Homer: The Iliad; The Odyssey

CHAPTER X.

THE RECOGNITION BY PENELOPE.

Penelope, far off in her chamber, has not heard the tumult, for the doors between the men’s and women’s apartments had been carefully locked by Eumæus, by his lord’s order. Even when the nurse rushes up to her with the tidings that Ulysses himself has returned, and made this terrible lustration of his household, she yet remains incredulous. The riotous crew may have met their deserved fate, but the hand that has slain them must be that of some deity, not of Ulysses. Yet she will go down and look upon the corpses. There, leaning “by a pillar” in the royal place—like King Joash at his coronation, or King Josiah when he sware to the covenant—she beholds Ulysses. But he is still in his beggar’s weed, and after twenty years of absence she is slow to recognise him. Both Eurycleia and Telemachus break into anger at her incredulity. The king himself is outwardly as little moved as ever. He will give tokens of his identity hereafter. For the present there are precautions to be taken. The slaughter of so many nobles of Ithaca will scarce be taken lightly when it is heard in the island; it must not be known abroad until he can try the temper of his subjects, and gather a loyal host around him. All traces of the bloody scene which has just been enacted must be carefully concealed; the house must ring with harp, and song, and dance, that all who hear may think the queen has made her choice at last, and is holding her wedding-feast to-day—as, in truth, in a better sense she shall. Ulysses himself goes to the bath to wash away the stains of slaughter. Thence he comes forth endued once more by his guardian goddess with the “hyacinthine” locks and the grand presence which he had worn in the court of Phæacia. He appeals now to his wife’s memory, for she yet gives no sure sign of recognition:—

Penelope does recognise the form and features—it is indeed, to all outward appearance, the Ulysses from whom she parted in tears twenty years ago. But such appearances are deceitful; gods have been known, ere now, to put on the form of men to gain the love of mortals. She will put him to one certain test she wots of. “Give him his own bed,” she says to the nurse; “go, bring it forth from what was our bridal chamber.” But the couch of which she speaks is, as she and he both well know, immovable. Its peculiar structure, as detailed in Homer’s verse, is by no means easy to unravel. But it is formed in some cunning fashion out of the stem of an olive-tree, rooted and growing, round which the hero himself had built a bridal chamber. Move it?—“There lives no mortal,” exclaims Ulysses, “who could stir it from its place.” Then, at last, all Penelope’s long doubts are solved in happy certainty:—

When they retire to rest, each has a long tale to tell. The personal adventures of Ulysses alone (however careful he might have been to abridge them in some particulars for his present auditor) would have made up many an Arabian Night’s entertainment. There would surely have been little time left for Penelope’s story, but that Minerva’s agency lengthens the ordinary night—

Here, according to our modern notions of completeness, the Odyssey should surely end. Accordingly some critics have surmised that the twenty-fourth and last book is not Homer’s, but a later addition. But we may very well suppose that the primitive taste for narrative in the poet’s day was more simple and childlike; that an ancient Greek audience would inquire, as our own children would, into all the details of the sequel, and not be satisfied even with the comprehensive assertion that “they lived happy ever afterwards.” We have therefore, in the text as it has come down to us, a kind of supplement to the tale, which, as is the case with the later scenes in some of Shakespeare’s tragedies, rather weakens the force of the real catastrophe. An episode at the beginning of this last book shows us again the regions of the dead, to which the god Mercury is conducting the spirits of the dead suitors—pale ghosts who follow him, gibbering and cowering with fear, into that “sunless land.” The main purpose of the poet seems to be the opportunity once more of introducing the shades of the great heroes, Achilles and Agamemnon; the latter contrasting his own miserable and dishonoured end with that of Achilles, blest above all mortals, dying in battle with all the flower of Ilium and Greece around him, and leaving a name which is a sound of glory over the whole earth. So also does he contrast, to Penelope’s honour, her fidelity with the treachery of his own queen Clytemnestra; giving voice to a prophecy which has been fulfilled almost beyond even a poet’s aspirations:—

Ulysses himself has yet to visit and make himself known to his aged father Laertes, who is still alive, but living in sad retirement on his island-farm, solacing himself as well as he may with pruning and tending his orchard-grounds. The recognition scene, in which the scar left by the boar’s tusk is once more the touchstone, will seem tedious, as savouring too much of repetition, to most readers of our day. But there is one point which has a special and simple beauty of its own. When Laertes seems yet incredulous as to his son’s identity, Ulysses reminds him how, when he was yet a child, following his father about the orchards, and begging with a child’s pertinacity, he had given him “for his very own” a certain number of apple, fig, and pear trees and vines—all which he can still remember and enumerate. The token is irresistible, and the old man all but faints for joy.

