172 llEVIEWS OF FOREIGN WORKS. 



such vigorous arguments, as hard and original as they are correct, as 

 to baffle the most strenuous advocates of Schleiermachcr's system. , 

 After this introduction, the author again resumes the thread of the 

 .first two books. The death of Socrates, and P.'s return from his tra- 

 vels, form three periods in P.'s writings, and Dr. H. very ingeniously 

 makes use of three dialogues Lyris, Theactet, and Symposium, to 

 characterise those periods, at the same time that he places Phaedrus 

 — contrary to the opinion of Schleiermacher — in a far later period. 

 As to the genuineness of the single dialogues, the author considers as 

 forgeries, beside Axiochus, Demodocus, etc., also the second Alcibi- 

 ades, the Anterosts, Epinomis, the definitions Klitophon and Theages, 

 while he refutes the arguments advanced against the genuineness of 

 the lesser Hippias, Ion, the first Alcibiades, Charmides, Lysis, and 

 Laches. 



Der ChristUche Altars archdologisch und artistisch dargestellt. 

 Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des Altars und zur Erhaltung alterer 

 Kirchendenkmaler und deren Wiederherstellung. Von C. Heid- 

 elofF. Mit erklarenden Texte von Jeo. Neumann. — (The Chris- 

 tian Altar, represented archscologically and artistically. A contri- 

 bution to the History of the early Monuments of the Church, and 

 their Restoration. By C. Heideloff. With an explanatory text 

 by Geo. Numann). With eleven copperplates. Nuremberg, 1838. 



However short the explanatory remarks and observations may 

 appear concerning the grouped figures contained in the work before 

 us, in general the author has nevertheless most carefully noticed the 

 most important incidents. After a few and brief remarks on the ori- 

 gin and names of altars in general, and on their form and nature, 

 among the Jews and heathens, the author begins his description of 

 the christian altar, from the original form of a simple table of the first 

 century, down to the most complicated structure and adornments of 

 the later ages. The main object of the celebrated artist by the exhi- 

 bition of the numerous groups of altars, seems to have been to draw 

 the attention of the wardens and trustees of churches to the discord 

 that frequently exists between the architecture of the church and the 

 altar, and to assist them to remedy the evil without being absolutely 

 versed in the minutias of the art. " It often struck me," says the 

 author, *' that the colossal altars of the seventeenth and eighteenth 

 centuries were entirely misplaced in churches built in tne form of ar- 

 chitecture as prevalent in the tenth or fifteenth century. An instance 

 of palpable disharmony of this sort is seen in the Cathedral of Bam- 

 berg, which is built in the pure Byzantine style, while the colossal 

 altar, reaching to the very vault of the roof, disfigures the tout ensem- 



