"Euclid." His Life and System. By Thomas Smith, D.D., LL.D. Edinburgh T. & T. Clark. Toronto: William Briggs. Pp. vi-227.

The first acquaintance with Euclid is an epoch in the intellectual history of many a boy or girl. It reveals a new method of argument, which is often a keen delight. But many who study Euclid have no idea who he was nor the history of the science which he established. Dr. Smith has written a very racy and readable book on what might be thought a very dry subject. But Professor Smith, now in his eighty-fifth year, has infused a humour and vivacity into his book, giving it a rare charm. Much information is given on the history and outlook of geometry, on the Alexandrian school, on mathematics applied to astronomy, optics, navigation, and the like. "A. K. H. B." are the wellknown initials of that genial essayist, Dr. Boyd, of St. Andrew's University. A scapegrace student affixed these letters to the angles of a rhomboid on the blackboard, and proceeded with preternatural gravity, "Let A. K. H. B. be a rum-Boyd."

This book is not a critical analysis of documents, but a sympathetic interpretation of ideals. It brings before us more clearly those grand old characters of Holy Writ, the patriarchs whose story displays the ideal of fellowship between God and man. This old story of the days when the earth was young yet appeals strongly to these twentieth century times. It is a record of life and character, joy and sorrow, eating and drinking, love and war. "All the sunshine and shadow of life are found in the story." Patriotism, service, worship, discipline, friendship, decision, recompense, wealth, warfare, valour, leadership, fellowship, peace, righteousness, liberty, justice, virtue, honour, and blessing, prayer and providence, faith and hope, are all found in the old patriarchal life, and their teachings for to-day are strikingly set forth.

"The Pentateuch in the Light of ToDay." Being a simple introduction to the Pentateuch on the

lines of the Higher Criticism. By Alfred Holborn, M.A. Edinburgh T. & T. Clark. Toronto: William Briggs. Pp. ix-113. Price, 2s.

This small book embodies the substance of a course of lectures delivered to teachers in London under the auspices of the Sunday-school Union. They are here enlarged and adapted for the general reader. They give, in concise form, the results of the socalled higher criticism as to the composition of these venerable books, their origin, date, principles of composition, sequence, and union of the original documents, and the like. They throw much light on the varying accounts of the creation and deluge, the twofold names of the Almighty, and other difficulties which meet the biblical student.