An attempt at rebellion on the part of some of his Ithacan subjects, who are enraged at his slaughter of their nobles, and which is headed by the father of the dead Antinous, fails to revive the fading interest of the tale. The ringleader falls by a spear cast by the trembling hand of Laertes, and the malcontents submit, after a brief contest, to their lawful chief.

A hint of future travel for the hero leaves his history in some degree still incomplete. A penance had been imposed upon him by the seer Tiresias, by which alone he could appease Neptune for the cruel injury inflicted on his son, the giant Polyphemus. He must seek out some people who had never seen the sea, and never eaten salt, and there offer sacrifice to the god. Then, and only then, he might hope to reign for the rest of his life in peace amongst his islanders. Of the fulfilment of this pilgrimage the poet tells us nothing. Other legends represent Ulysses as meeting his death at last from the hand of his own son Telegonus (born of his amour with Circe), who had landed in the island of Ithaca on a piratical enterprise. We may remark the coincidence—or the imitation—in the later legend of the British Arthur, who is slain in battle by his illegitimate son Mordred. The veil which even tradition leaves hanging over the great wanderer’s fate is no inappropriate conclusion to his story. A life of inaction, even in his old age, seems hardly suited to the poetical conception of this hero of unrest. In the fragmentary legends of the Middle Ages there is almost material for a second Odyssey. There, the Greek voyager becomes the pioneer of Atlantic discoverers—sailing still on into the unknown West in search of the Earthly Paradise, founding new cities as he goes, and at last meeting his death in Atlantic waters. The Italian poets—Tasso, Pulci, and especially Dante—adopted the tradition. In the ‘Inferno’ of the latter, the spirit of Ulysses thus discloses the last scenes of his career:—

Thus also Mr Tennyson—drawing from Dante not less happily than he so often does from Homer—makes his Ulysses resign the idle sceptre into the hands of the home-keeping Telemachus, and tempt the seas once more in quest of new adventures:—

CHAPTER XI.

CONCLUDING REMARKS.

The resemblance which these Homeric poems bear, in many remarkable features, to the romances of mediæval chivalry, has been long ago remarked, and has already been incidentally noticed in these pages. The peculiar caste of kings and chiefs—or kings and knights, as they are called in the Arthurian and Carlovingian tales—before whom the unfortunate “churls” tremble and fly like sheep, is a feature common to both. “Then were they afraid when they saw a knight”—is the pregnant sentence which, in Mallory’s ‘King Arthur,’ reveals a whole volume of social history; for the knight, in the particular instance, was but riding quietly along, and there ought to have been no reason why the “churls” should dread the sight of a professed redresser of grievances. But even so Ulysses condescends to use no argument to this class but the active use of his staff; and Achilles dreads above all things dying “the death of a churl” drowned in a brook. It is only the noble, the priest, and the divine bard who emerge into the light of romance. The lives and feelings of the mere toilers for bread are held unworthy of the minstrel’s celebration. Just as in the early romances of Christendom we do not get much lower in the social scale than the knight and the lady, the bishop and the wizard, so in these Homeric lays—even in the more domestic Odyssey, unless we make Eumæus the exception—the tale still clings to the atmosphere of courts and palaces, and ignores almost entirely, unless for the purpose of drawing out a simile or illustration, the life-drama of the great mass of human kind. In both these cycles of fiction we find represented a state of things—whether we call it the “heroic age” or the “age of chivalry”—which could hardly have existed in actual life; and in both the phase of civilisation, and the magnificence of the properties and the scenery, seem far beyond what the narrators could have themselves seen and known.

The character of the hero must not be judged by modern canons of morality. With all the honest purpose and steadfast heart which we willingly concede to him, we cannot but feel there is a shiftiness in his proceedings from first to last which scarcely savours of true heroism. We need not call him, as Thersites does in Shakespeare, “that dog-fox Ulysses,” nor even go quite so far as to look upon him as what a modern translator terms him, “the Scapin of epic poetry;” but we see in him the embodiment of prudence, versatility, and expediency, rather than of the nobler and less selfish virtues. Ulysses, both in the Iliad and in the Odyssey, is the diplomatist of his age; and it is neither his fault nor Homer’s that the diplomacy of that date was less refined, and less skilful in veiling its coarser features. Even in much later times, dissimulation has been held an indispensable quality in rulers;[45] and an English philosopher tells us plainly that “the intriguing spirit, the overreaching manner, and the over-refinement of art and policy, are naturally incident to the experienced and thorough politician.”[46] At the same time, it must be remembered that Ulysses employs deceit only where it was recognised and allowed by the moral code of the age—against his enemies; he is never for a moment otherwise than true to his friends. Nay, while the kings and leaders in the Iliad are too fairly open to the reproach of holding cheap the lives and the interests of the meaner multitude who followed them, Ulysses is, throughout his long wanderings, the sole protecting providence, so far as their wilfulness will allow him, of his followers as well as of himself.

