able, also, though modernity of expression undoubtedly is, still it
requires to be used with tact and judgment. There is no objection to Mr.
Mahaffy's describing Philopoemen as the Garibaldi, and Antigonus Doson as
the Victor Emmanuel of his age. Such comparisons have, no doubt, a
certain cheap popular value. But, on the other hand, a phrase like
'Greek Pre-Raphaelitism' is rather awkward; not much is gained by
dragging in an allusion to Mr. Shorthouse's John Inglesant in a
description of the Argonautics of Apollonius Rhodius; and when we are
told that the superb Pavilion erected in Alexandria by Ptolemy
Philadelphus was a 'sort of glorified Holborn Restaurant,' we must say
that the elaborate description of the building given in Athenaeus could
have been summed up in a better and a more intelligible epigram.

On the whole, however, Mr. Mahaffy's book may have the effect of drawing
attention to a very important and interesting period in the history of
Hellenism. We can only regret that, just as he has spoiled his account
of Greek politics by a foolish partisan bias, so he should have marred
the value of some of his remarks on literature by a bias that is quite as
unmeaning. It is uncouth and harsh to say that 'the superannuated
schoolboy who holds fellowships and masterships at English colleges'
knows nothing of the period in question except what he reads in
Theocritus, or that a man may be considered in England a distinguished
Greek professor 'who does not know a single date in Greek history between
the death of Alexander and the battle of Cynoscephalae'; and the
statement that Lucian, Plutarch, and the four Gospels are excluded from
English school and college studies in consequence of the pedantry of
'pure scholars, as they are pleased to call themselves,' is, of course,
quite inaccurate. In fact, not merely does Mr. Mahaffy miss the spirit
of the true historian, but he often seems entirely devoid of the temper
of the true man of letters. He is clever, and, at times, even brilliant,
but he lacks reasonableness, moderation, style and charm. He seems to
have no sense of literary proportion, and, as a rule, spoils his case by
overstating it. With all his passion for imperialism, there is something
about Mr. Mahaffy that is, if not parochial, at least provincial, and we
cannot say that this last book of his will add anything to his reputation
either as an historian, a critic, or a man of taste.

Greek Life and Tho