will thus wear a somewhat special character, as a collection of original documents, interesting to scholars most of all, yet also commending itself to the attention of the public at large; and no public library at least should be without it.

An interesting passage of the author's Preface criticises the opinions commonly held respecting the works executed by the Mohammedan sovereigns for the material welfare of the country, greatly depreciating the value of those works, and comparing them, much to their disadvantage, with what the English have already executed or undertaken; contrasting, moreover, the general condition of the country under its Mohammedan and Christian masters.

ent.

While Elliot's History thus professes to deal with but one of the grand periods into which the story of the country naturally falls, and with that from only a single point of view, Mr. Wheeler's, more ambitious, aims to give us the whole story," from the earliest times" down to the presIn the author's Preface, however, is as yet sketched out only the first portion, that which is to depict the times antecedent to the rise of British power, — the Hindu and Mohammedan periods. To this are allotted three volumes: the first already in our hands, after a brief introduction of forty pages on the Vedic period, is wholly occupied by a detailed analysis of the enormous epic poem entitled the Mahabharata, interspersed with critical comments; the second, now in the press, will perform the same service for the other great Sanskrit epic, the Ramayana; the third is to "include the results of the other two, as well as those which are to be drawn from the more salient points in Sanskrit and Mussulman literature." (p. vi.) Not a few will be struck with surprise at this plan, which contemplates the absorption of two thirds of the whole space allotted to the history of India down to a century or two ago by an abstract of the contents of two works from the Sanskrit literature, and they will be curious to see how the author justifies such a procedure. They will find, then, that his classification of his materials (p. v.) recognizes as the sources for the Hindu period "the religious books of the Hindus, and especially the two great epics, which may be regarded as the national treasuries of all that has been preserved of the history and institutions of the people"; and that, in his opening chapter (p. 3), he makes the confirmatory statement that "the history of India, properly so called, is to be found in the two voluminous epics. These extraordinary poems comprise the whole of what remains of the political, social, and religious history of India, and may be regarded as the reflex of the Hindu world."

Now, what is the character of these alleged all-sufficient sources for our knowledge of Indian history? Do they explain to us the deriva

tion of the Hindu people, point out the course of its migrations, and exhibit the creeds and institutions with which it entered the peninsula? Do they set forth the gradual development which transformed those simple institutions into the elaborate Brahmanic hierarchy, those simple creeds into the mingled superstition and transcendentalism of later India? Do they let us see the rise and career of Buddhism, its early conquests, its final defeat and expulsion? Do they portray the growth of that remarkable literature which is receiving so much study, from the scholars of Europe in our day? Do they account for the existing monuments of art, the ruins of perished grandeur, the epigraphic remains scattered through the country? No: on matters such as these they are no better than dumb. But at least they must record the dynastic revolutions which have changed the political aspect of the peninsula, the formation and description of empires, the intestine and foreign wars of successive lines of princes? Not even these are found in them. Then what are they? Why, the one, the Ramayana, tells of a hero who perhaps never had an historical existence, and who met with adventures and performed feats quite unknown among actual men, conquering a demon foe by the aid of monkey allies. The other, the Mahabharata, recounts the struggles of two related houses, whose connection with any historically established dynasties cannot be traced, for the possession of one of the thrones of Central India, at an unknown epoch; it is interminably protracted, and confessedly put together out of portions dating from very different periods; it contains stories which attain the dimensions of a romance, and philosophical conversations as detailed as a text-book; it is in part legendary, in part fabricated for a purpose. No doubt they both illustrate, in a certain way, the Hindu modes of thinking and acting. They are two highly important and characteristic products of the Indian mind, and can no more help reflecting the conditions among which they grew up than can any other similar work in the whole great catalogue of national literatures. So the Iliad and Odyssey depict for us, in many respects, the conditions of ancient Greece with a vividness and faithfulness which no set history could rival; yet what eyes of astonishment would be opened upon the scholar who should assert that they "comprise the whole of what remains of the political, social, and religious history of Greece," and should therefore proceed to give us a full account of their contents, as the first and largest part of his Grecian history! This is a comparison which in one important respect, at least, is highly flattering to the Hindu poems; for the historical content and illustrative value of the Western epics is indefinitely greater than that of the Eastern. The Hindu mind, as every one knows who knows aught about it, is

remarkably distinguished by its incapacity of historical production, its carelessness of the actual, its disinclination to tell a straight story; hence there is vastly more fact in the Iliad than in the Mahabharata ; nor is the expedition of Ulysses, however palpable its wonder telling, anything but the driest and soberest of narratives compared with that of Rama. The Nibelungen-lied, treated as principal source of ancient German history, would come far nearer to offering us a true parallel. Mr. Wheeler may insist as much as he pleases upon the popularity and currency of his favorite poems, their influence upon the people (in speaking upon this point, however, he is guilty, in our opinion, of very gross exaggeration), the importance of a knowledge of them to a comprehension of what the modern Hindu is thinking and talking about, he cannot change their essential character, nor convert them from products of a teeming and unchastened imagination into fountains of historic truth. The part they contribute to our knowledge of ancient India is only secondary; it might with much higher truth be claimed that the Vedas or that the laws of Manu are the veritable and indispensable sources of Hindu history. Far from being entitled to figure in this capacity, the epics themselves need the most careful sifting and testing, by the aid of all the appliances derivable from whatever other quarter, in order to determine the question whether they have an historical content, and if so, how much and what. Something of this work has already been accomplished by men like Lassen, and the possibility of continuing and completing it is brought nearer every day. But it will not, we think, be perceptibly advanced by the criticisms which Mr. Wheeler intersperses with his abstracts and extracts; these do not cut deep enough; they are essentially superficial and commonplace, and not seldom of a remarkable naïveté, — somewhat as if one should sit down over Munchausen or Gulliver, and soberly undertake to strip off its exaggerated and improbable features, and extract the kernel of historic verity of which it is the decorated version. We cannot, therefore, look forward with much hope to those "results" of his two preliminary volumes with which our author is intending to begin his third, the first, according to our view, of the real "History of India"; for in no allowable sense of the term can his analysis be called "history." We presume that his work will increase rapidly in value and authority as it approaches the modern period of the English domination, for treating which his Indian experience and official position have given him especial advantage.