The tale of his wanderings has been a rich mine of wealth for poets and romancers, painters and sculptors, from the dim date of the age which we call Homer’s down to our own. In this wonderful poem, be its authorship what it may, lie the germs of thousands of the volumes which fill our modern libraries. Not that all their authors are either wilful plagiarists or even conscious imitators; but because the Greek poet, first of all whose thoughts have been preserved to us in writing, touched, in their deepest as well as their lightest tones, those chords of human action and passion which find an echo in all hearts and in all ages.

First, that is to say, of all whose utterances we regard as merely human. There are, indeed, other recorded utterances to which the song of Homer, unlike as it is, has yet wonderful points of resemblance. For the student of Scripture, the prince of heathen poets possesses a special interest. It is quite unnecessary to insist upon the actual connection which some enthusiastic champions of sacred literature have either traced or fancied between the lays of the Greek bard and the inspired records of the chosen people. Whether the Hebrew chronicles, in any form, could have reached the eye or ear of the poet in his many wanderings is, to say the least, extremely doubtful. But Homer bears an independent witness to the truth and accuracy of the sacred narrative, so far as its imagery and diction are to be taken into account, which is very remarkable and valuable. Allowing for the difference in the local scenery, the reader of the Iliad may well fancy at times that he is following the night-march of Abraham, the conquests of Joshua, or the wars of the Kings; while in the Odyssey the same domestic interiors, the same primitive family life, the same simple patriarchal relations between the king or chief of the tribe and his people, remind us in every page of the fresh and living pictures of the book of Genesis. Fresh and living the portraits still are, in both cases, after the lapse of so many centuries, because in both the writers drew faithfully from what was before their eyes, without any straining after effect—without any betrayal of that self-consciousness which spoils many an author’s best work, by forcing his own individuality upon the reader instead of that of the scenes and persons whom he represents. To trace the many points of resemblance between these two great poems and the sacred records as fully as they might be traced would require a volume in itself. It may be enough in these pages shortly to point out some few of the many instances in which Homer will be found one of the most interesting, because assuredly one of the most unconscious, commentators on the Bible.

The Homeric kings, like those of Israel and Judah, lead the battle in their chariots: Priam sits “in the gate,” like David or Solomon: Ulysses, when he would assert his royalty, stands by a pillar, as stood Joash and Josiah. Their riches consist chiefly in “sheep and oxen, men-servants and maid-servants.” When Ulysses, in the Iliad, finds Diomed sleeping outside his tent,—“and his comrades lay sleeping around him, and under their heads they had their shields, and their spears were fixed in the ground by the butt-end”[47]—we have the picture, almost word for word, of Saul’s night-bivouac when he was surprised by David: “And behold, Saul lay sleeping within the trench, and his spear stuck in the ground at his bolster, and the people lay round about him.” Ulysses and Diomed think it not beneath their dignity, as kings or chiefs, to act what we should consider the part of a spy, like Gideon in the camp of the Midianites. Lycurgus the Thracian slays with an ox-goad, like Shamgar in the Book of Judges. The very cruelties of warfare are the same—the insults too frequently offered to the dead body of an enemy, “the children dashed against the stones”—the miserable sight which Priam foresees in the fall of his city, as Isaiah in the prophetic burden of Babylon.[48]

The outward tokens of grief are wholly Eastern. Achilles, in the Iliad, when he hears of the death of his friend Patroclus—Laertes, in the Odyssey, when he believes his son’s return hopeless—throw dust upon their heads, like Joshua and the elders of Israel when they hear of the disaster at Ai. King Priam tears his hair and beard in his vain appeal to Hector at the Scæan gates, as Ezra does, when he hears of the trespasses of the Jewish princes.[49] Penelope sits “on the threshold” to weep, just as Moses “heard the people weeping, every man in the door of his tent.” “Call for the mourning women,” says the prophet Jeremiah,[50] “that they may come; and let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us.” So when the Trojan king bears off his dead son at last to his own palace, the professional mourners are immediately sent for—“the bards, to begin the lament.”[51] As Moses carries forth the bones of Joseph into Canaan, and David gathers carefully those of Saul and Jonathan from the men of Jabesh-Gilead, so Nestor charges the Greeks, when they have almost determined to quit Troy in despair, to carry the bones of their slain comrades home to their native land. Sarpedon’s body is borne to his native Lycia, there to be honoured “with a mound and with a column”—as Jacob set up a pillar for his dead Rachel on the road by Bethlehem. The Philistines, after the battle of Gilboa, bestow the armour of Saul in the house of their goddess Ashtaroth: the sword of Goliath is laid up as a trophy with the priest Ahimelech, “wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod;”[52] even so does Hector vow to hang up the armour of Menelaus in the temple of Apollo in Troy.

