PREFACE. 
f 1 1HE Fourteenth Volume of the Journal of the Transactions 
of the Victoria Institute is now issued. It contains 
papers by the following authors: — Mr.R. BROWN,F.S.A.,whose 
paper, “ On the Religion and Mythology of the Arians of 
Northern Europe/' ’ forms a companion to his former one on 
“ Archaic Monotheism” (vol. xiii.) ; the Rev. J. Fisher, D.D. ; 
the Rev. F. W. Holland, M.A., who gives the results of his 
researches during a journey of over a thousand miles on foot, 
amid the mountains and valleys of the Sinaitic Peninsula ; 
Mr. John Eliot Howard, F.R.S., who contributes a care- 
ful inquiry into the History and Religion of the Druids ; 
Professor T. M‘K. Hughes, M.A. (Woodwardian Professor 
of Geology at Cambridge), who kindly takes up the subject 
suggested last year by his Grace the Duke of Argyll, K.G.; 
Professor H. A. Nicholson, M.D., F.R.S.E. (Professor of 
Natural History at St. Andrew’s University), whose paper on 
“ Life, and its Physical Basis,” gives the latest results of modern 
research upon the subject; President N. Porter, D.D., Yale, 
United States; Mr. Hormuzd Rassam, who describes the results 
of his late work at Nineveh and Babylon in such a manner as 
to render the paper valuable to those who may hereafter follow 
