i88o.] 
Analyses of Books . 785 
of imposing a tax upon zoological or geological specimens. 
Twenty per cent ad valorem was a most oppressive exaction 
upon articles which have no regular commercial value, and which 
might be estimated at any arbitrary figure by officials, unless 
duly bribed. The first step towards abolishing such laws is to 
exhibit them and the persons engaged in executing them in the 
most hateful and contemptible light. We have heard, on good 
authority, that prior to the abrogation of these imposts many 
colleffiions, that would otherwise have been brought to England, 
found their way to other countries, whilst numbers of travellers 
were deterred from accumulating specimens on account of the 
penalty which would await them on their return home. 
Much as we differ from Mr. Simson on this point we shall be 
very happy to meet with him again as an author. It strikes us 
that he is one whose thoughts are well worthy of attention. 
Die Mythologie der Griechen und Roemer unter steter Htn ■ 
weisung auf die Kunstlerische Darstellung der Gottheiten . 
as Leitfaden fur den Schul und Selbst unterncht bearbeitet. 
By Dr. Otto Seemann. Leipzig : E. A. Seemann. 
This book, we are told, is an abstract of a larger work by the 
same author, which appeared five years ago, under the title 
“ Gods and Heroes of the Greeks. ’ Dr. Seemann s point of 
view, as will be seen from the title, is in a predominant degree 
aesthetic. He treats the now deposed divinities of antiquity as 
^Co^derati^ns^im ' the origin and meaning of the myths are 
meantime not wanting. An ■ introductory dlstl "^ on ^ 
between myths-in the street sense of the te ™-“ d ,^s. 
the former being restricted to tales of the S ods j* nd thel . r 
whilst the latter is applied to the stories of the dem ‘-g od " ° r 
heroes. Both are distinguished from fables as being not mere 
consciously fictitious produas of the human imagination. 
The majority of the myths, Dr. Seeman considers, toox 
rise in the contemplation of natural phenomena which pnmffiv 
man is apt to refer to the intervention of divine beings. Gra- 
dually these personified forces of Nature were more and more 
invested with a human form and * corporeal character, and Iw 
viewed as a family or clan, presided over by Zeus, 
gods and men.” The gods of old Dalian tradition “ n< ^™ent 
this personifying process less completely than those of Greece, 
* The Mythology of the Greeks and Romans, treated with constant 
to the Artistic Representation of the Deities : a Guide for School and Pr.vate 
Study. 
3D3 