The more peaceful images have the same remarkable likeness. The fountain in the island of Ithaca, faced with stone, the work of the forefathers of the nation, Ithacus and Neritus, recalls that “well of the oath”—Beer-sheba—which Abraham dug, or that by which the woman of Samaria sat, known as “the well of our father Jacob.” The stone which the goddess Minerva upheaves to hurl against Mars, which “men of old had set to be a boundary of the land”—the two white stones,[53] of unknown date and history even in the poet’s own day, of which he doubts whether they be sepulchral or boundary, which Achilles made the turning-point for the chariot-race,—these cannot fail to remind us of the stones Bohan and Ebenezer, and of the warning in the Proverbs—“Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set up.” The women grinding at the mill, the oxen treading out the corn, the measure by cubit, the changes of raiment, the reverence due to the stranger and to the poor,—the dowry given by the bridegroom, as by way of purchase, not received with the bride,—all these are as familiar to us in the books of Moses as in the poems of Homer. The very figures of speech are the same. The passionate apostrophe of Moses and Isaiah—“Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth”—is used by Juno in the Iliad, and by Calypso in the Odyssey.[54] “Day” is commonly employed as an equivalent for fate or judgment; “the half of one’s kingdom” is held to be a right royal gift; “the gates of hell” are the culmination of evil. Telemachus swears “by the woes of his father,” as Jacob does “by the fear of his father Isaac;” and the curse pronounced on Phœnix by his father—“that never grandchild of his begetting might sit upon his knees”[55]—recalls the sacred text in which we are told that “the children of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were brought up on Joseph’s knees.”

Many and various have been the theories of interpretation which have been employed, by more or less ingenious writers, to develop what they have considered the inner meaning of the poet’s tale. Such speculations began at a very early date in literary history. They were current among Greek philosophers in the days of Socrates, but he himself would not admit them. It is impossible, and would be wearisome even if it were possible, to discuss them all. But one especially must be mentioned, not wholly modern, but which has won much favour of late in the world of scholars,—that in both poems we have certain truths of physical and astronomical science represented under an allegorical form, imported into Greek fable from Eastern sources. This theory is, to say the least, so interesting and ingenious, that without presuming here to discuss its truth, it claims a brief mention. It may be fairest to put it in the words of one of its most enthusiastic advocates. So far as it applies to the Odyssey, it stands thus:—

“The Sun [Ulysses] leaves his bride the Twilight [Penelope] in the sky, where he sinks beneath the sea, to journey in silence and darkness to the scene of the great fight with the powers of Darkness [the Siege of Troy]. The ten weary years of the war are the weary hours of the night.... The victory is won: but the Sun still longs to see again the beautiful bride from whom he parted yester-eve. Dangers may await him, but they cannot arrest his steps: things lovely may lavish their beauty upon him, but they cannot make him forget her.... But he cannot reach his home until another series of ten long years have come to an end—the Sun cannot see the Twilight until another day is done.”[56]

So, in the Iliad, as has been already noticed, Paris and the Trojans represent the powers of Darkness, “who steal away the beautiful Twilight [Helen] from the western sky;” while Achilles is the Sun, who puts to rout these forces of the Night.[57]

In contrast, though not necessarily in contradiction, to this physical allegory, stands the moral interpretation, a favourite one with some of the mediæval students of Homer, which sees in the Odyssey nothing less than the pilgrimage of human life—beset with dangers and seductions on every side, yet blessed with divine guidance, and reaching its goal at last, through suffering and not without loss. Every point in the wanderings of the hero has been thus made to teach its parable, more or less successfully. The different adventures have each had their special application: Circe represents the especially sensual appetites; the Lotus-eating is indolence; the Sirens the temptations of the ear; the forbidden oxen of the Sun the “flesh-pots of Egypt”—the sin of gluttony. It is at least well worthy of remark how, throughout the whole narrative, the false rest is brought into contrast with the true. Not in the placid indolence of the Lotus-eaters, not in the luxurious halls of Circe or in the grotto of Calypso, nor even in the joyous society of the Phæacians, but only in the far-off home, the seat of the higher and better affections, is the pilgrim’s real resting-place. The key-note of this didactic interpretation, which has an undoubted beauty and pathos of its own, making the old Greek poet, like the Mosaic law, a schoolmaster to Christian doctrine, has been well touched by a modern writer:—

Some of the early religious commentators pushed such interpretations to extravagance; they dealt with Homer as the extreme patristic school of theology dealt with the Old Testament: they so busied themselves in seeking for mystical interpretations in every verse, that they held the plain and literal meaning of the text as of almost secondary importance. It was said of one French scholar—D’Aurat—a man of some learning, that he spent his life in trying to find all the Bible in Homer. Such men saw Paradise disguised in the gardens of Alcinous; the temptation of the chaste Bellerophon was but a pagan version of the story of Joseph; the fall of Troy evidently prefigured, to their fancy, the destruction of Jerusalem. Some went even further, and turned this tempting weapon of allegory against their religious opponents: thus Doctor Jacobus Hugo saw the Lutheran heretics prefigured in the Lotus-eaters of the Odyssey, and thought that the reckless Antinous was a type of Martin Luther himself. Those who are content to take Homer as he is, the poet of all ages, without seeking to set him up either as a prophet or as a moral philosopher, may take comfort from, the brief criticism of Lord Bacon upon all over-curious interpretation—“I do rather think the fable was first, and the exposition devised after.” The most ingenious theories as to the hidden meaning of the song are at best but the mists which the Homerists have thrown round their deity—

He moves among them all, a dim mysterious figure, but hardly less than divine.

