The Historians' History of the World 04

Lake, W. M., A Historical Outline of the Greek Revolution, London, 1825.—Lang, Andrew, Homer and the Epic, London, 1893.—Larcher, P. H., Traduction d’Hérodote, Paris, 1786.—Lardy, E., La Guerre Greco-Turque (see Modern Greece), Paris, 1899.—

Larocque, J., La Grèce au siècle de Périclès, Paris, 1883.—Laurent, T., Études sur l’histoire de l’humanité, Brussels, 1861-1870.—Leake, W. M., Researches in Greece, London, 1814; Topography of Athens, London, 1821.—Lebeau, Charles, Hist. du Bas-Empire, Paris, 1757-1786.—Lecky

, W. E. H., Rationalism in Europe, London, 1870.—Lenormant, F., La Grande Grèce, Paris, 1881.—Lerminier, E., Histoire des législatures et des constitutions de la Grèce, Paris, 1882.—Letronne, J. A., Fragments inédits d’anciens poètes grecs, Paris, 1838.—Livius, Titus, Annales, Rome, 1469; ed. by Drakenborch, Leyden, 1738-1746, 7 vols. (trans. by Philemon Holland, “History of Rome,” London, 1600; by D. Spillan, C. Edmunds, and W. A. McDevitte, London, 1849, 4 vols.).—

Lloyd, W. W., Sophoclean Trilogy (in Journal Hellenic Studies), London, 1884.—Lytton, E. G. E. L. Bulwer, Athens: Its Rise and Fall, London, 1837.

Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton was born at London, May 25, 1803; died at Torquay, January 18, 1873. It has happened more than once that the achievements of a man’s later life have quite eclipsed the renown of his earlier years. It was so in the case of Bulwer-Lytton. In mature life he came to be so universally known as a politician and novelist that perhaps comparatively few of his readers are aware that he ever wrote a history. Part of this neglect is perhaps due to the fact that he never finished the important work on Athens which at one time was very widely and favourably known. Possibly his success as a novelist led him to abandon his early project, or, more likely, the distractions of other activities prevented him from returning to a work which he must have abandoned with reluctance. In any event the two volumes which he published on Athenian history remain a valuable fragment. They are written from the standpoint of an ardent admirer of all phases of Grecian life, and his judgment must, therefore, sometimes be accepted with a certain reserve. Yet, as a whole, his work so far as it was carried has hardly been supplanted as an estimate of the Athenian people and their life. It is the work of a man who, though pre-eminent as a writer, had also large attainments as a scholar and investigator. Whoever turns to the volumes before us must leave them with regret that the fascinating story which they tell was never completed. Such as they are, however, they constitute a most valuable estimate of an artistic people by a man who was himself an artist.

Macaulay

, G. C., Translation of the History of Herodotus, London, 1890.—MacDermott, T. B., Outlines of Grecian History, Dublin, 1889.—Mahaffy, J. P., Problems in Greek History, London, 1892; Alexander’s Empire, London, 1877; The Greek World under Roman Sway, London, 1890; Greek Life and Thought from Alexander to Roman Conquest, London, 1887; Introduction to Duruy’s History of Greece, Boston, 1890; Rambles and Studies in Greece, London, 1876; A History of Classical Greek Literature, London, 1883; The Empire of the Ptolemies, London, 1895.

John Pentland Mahaffy was born at Chaponnaire, near Vevey, Switzerland, February 26, 1839.

The student of history has occasion to deplore, over and over, the fact that the greatest scholars so generally fail utterly to master a lucid style of writing. It is a real pleasure therefore, as well as a surprise, when, now and again, one comes across a man of recognised scholarship who has also real distinction as a writer. Such a man is Professor Mahaffy. As a scholar, and particularly as an investigator of Grecian life in all its phases, including prominently the age of the Ptolemies, Professor Mahaffy has long had an established reputation. And it requires but the most casual inspection of any of his books to show that his capacity as a writer is of a high order.

The explanation of what might almost be said to be an anomaly such as this is found, seemingly, in the wide sweep of Professor Mahaffy’s interests and in the sound fund of common sense which he brings to bear on any problem of scholarship. Too many students of antiquity have been carried away with the beauties of the Greek language, and brought utterly under the spell of the classical literature, until all critical acumen that they might once have possessed focalises and wastes itself solely on verbal questions, leaving none for application to practicalities. Thus it has happened that all manner of myths have grown up in the minds of men about the word “Greek.”