224 



NATURE 



[October 29, 19 14 



scholastic philosophy where " form " combined 

 with "matter" (or Clerk Maxwell's aether) pro- 

 duces "substance" which in turn supports "acci- 

 dents," which latter alone constitute the subject- 

 matter of inquiry of modern physical science. 

 They give rise to the three indefinables of nature, 

 weight, time, and space. A void by definition 

 contains no "matter," and therefore no "acci- 

 dents," and is without dimensions. It is dis- 

 missed by Aristotle as an absurdity, as a hole in 

 the aether. 



As regards the religious philosophy of the 

 Greeks, they were groping for the metaphysical 

 essence of "Actus Purus," or of God. Whether 

 or no the chief attributes of God are explicitly 

 known to every modern, it cannot be denied that 

 they are enshrined in the English language, and 

 form the subject of some of the finest passages of 

 the English classics. To name a few of those not 

 to be found in the Greek classics, self-existence, 

 infinity, unity, simplicity, immensity, omni- 

 presence, immutability, eternity; it was of these 

 that Plato said, when asked as to his doctrine of 

 the Good, "There is no writing of mine on this 

 subject, nor ever shall be," words suitable for 

 those times before the power that created the 

 universities of Paris, Oxford, Cambridge, and eke 

 St. Andrews, had come into the world. 



Some hundreds of sentences in the book begin 

 with the word "now," and on p. ii8 we are told 

 that Hippias's curve, the quadratrix, would solve 

 the problem of squaring the circle by a geo- 

 metrical construction if it could be mechanically 

 described. It is well known that Hippias himself 

 made an instrument to draw his curve, and any 

 schoolboy can imitate it. J. H. Hardcastle. 



A NORTH AFRICAN RACE. 

 The Eastern Libyans : An Essay. By Oric Bates. 

 Pp. xxii + 2g8 + xi plates. (London: Macmillan 

 and Co., Ltd., 1914.) Price 425. net 



IN this excellent monograph Mr. Bates has col- 

 lected a rich store of facts relating to the 

 ancient Libyan people, which will be of the 

 greatest value to workers in many fields. Besides 

 the strictly archaeological side of his subject, he 

 has also treated fully the physiography of the 

 region, so that the whole subject is given a 

 definiteness and actuality which may be imitated 

 with advantage by writers on similar subjects. 



The region over which these people formerly 

 moved is a wide one, and eastern Libya, with 

 which this work is concerned, extends from the 

 west of Tripoli to the Nile Valley. This part of 

 Africa is crossed by many routes of caravans and 

 travellers, yet few portions have been seriously 

 examined by qualified investigators, but from the 



NO. 22AH. VOT.. QA] 



material available and from his own observations 

 Mr. Bates has produced a very accurate account 

 of this area, which geographers will find of real 

 worth. 



In treating of the ethnology and ethno- 

 geography the author has been able to come to 

 certain conclusions from a discussion of Egyptian, 

 classical, Berber, and Arabic data, which seem to 

 indicate that the Libyans were pushed back from 

 the seaboard, and from the oases to the west- 

 ward, and the outcome of this was the periodical 

 aggressions on the Nile Valley whenever that 

 country was weak and the prey of contending 

 factions. 



Living in an arid region where vegetation was 

 of the scantiest, the Libyans were nomadic, as 

 are their modern representatives, and the few 

 representations of them which exist in their 

 deserts are largely scenes of hunting or of cattle. 

 Routes followed by caravans, then as now, ran 

 north and south rather than east and west, and 

 even in early times the Libyans were in connection 

 with the Sudan to the southward, and received 

 the produce of that region, doubtless by means of 

 ox-transport until the camel was introduced. 



The Egyptian records are closely discussed in 

 order to derive a clear idea of the social develop- 

 ment of the early Libyans, and while holding that 

 they were regularly and extensively polygamous, 

 the author contests the charge of promiscuity 

 which classical writers have brought against 

 them. Their dress, and their material culture and 

 art, is fully described and illustrated, so that the 

 meagre records of these primitive people are made 

 to furnish a fairly adequate picture of the state of 

 civilisation at which they arrived. Their posses- 

 sions were few and of a simple type, as is to be 

 anticipated among a nomad people, and metals 

 were rare, stone implements being principally used 

 in their arrows, javelins, etc. 



A careful summary of their history, drawn from 

 all available sources, completes a most valuable 

 monograph for which the material has been largely 

 collected by the author in the field, and thereby it 

 has gained a reality and a truthfulness of colour to 

 which a compilation can never attain. In an 

 appendix Mr. Bates refers to the so-called "C 

 group. Middle Nubians," of Dr. Reisner in the 

 Nile Valley, and these he would class as a Libyan 

 race which established itself there. Besides 

 furnishing the anthropologist and the geographer 

 with valuable data for their studies, the author by 

 his careful treatment of place-names, has put at 

 the cartographer's disposal material for improv- 

 ing existing maps of North Africa, and the map 

 included in the volume might with advantage have 

 utilised the information so given. H. G. L. 