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“We have carefully read this truly satisfactory book, and do not hesitate to say that it is an excellent compendium of the great facts of Geology, and written in a truthful and philosophic spirit.”—Edinburgh Philosophical Journal.

“As a school-book nothing can match the Advanced Text-Book of Geology by Professor Page of Newcastle.”—Mechanics’ Magazine.

“We know of no introduction containing a larger amount of information in the same space, and which we could more cordially recommend to the geological student.”—Athenæum.

THE GEOLOGICAL EXAMINATOR. A Progressive Series of Questions, adapted to the Introductory and Advanced Text-Books of Geology. Prepared to assist Teachers in framing their Examinations, and Students in testing their own Progress and Proficiency. By the Same. Fifth Edition. 9d.

SYNOPSES OF SUBJECTS taught in the Geological Class, College of Physical Science, Newcastle-on-Tyne, University of Durham. By the Same. Fcap., cloth, 2s. 6d.

THE CRUST OF THE EARTH: A Handy Outline of Geology. By the Same. Sixth Edition. 1s.

“An eminently satisfactory work, giving, in less than 100 pages, an admirable outline sketch of Geology, ... forming, if not a royal road, at least one of the smoothest we possess to an intelligent acquaintance with geological phenomena.”—Scotsman.

“Of singular merit for its clearness and trustworthy character.”—Standard.

GEOLOGY FOR GENERAL READERS. A Series of Popular Sketches in Geology and Palæontology. By the Same. Third Edition, enlarged. 6s.

“This is one of the best of Mr Page’s many good books. It is written in a flowing popular style. Without illustration or any extraneous aid, the narrative must prove attractive to any intelligent reader.”—Geological Magazine.

HANDBOOK OF GEOLOGICAL TERMS, GEOLOGY, AND PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. By the Same. Second Edition, enlarged. 7s. 6d.

“The only dictionary of Geology in the English language—modern in date, and exhaustive in treatment.”—Review.

CHIPS AND CHAPTERS. A Book for Amateurs and Young Geologists. By the Same. 5s.

THE PAST AND PRESENT LIFE OF THE GLOBE. With numerous Illustrations. By the Same. Crown 8vo. 6s.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF GEOLOGY. A Brief Review of the Aim, Scope, and Character of Geological Inquiry. By the Same. Fcap. 8vo. 3s. 6d.

“The great value of Mr Page’s volume is its suggestive character. The problems he discusses are the highest and most interesting in the science—those on which it most becomes the thinkers and the leaders of the age to make up their minds. The time is now past for geologists to observe silence on these matters, and in this way to depreciate at once the interest and importance of their investigations. It is well to know that, however they may decide, questions of high philosophy are at stake, and therefore we give a hearty welcome to every book which, like Mr Page’s, discusses these questions in a fair and liberal spirit.”—Scotsman.

Physical Geography.

INTRODUCTORY TEXT-BOOK OF PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. With Sketch-Maps and Illustrations. By David Page, LL.D., Professor of Geology in the Durham University of Physical Science, Newcastle. Sixth Edition. 2s. 6d.

“The divisions of the subject are so clearly defined, the explanations are so lucid, the relations of one portion of the subject to another are so satisfactorily shown, and, above all, the bearings of the allied sciences to Physical Geography are brought out with so much precision, that every reader will feel that difficulties have been removed, and the path of study smoothed before him.”—Athenæum.

“Whether as a school-book or a manual for the private student, this work has no equal in our Educational literature.”—Iron.

ADVANCED TEXT-BOOK OF PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. By the Same. With Engravings. Second Edition. 5s.

“A thoroughly good Text-Book of Physical Geography.”—Saturday Review.

“It is not often our good fortune to meet with scientific manuals so cheap and so excellent in matter, and so useful for the practical purposes of education, as this admirable work, which is beyond all question the best of its kind.”—Evening Standard.

EXAMINATIONS ON PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. A Progressive Series of Questions, adapted to the Introductory and Advanced Text-Books of Physical Geography. By the Same. Second Edition. 9d.

COMPARATIVE GEOGRAPHY. By Carl Ritter. Translated by W. L. Gage. Fcap., 3s. 6d.

Zoology.

