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Afinor Notices 609 St. Francis, the ma/i, plausible to us by an affectionate study of the early Franciscan documents, yet to follow the successive phases of his order, the institution, with historical severity. The life of the saint, as treated in this book, lacks the authentic touch, and the facts of the order are blurred in a general background of circumstances without anything like relief. By far the greater part of the work is concerned with the third pur- pose, the creation of a guide to the city's monuments. And here, it may be immediately observed, the author maintains a surer footing, due to her willingness to follow a number of excellent predecessors in this field. Among her authorities she evidently and wisely gives the preference to Mr. Bernhard Berenson, echoes of whose resonant intonation mount from almost every page. A regrettable disfigurement of this portion of the work is furnished by occasional attempts at emotional or rhetorical writ- ing. While it may be granted that for any one who has gazed long at the Umbrian hills, the temptation must be great to produce a new vol- ume of Sensations ,r Italic, still it is to be insisted that that kind of thing must be superlatively well done to prove acceptable. Such passages as the ascent of Subasio (p. 86) and the youth of Giotto (p. 169) will only be the better for a little pruning ; occasional descriptions, however, such as .hQ perdono a' Assisi (353 f . ) have a real charm. To sum up, it is fair to say that though the book fails to meet its first two purposes, it constitutes the most valuable guide to Assisi of this com- pass that is now attainable. Ferdinand Schwill. Under the title of Zauberwahn, Inquisition und Hexenprozess ini Mittelalter nnii die Entstehung der grossen Hexenverfolgung (Munich and Leipzig, Oldenbourg, pp. xv, 538) there has just appeared from the pen of Joseph Hansen, the well-known archivist of Cologne, the most important monograph of our time on the general history of the witch- persecution. It is, indeed, the most elaborate of all studies as to the origin of the great delusion. The book (which forms the twelfth vol- ume of the Historischc Zeitschrift's Historisdie Bihliothek') is to be sup- plemented by a volume (already in the press) of Quellen und Untersuch- ungt'n zur Gescliiclite des Hexenwahns und der Hexenverfolgung ini Mit- teialter. So far as he has gone his work must take the place long held by the book of Soldan as the standard authority upon its subject ; and it is to be hoped that what he now gives us is but the first half of a compre- hensive history of the persecution. G. L. B. The Life, Unpuhlisiied Letters and Philosopliical Regimen of Anthony, Earl of Slwftesbury, Author of the " Characteristics,'" edited by Benjamin Rand, Ph.D. (London: Swan Sonnenschein ; New York: The Mac- millan Co., pp. xxxi, 535). This volume includes some material which has been published before, but the larger portion appears in print for the