January 31, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



173 



grammar school geography by more than fifty 

 pages, and the necessary limits to the size of 

 such a book are evident. Such matter might, 

 of course, be suiDplied by the use of supplemen- 

 tary geographical reading, or by the teacher ; 

 but, unfortunately, few schools have the access ' 

 to good libraries which will make the former 

 possible ; and few teachers have a sufficient 

 fund of general information to enable them to 

 supply this need. 



To use this book, with all its excellent fea- 

 tures, as it should be used to reap the full bene- 

 fit of its contents, calls for a degree of skill and 

 ability on the part of our teachers beyond that 

 of the average instructor; and school superin- 

 tendents in places which have adopted it will 

 find it no easy task to educate their teachers to 

 this end. But as the book sets before us a 

 higher standard and ideal of geographical teach- 

 ing than our schools have ever known before, 

 and as it tends to bring them into closer rela- 

 tions with the best scientific work of the day, 

 it deserves a hearty welcome. 



T. W. Harris, 



Keene, N. H. Supt. of Schools. 



The Religions of India. By Edward W. Hop- 

 kins. Boston, Ginn & Co. 1895. 1 vol. , 

 8vo., pp. 612. 

 The Teaching of the Vedas ; what light does it 

 throw on the Origin and Development ofReligionf 

 By Maurice Phillips. London, 1895. 1 

 vol. 8vo. 



Of these two books, apearing almost simul- 

 taneously, the first mentioned is much the more 

 important in scope and scholarship. It is vol- 

 ume I. of the ' Handbooks on the History of 

 Religions,' edited by Dr. Morris Jastrow, Jr., of 

 the University of Pennsylvania, and its author 

 is Professor of Sanscrit in Yale College. 



The plan of his work may be briefly stated. 

 He begins with an examination of the date of 

 the oldest Vedas, reaching the conclusion that 

 the bulk of the Rig Veda was composed about 

 a thousand years before the Christian Era. This 

 is a late date to assign it, and we are inclined 

 to believe that the author has been too much 

 influenced by a certain French school who have 

 set themselves to modernize everything ancient 

 by one-sided arguments. A chapter follows 



devoted to the ethnography of India, illustrated 

 by a map. The leading questions are touched 

 lightly, dates of monuments are not attempted, 

 and the main points averred are the close re- 

 lationship of the Vedic Aryans to the Iranians, 

 the entrance of the early hordes through the 

 open pass of Herat, and the existence of castes 

 among them before their settlement in India. 



Four chapters are assigned to an exposition 

 of the pantheon of the Rig Veda, and one to 

 the religion of the Atharva Veda, which are 

 followed by a careful and clear comparison 

 (Chap. VIII.) of the early Hindu divinities with 

 those of other Aryan and some non- Aryan peo- 

 ples. From the Vedic epoch the Indian relig- 

 ions rapidly assumed varied forms. Earliest of 

 these was Brahmanism, which is described in 

 three chapters, followed by Jainism, Buddhism, 

 and the numerous early and late sects of Hin- 

 duism, with the worship of Vishnu, Siva and 

 the wild polytheism of later centuries. These 

 are depicted in their chief traits and their his- 

 toric connections pointed out with learning and 

 clearness. The chapter on the religious traits 

 of the present wild tribes is less satisfactory. 

 Their faiths do not seem to be so familiar to 

 the author, or he has less sympathy and less 

 patience with them. The volume closes with a 

 discussion of the probable influence which In- 

 dian religion and philosophy exerted on the 

 analogous mental products of the early Semites 

 and Aryans. It is natural that the author, 

 steeped in the lore of Indian thought, should 

 discover traces of it in the teachings of Jew and 

 Greek; but it is likely that many will think he 

 goes too far in deriving so much of the latter 

 from the former. 



It is a question of great moment to the his- 

 torian of religions whether this long period of 

 continued growth — at least three thousand years 

 — ^developed in India higher conceptions of di- 

 vinity and duty, a finer spirituality in the votary, 

 a nobler sentiment toward his fellow man. 



On this Prof. Hopkins speaks with clear con- 

 viction. He believes that tracing back the 

 numerous branches of Hindu sectarianism to 

 the Vedic period, one finds that throughout the 

 long intervening time the direction has been 

 true, and the higher aim ' steadily kept in view.' 

 "Nor can one judge otherwise even when he 