OUTLINES OF NATURAL HISTORY, for Beginners; being Descriptions of a Progressive Series of Zoological Types. By Henry Alleyne Nicholson, M.D., F.R.S.E., F.G.S., &c., Professor of Zoology in the Royal College of Science, Dublin. 52 Engravings, 1s. 6d.

“There has been no book since Patterson’s well known ‘Zoology for Schools’ that has so completely provided for the class to which it is addressed as the capital little volume by Dr Nicholson.”—Popular Science Review.

BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

INTRODUCTORY TEXT-BOOK OF ZOOLOGY, for the Use of Junior Classes. With 127 Engravings. A New Edition, 2s. 6d.

“Very suitable for junior classes in schools. There is no reason why any one should not become acquainted with the principles of the science, and the facts on which they are based, as set forth in this volume.”—Lancet.

“Nothing can be better adapted to its object than this cheap and well-written Introduction.”—London Quarterly Review.

TEXT-BOOK OF ZOOLOGY, for the Use of Schools. Second Edition, enlarged. Crown 8vo, with 188 Engravings on Wood, 6s.

“This capital introduction to natural history is illustrated and well got up in every way. We should be glad to see it generally used in schools.”—Medical Press and Circular.

A MANUAL OF ZOOLOGY, for the Use of Students. With a General Introduction on the Principles of Zoology. Third Edition. Crown 8vo, pp. 706, with 280 Engravings on Wood, 12s. 6d.

“It is the best manual of zoology yet published, not merely in England, but in Europe.”—Pall Mall Gazette, July 20, 1871.

“The best treatise on Zoology in moderate compass that we possess.”—Lancet, May 18, 1872.

A MANUAL OF PALÆONTOLOGY, for the Use of Students. With a General Introduction on the Principles of Palæontology. Crown 8vo, with upwards of 400 Engravings, 15s.

“This book will be found to be one of the best of guides to the principles of Palæontology and the study of organic remains.”—Athenæum.

INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF BIOLOGY. Crown 8vo, with numerous Engravings, 5s.

EXAMINATIONS IN NATURAL HISTORY; being a Progressive Series of Questions adapted to the Author’s Introductory and Advanced Text-Books and the Student’s Manual of Zoology. 1s.

History.

EPITOME OF ALISON’S HISTORY OF EUROPE, for the Use of Schools. Sixteenth Edition. Post 8vo, pp. 604. 7s. 6d. bound in leather.

ATLAS to Epitome of the History of Europe. Eleven Coloured Maps. By A. Keith Johnston, LL.D., F.R.S.E. In 4to, 7s.

THE EIGHTEEN CHRISTIAN CENTURIES. By the Rev. James White, Author of ‘The History of France.’ Seventh Edition, post 8vo, with Index, 6s.

“He goes to work upon the only true principle, and produces a picture that at once satisfies truth, arrests the memory, and fills the imagination. It will be difficult to lay hands on any book of the kind more useful and more entertaining.”—Times.

HISTORY OF FRANCE, from the Earliest Times. By the Rev. James White, Author of ‘The Eighteen Christian Centuries.’ Fifth Edition, post 8vo, with Index, 6s.

“An excellent and comprehensive compendium of French history.”—National Review.

FACTS AND DATES; or, The Leading Events in Sacred and Profane History, and the Principal Facts in the Various Physical Sciences: the Memory being aided throughout by a Simple and Natural Method. For Schools and Private Reference. By the Rev. Alex. Mackay, LL.D., F.R.G.S., Author of ‘A Manual of Modern Geography,’ &c. Second Edition, crown 8vo, pp. 336. 4s.

THE LIFE AND LABOURS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL. A continuous Narrative for Schools and Bible Classes. By Charles Michie, M.A. Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged. Fcap. 8vo, cloth, 1s.

“The details are carefully collected and skilfully put together, and the outcome is a succinct, yet clear and comprehensive, view of the life and labours of the great Apostle. The story of Paul’s life, so replete with spirit-stirring incidents, is told in a manner extremely well fitted to arrest the attention of advanced pupils, and we can with confidence commend this little work as an admirable text-book for Bible-classes. The narrative is enriched by footnotes, from which it is apparent that Mr Michie is well posted up in the literature of the subject. These are subjoined without any pretence or parade of learning, and only when required to elucidate or illustrate the text. The map at the close will enable the reader to trace the course of the Apostle in his various missionary tours. We give this handbook our warm commendation: it certainly deserves a wide circulation.”—National Education Gazette.

A COURSE OF HISTORICAL STUDY, for the use of Schools and for Private Reading. In Three Parts, comprising—Ancient History, Middle Ages, Modern History. By Mademoiselle Reynaud.

[In the Press.

IMPROVED EDITIONS.

School Atlases.

BY A. KEITH JOHNSTON, LL.D., &c. Author of the Royal and the Physical Atlases, &c.

