate the period before the Germanic invasion of the Roman Empire. Eleven plates containing forty-three maps belong to the period between the Germanic invasion. and the end of the fifteenth century. The remaining seventeen plates containing forty-seven maps fall in the period since the beginning of the sixteenth century. No country or period is neglected and none are over-emphasized.

The maps contain not only the geographical information indispensable to a clear understanding of history; they contain also much more. By the insertion of dates on the face of the map, and by the skilful use of color schemes, of numbers and of other devices known to makers and students of historical maps, the author has succeeded in conveying a vast amount of historical information in a way that greatly aids the memory in retaining it.

While on the whole the work is to be highly commended, yet it is not entirely above adverse criticism. The author realizes this and invites such criticism in the hope of improving subsequent editions. In the otherwise excellent index there are some, though very few, errors; see, e. g., Aland, where the plate number is omitted. A good many names of considerable historical importance are not included, e. g., Camperdown, Klein-Schnellendorf, Leuthen, Ligny. It would seem that all places. referred to in books so much used as the Oxford periods of European history might have been given. Convenience has been sacrificed in the effort to avoid too great detail. As a consequence one often has to turn to several plates in order to locate places associated in a single event or movement, as a campaign. The absence from nearly all maps of any device to indicate mountains is a defect. This could be partially remedied by a single good relief map. But perhaps all this is only saying that the author has not done what was impossible, and what he did not intend to do.

A desirable feature of such an atlas would be a series of maps illustrating the progress of geographical knowledge. The use of none but perfect maps in studying periods during which contemporary geographical knowledge was so imperfect, makes it all but impossible for students to appreciate the difficulties both imaginary and real that confronted the actors of the time and had such a large influence on the making of history.

W. R. MANNING.

NOTES AND NEWS

GENERAL

Professor Edward Gaylord Bourne of Yale University died at New Haven on February 24, at the age of forty-seven and in the prime of his remarkable powers. Born in 1860, he was graduated from Yale in 1883, and received its degree of doctor of philosophy in 1892. From 1886 to 1888 he was an instructor in that university; from 1888 to 1890 he was an instructor, from 1890 to 1895 a professor of history, in Adelbert College, Western Reserve University. In 1895. he returned to Yale as professor of history. Into the work of teaching he carried extraordinary learning, both in European and in American history, and great though quietly expressed enthusiasm. No one in America surpassed him in the art of teaching historical criticism to graduate students. Indeed, this was always his chief interest. Wide as was the range of his reading, and various as were the subjects on which he wrote, the unifying trait was that delight in the processes of historical criticism which marked his singularly keen and active mind. It is not too much to say that he was the chief master in America of that specific portion of the historian's art, and that in this specialty the profession has suffered in his death an irreparable loss. This quality of his mind was exhibited in varied ways in his volume of Essays in Historical Criticism, published in 1901. He also published in 1885 a History of the Surplus Revenue of 1837, in 1904 a valuable volume on Spain in America. He furnished an introductory survey of Philippine history to the series called The Philippine Islands, edited the Voyages of Champlain, and edited most of the first volume, devoted to Columbus, of the series called Original Narratives of Early American History. To this journal he was always one of the most valued contributors, and it profited greatly by his critical skill; in the general index to our first ten volumes the entry under his name occupies more space than that under the name of any other writer. Mr. Bourne was moreover of so kindly and genial a character, so open and helpful in spirit, so free from vanity and self-seeking, so cheerful and happy in disposition, despite much suffering, that his premature death will be widely felt as a source of personal sorrow.

Major-General Albert von Pfister, of Württemberg, the author of several historical works largely on military history, died on October 19 at the age of sixty-seven. His two-volume book, Die Amerikanische Revolution, 1775-1783 (1904) lays stress upon the influence of the Germans upon America and the American Revolution.