history, this one dealing with Oriental and Greek ancient history; six more volumes are to follow, the second on Rome and its empire, the others bringing the story up to our own time. Each of them

has been?as seems to be the rule in these French icCollections"? allotted to one or two authors ; this means that Professor Aymard, who has taken up the lion's share of the first, and presumably also of the second, volume, has undertaken the tremendous task of writing a synthesis of ancient history in the conventional sense of the word. There are a hundred pages on India and China B.C., written by Miss Auboyer, on which I do not hold myself competent to judge, and which, moreover, fall outside the scope of this periodical. After having said that I have read these chapters with interest and profit, I shall confine myself in the following lines to the major part of the work, written by the first-mentioned author. As the editor of the series, Mr. Crouzet, remarks in a short general introduction, the title ''History of Civilizations" is to be taken in its proper sense: politica] ideas and institutions, social life, economics, religion, philosophy and art are treated at length, with a certain emphasis on the social aspects; the framework of events forms a substratum, only used as far as is necessary to understand the cultural development; moreover, chronological tables are added at the end of the volume. There is no philosophy of history underlying the argument: the object is description, not theoretical study of civilizations; there is even no more than a minimum of comparison. The work does not address itself to the expert, but to the general educated public. There is, accordingly, no scholarly apparatus, nor any discussion of problems (with a curious exception on p. 445), only a short bibliography. Nevertheless, this book will also be used by?and can indeed be recommended to?those students of ancient civilization who, having specialized in one aspect, may desire to consult a convenient synopsis of the whole field. They will find that it is not merely a compilation, but that the author presents a personal view throughout the work, even in those parts where he apparently relies on secondary sources.