ATLAS OF GENERAL AND DESCRIPTIVE GEOGRAPHY. A New and Enlarged Edition, suited to the best Text-Books; with Geographical information brought up to the time of publication. 26 Maps, clearly and uniformly printed in colours, with Index. Imp. 8vo. Half-bound, 12s. 6d.

ATLAS OF PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY, illustrating, in a Series of Original Designs, the Elementary Facts of Geology, Hydrography, Meteorology, and Natural History. a New and Enlarged Edition, containing 4 new Maps and Letter-press. 20 Coloured Maps. Imp. 8vo. Half-bound, 12s. 6d.

ATLAS OF ASTRONOMY. A New and Enlarged Edition, 21 Coloured Plates. With an Elementary Survey of the Heavens, designed as an accompaniment to this Atlas, by Robert Grant, LL.D., &c., Professor of Astronomy and Director of the Observatory in the University of Glasgow. Imp. 8vo. Half-bound, 12s. 6d.

ATLAS OF CLASSICAL GEOGRAPHY. A New and Enlarged Edition. Constructed from the best materials, and embodying the results of the most recent investigations, accompanied by a complete Index of Places, in which the proper quantities are given by T. Harvey and E. Worsley, MM.A. Oxon. 21 Coloured Maps. Imp. 8vo. Half-bound, 12s. 6d.

“This Edition is so much enlarged and improved as to be virtually a new work, surpassing everything else of the kind extant, both in utility and beauty.”—Athenæum.

ELEMENTARY ATLAS OF GENERAL AND DESCRIPTIVE GEOGRAPHY, for the Use of Junior Classes; including a Map of Canaan and Palestine, with General Index. 8vo, half-bound, 5s.

NEW ATLAS FOR PUPIL-TEACHERS.

THE HANDY ROYAL ATLAS. 46 Maps clearly printed and carefully coloured, with General Index. Imp. 4to, £2, 12s. 6d., half-bound morocco. A New Edition, brought up to the present time.

This work has been constructed for the purpose of placing in the hands of the public a useful and thoroughly accurate Atlas of Maps of Modern Geography, in a convenient form, and at a moderate price. It is based on the ‘Royal Atlas,’ by the same Author; and, in so far as the scale permits, it comprises many of the excellences which its prototype is acknowledged to possess. The aim has been to make the book strictly what its name implies, a Handy Atlas—a valuable substitute for the ‘Royal,’ where that is too bulky or too expensive to find a place, a needful auxiliary to the junior branches of families, and a vade mecum to the tutor and the pupil-teacher.

Keith Johnston’s Atlases.

EXTRACTS FROM OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.

SCHOOL ATLASES.

“They are as superior to all School Atlases within our knowledge, as were the larger works of the same Author in advance of those that preceded them.”—Educational Times.

“Decidedly the best School Atlases we have ever seen.”—English Journal of Education.

“ ... The ‘Physical Atlas’ seems to us particularly well executed.... The last generation had no such help to learning as is afforded in these excellent elementary Maps. The ‘Classical Atlas’ is a great improvement on what has usually gone by that name; not only is it fuller, but in some cases it gives the same country more than once in different periods of time. Thus it approaches the special value of a historical atlas. The ‘General Atlas’ is wonderfully full and accurate for its scale.... Finally, the ‘Astronomical Atlas,’ in which Mr Hind is responsible for the scientific accuracy of the maps, supplies an admitted educational want. No better companion to an elementary astronomical treatise could be found than this cheap and convenient collection of maps.”—Saturday Review.

“The plan of these Atlases is admirable, and the excellence of the plan is rivalled by the beauty of the execution.... The best security for the accuracy and substantial value of a School Atlas is to have it from the hands of a man like our Author, who has perfected his skill by the execution of much larger works, and gained a character which he will be careful not to jeopardise by attaching his name to anything that is crude, slovenly, or superficial.”—Scotsman.

“This Edition of the ‘Classical Atlas’ is so much enlarged and improved as to be virtually a new work, surpassing everything else of the kind extant, both in utility and beauty.”—Athenæum.

THE HANDY ROYAL ATLAS.

“Is probably the best work of the kind now published.”—Times.

“Not only are the present territorial adjustments duly registered in all these Maps, but the latest discoveries in Central Asia, in Africa, and America, have been delineated with laborious fidelity. Indeed the ample illustration of recent discovery, and of the great groups of dependencies on the British Crown, renders Dr Johnston’s the best of all Atlases for English use.”—Pall Mall Gazette.

“This is Mr Keith Johnston’s admirable Royal Atlas diminished in bulk and scale so as to be, perhaps, fairly entitled to the name of ‘Handy,’ but still not so much diminished but what it constitutes an accurate and useful general Atlas for ordinary households.”—Spectator.

“The ‘Handy Atlas’ is thoroughly deserving of its name. Not only does it contain the latest information, but its size and arrangement render it perfect as a book of reference.”—Standard.

