identity or kinship between English and French.

When Mr. Gladstone, leaving the dangerous ground of pure and applied
philology, confines himself to illustrating the contents of the Homeric
poems, he is always excellent. His chapter on the "Outer Geography" of
the Odyssey is exceedingly interesting; showing as it does how much
may be obtained from the patient and attentive study of even a single
author. Mr. Gladstone's knowledge of the SURFACE of the Iliad and
Odyssey, so to speak, is extensive and accurate. It is when he attempts
to penetrate beneath the surface and survey the treasures hidden in the
bowels of the earth, that he shows himself unprovided with the talisman
of the wise dervise, which alone can unlock those mysteries. But modern
philology is an exacting science: to approach its higher problems
requires an amount of preparation sufficient to terrify at the outset
all but the boldest; and a man who has had to regulate taxation, and
make out financial statements, and lead a political party in a great
nation, may well be excused for ignorance of philology. It is difficult
enough for those who have little else to do but to pore over treatises
on phonetics, and thumb their lexicons, to keep fully abreast with the
latest views in linguistics. In matters of detail one can hardly ever
broach a new hypothesis without misgivings lest somebody, in some weekly
journal published in Germany, may just have anticipated and refuted it.
Yet while Mr. Gladstone may be excused for being unsound in philology,
it is far less excusable that he should sit down to write a book about
Homer, abounding in philological statements, without the slightest
knowledge of what has been achieved in that science for several years
past. In spite of all drawbacks, however, his book shows an abiding
taste for scholarly pursuits, and therefore deserves a certain kind
of praise. I hope,--though just now the idea savours of the
ludicrous,--that the day may some time arrive when OUR Congressmen and
Secretaries of the Treasury will spend their vacations in writing books
about Greek antiquities, or in illustrating the meaning of Homeric
phrases.

July, 1870.

VII. THE PRIMEVAL GHOST-WORLD.

NO earnest student of human culture can as yet have forgotten or wholly
outlived the feeling of delight awakened by the first perusal of Max
Muller's brilliant "Essay on Comparative Mythology,"--a work in which
the scientific principles of myth-interpretati