To write, indeed, in a permanently satisfying manner, the history of ancient India is for the present an impossible task. The sources of knowledge are as yet only partially accessible, and only to a small

extent worked up. The whole great body of native literature of every period, the information furnished by foreigners, the monuments, the modern conditions, have all to be ransacked, compared, criticised, and reduced. From original labor in a large part of this field, Mr. Wheeler, acknowledging his non-acquaintance with the Sanskrit, declares himself shut out. Yet what can be done, even under such disadvantage, by one who is diligent in collecting and studying all materials attainable at second hand, the results won by special scholars, who is skilled in their combination, and possessed of a true feeling for the spirit of ancient times, is shown in Duncker's History of Antiquity (Geschichte des Alterthums). This author's picture of ancient India, though too constructive in its style, and sure to require amendment hereafter in many important particulars, is nevertheless the fullest, most faithful, and most attractive that we know; it well deserves republication in an English version. Mr. Wheeler has followed the much easier course of extolling as all-sufficient that little portion of the needed material to which his attention has happened to be directed, and which was most readily accessible to him, and of ignoring the rest.

But while we deny the justice of the title which our author has prefixed to his volume, we can yet commend it as an admirable and highly interesting epitome of the Mahabharata, the best that has been placed in the hands of English readers, and worthy to be recommended to the attention of all who are curious respecting that strange and remarkable product of the human mind. A Table of Contents of sixtyeight pages, and an Index of forty-two, both of excessive detail, drawn out with a truly lavish expenditure of labor, add much to its value, and to the ease with which it may be consulted and used. To receive a similar working up of the Ramayana will afford us high satisfaction.

16. Bibliotheca Americana; A Dictionary of Books relating to America, from its Discovery to the Present Time. By JOSEPH SABIN. New York: Joseph Sabin. Philadelphia: John Campbell. London: N. Trübner & Co. 1867. 8vo.

FOUR parts of this work have been issued by Mr. Sabin during the year 1867, embracing in all 384 pages. To show the extensive plan on which the work is projected we quote the language of the editor: "This work describes bibliographically, and in alphabetical order, ALL the books published in this country or abroad which relate to its History, using the word in its widest meaning; including the books described by Rich, Ternaux, White, Kennett, Faribault, Stevens,

Ludewig, Trübner, Tromel, Harrisse, Boucher de la Richardiere, Lowndes, Brunet, Græsse, and, indeed, all known bibliographers, besides the contents of the catalogues of all the public and many of the private libraries in this country, which pertain to the subject."

As an indication of the manner in which this plan has thus far been executed, it may be stated that the letter A takes up 340 pages of the parts thus far issued. From the examination we have been able to give to this work, we have formed the most favorable opinion of it. It seems to be prepared with care and learning, and if completed on the plan of which we have here the first-fruits, the work will prove indispensable to all American scholars and book collectors.

As has been stated, the works are arranged under the names of authors, "and, in the case of anonymous writers, under the most obvious subject or title." Where a book is published anonymously, and the writer is known, the work is entered also under the name of the author, which is given in brackets. The notes which are appended to many of the curious books show great care, and are an important feature in the plan. Review notices of important books are referred to, and a capital letter preceding the number of the books indicates the public library in which it may be found.

We wish all success to Mr. Sabin's undertaking. The work is beautifully printed, on fine laid paper, by the Bradstreet Press.

17. The Life of Timothy Pickering. By his Son, OCTAVIUS PICKERING. Vol. I. Boston: Little, Brown, & Co. 1867. pp. xx., 549.

A WORK of filial piety is, in this volume, well begun. Nor is it merely a work of duty to a father, but to the truth of history also, and the public memory of a man who was deservedly prominent during the Revolution and the formative period of our government. Colonel Pickering was a person of earnest, even bitter convictions; and he had a frankness in expressing them which made him peculiarly the object of political slander in days when it was, if possible, more unscrupulous than now. He was a good hater, and had something of the Puritan habit of looking upon opinions as wicked which were, at worst, only mistaken. He was what the Scotch call a dour man, one whose conscientiousness may become hardness and sternness, especially where duty is concerned, and whose beliefs are not long in stiffening into prejudices. He could not think well of a democrat, or of a Frenchman after '89. He was one of the leaders of that Federal party, strong in character and ability, the most respectable party we