LITERARY NOTICES. 



559 



in work of the goldsmith's art, A brief 

 chapter on minor excavations includes ac- 

 counts of the researches at Orchomenos and 

 Ithaca. In a Ilistorical Survey of the He- 

 roic Age of Greece, the relations of Myce- 

 naean civilization to that of Greece and 

 Caria are discussed. Among the general con- 

 clusions to be drawn from Dr. Schliemann's 

 Excavations are that they invariably con- 

 firm the former power and splendor of every 

 city which is mentioned by Homer as con- 

 spicuous for its wealth or sovereignty ; that 

 the strongly fortified citadels, which do not 

 appear after this (the Mycenaean period) 

 either in Greece or A.:ia Minor, correspond 

 exactly with those described by Homer ; 

 and that the wealth of metals in this " pe- 

 riod of youthful display" is distinctly re- 

 flected in Homer. "But for the golden 

 treasures of the shaft-graves, Homer's tales 

 of chased goblets like the cup of Nestor, of 

 bossed shoulder-belts, and the golden dogs 

 that kept watch before Alklnoos's door, 

 would still be treated as bold flights of 

 fancy, as was, in fact, the case before the 

 excavations." But the most striking a«d 

 important correspondence between the My- 

 cenaean discoveries and Homer is that shown 

 in the inlaid work on certain dagger-blades 

 found at Mycenae. " Nowhere else in Greece 

 has work of this sort, complete pictures in 

 inlaid metals, been discovered. Yet Homer 

 had a very clear conception of this kind of 

 workmanship, for he describes in detail 

 how, on Achilles's shield, vineyards were 

 represented with purple grapes on golden 

 stems, surrounded by a hedge of tin, and 

 later on speaks of youths wearing golden 

 swords hung from silver baldrics. It is 

 enough to enumerate these leading points 

 of agreement. They are sufficient proof 

 that for certain parts of his descriptions 

 Homer can have had no other models before 

 him but those of Mycenaean art and civili- 

 zation." The controversy still rages on the 

 question whether there was a single personal 

 Homer, author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, 

 or whether the two books are collections of 

 different sagas, sung by different minstrels, 

 and composed in different ages. The author 

 assumes the latter view, and speaks through- 

 out the book as if it was a settled fact. He 

 is sustained in this by Mr. Walter Leaf, 

 an eminent English Homeric scholar, who 



furnishes a valuable critical introduction, in 

 which the bearing of Dr. Schliemann's dis- 

 coveries on this and other questions of Ho- 

 meric interpretation are referred to rather 

 than discussed, but who differs from the 

 author on one or two points. In the appen- 

 dices are given a report on the excavations 

 at Troy in 1890, with the welcome announce- 

 ment that Mrs. Schliemann will continue the 

 work of her husband there ; and an illus- 

 trated description of the two beautiful gold- 

 en cups discovered in the tumulus at Va- 

 pheio — one of the most remarkable and 

 interesting "finds" recorded as yet in the 

 whole history of Greek archEEological re- 

 search. 



The ScrENTiTic American Cyclopaedia op 

 Keceipts, Notes, and Queries. Edited 

 bv Albert A. Hopkins. New York: 

 Munn & Co. Pp. 675. Price, $5. 



This compilation well illustrates the use 

 of the accumulation of small things. For 

 nearly fifty years the Scientific American 

 has been publishing original contributions 

 of facts, experiences, experiments, and prac- 

 tical observations in nearly every branch of 

 the useful arts. The items have been print- 

 ed in all departments of the journal, but 

 especially in the columns of " Notes, Queries, 

 and Correspondence," where their modest 

 appearance furnished the careless reader no 

 clew to their real worth, but whence the 

 student seldom turned without having gained 

 some prized acquisition to his knowledge. 

 A considerable proportion of them embodied 

 the fruits of special knowledge, which were 

 made public nowhere else. In the files of 

 the periodical they were as good as lost. 

 Mr. Hopkins has made the vast compendium 

 they afford the basis of his work. He has 

 collected these, carefully digested and con- 

 densed them ; has added to them the results 

 of laborious researches among the difficult 

 mysteries of Trade Secrets, and has incor- 

 porated with them, for the rounding off of 

 his fabric, information from other cyclopae- 

 dias of similar character. The arrangement 

 of articles is alphabetical, according to their 

 titles, with no other classification, the titles 

 being given in full-faced type, with cross- 

 references when they are needed. Illustra- 

 tions are given, but not frequently. A few 

 cautions are sounded in the preface to those 