Arithmetic.

THE THEORY OF ARITHMETIC. By David Munn, F.R.S.E., Mathematical Master, Royal High School of Edinburgh. Crown 8vo, pp. 294. 5s.

“We want books of this kind very much—books which aim at developing the educational value of Arithmetic by showing how admirably it is calculated to exercise the thinking powers of the young. Your book is, I think, excellent—brief, but clear; and I look forward to the good effects which it shall produce, in awaking the minds of many who regard Arithmetic as a mere mechanical process.”—Professor Kelland.

ELEMENTARY ARITHMETIC. By Edward Sang, F.R.S.E. This Treatise is intended to supply the great desideratum of an intellectual instead of a routine course of instruction in Arithmetic. Post 8vo, 5s.

THE HIGHER ARITHMETIC. By the same Author. Being a Sequel to ‘Elementary Arithmetic.’ Crown 8vo, 5s.

FIVE-PLACE LOGARITHMS. Arranged by E. Sang, F.R.S.E. Sixpence. For the Waistcoat-Pocket.

TREATISE ON ARITHMETIC, with numerous Exercises for Teaching in Classes. By James Watson, one of the Masters of Heriot’s Hospital. Foolscap, 1s.

Botany.

ADVANCED TEXT-BOOK OF BOTANY. For the Use of Students. By Robert Brown, M.A., Ph.D., F.R.G.S., Lecturer on Botany under the Science and Art Department of the Committee of the Privy Council on Education. Crown 8vo, with numerous Illustrations. 12s. 6d.

Agriculture.

CATECHISM OF PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE. By Henry Stephens, F.R.S.E., Author of the ‘Book of the Farm.’ A New Edition. With Engravings. 1s.

PROFESSOR JOHNSTON’S CATECHISM OF AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY. A New Edition, edited by Professor Voelcker. With Engravings. 1s.

PROFESSOR JOHNSTON’S ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY AND GEOLOGY. A New Edition, revised and brought down to the present time, by G. T. Atkinson, B.A., F.C.S., Clifton College. Foolscap, 6s. 6d.

Miscellaneous.

A TREASURY OF THE ENGLISH AND GERMAN LANGUAGES. Compiled from the best Authors and Lexicographers in both Languages. Adapted to the Use of Schools, Students, Travellers, and Men of Business; and forming a Companion to all German-English Dictionaries. By Joseph Cauvin, LL.D. & Ph.D., of the University of Göttingen, &c. Crown 8vo 7s. 6d., bound in cloth.

“An excellent English-German Dictionary, which supplies a real want.”—Saturday Review.

“The difficulty of translating English into German may be greatly alleviated by the use of this copious and excellent English-German Dictionary, which specifies the different senses of each English word, and gives suitable German equivalents. It also supplies an abundance of idiomatic phraseology, with many passages from Shakespeare and other authors aptly rendered in German. Compared with other dictionaries, it has decidedly the advantage.”—Athenæum.

INTRODUCTORY TEXT-BOOK OF METEOROLOGY. By Alexander Buchan, M.A., F.R.S.E., Secretary of the Scottish Meteorological Society, Author of ‘Handy Book of Meteorology,’ &c. Crown 8vo, with 8 Coloured Charts and other Engravings, pp. 218. 4s. 6d.

“A handy compendium of Meteorology by one of the most competent authorities on this branch of science.”—Petermann’s Geographische Mittheilungen.

“We can recommend it as a handy, clear, and scientific introduction to the theory of Meteorology, written by a man who has evidently mastered his subject.”—Lancet.

“An exceedingly useful volume.”—Athenæum.

A GLOSSARY OF NAVIGATION. Containing the Definitions and Propositions of the Science, Explanation of Terms, and Description of Instruments. By the Rev. J. B. Harbord, M.A., Assistant Director of Education, Admiralty. Crown 8vo, Illustrated with Diagrams, 6s.

DEFINITIONS AND DIAGRAMS IN ASTRONOMY AND NAVIGATION. By the Same. 1s. 6d.

ELEMENTARY HANDBOOK OF PHYSICS. With 210 Diagrams. By William Rossiter, F.R.A.S., &c. Crown 8vo, pp. 390. 5s.

“A singularly interesting Treatise on Physics, founded on facts and phenomena gained at first hand by the Author, and expounded in a style which is a model of that simplicity and ease in writing which betokens mastery of the subject. To those who require a non-mathematical exposition of the principles of Physics a better book cannot be recommended.”—Pall Mall Gazette.

Crown 8vo, pp. 760, 7s. 6d.,

AN ETYMOLOGICAL AND PRONOUNCING

DICTIONARY
OF
THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

INCLUDING A VERY COPIOUS SELECTION OF

SCIENTIFIC, TECHNICAL, AND OTHER TERMS AND PHRASES.

DESIGNED FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES,