278
NOTES AND QUERIES. p*s.vn. APRIL 8,1901.
on the Latter Part of the Report of the Delect
Committee,' &c., Lond., 1783, 8vo, by Capt.
Josepli Price. JOHN RADCLIFFE.
LONDON CHURCHES (9 th S. vii. 169). During the year 1854 the Society of Antiquaries addressed the Home Secretary, praying 1dm to adopt measures for securing copies of the sepulchral inscriptions in the graveyards of the City churches then about to be removed ; but Lord Pahnerston did not see how he could interfere, and I doubt if anything in that direction was done. The only work with which I am acquainted is 'The New View of London/ in 2 vols., 1708, which gives the principal monumental inscriptions in the existing London churches at that date. Your valued correspondent MR. JOHN T. PAGE published in the East - End Neivs, between 2 October and 2 November, 1895, the in- scriptions in old Stepney Church, and from 17 June to 12 August, 1896, those which were legible in the churchyard. Between 1869 and 1875 Mr. F. T. Cansick issued in three volumes the ' Curious and Interesting Epi- taphs in the Ancient Church and Burial- Grounds of St. Pancras,' 'The Cemeteries and Churches of St. Pancras Parish,' and the 'Churches and Churchyards of Hornsey, Tottenham, Edmonton, Enfield, Friern Bar- net, and Hadley,' all in the county of Middle- sex. EVERARD HOME COLEMAN.
71, Brecknock Road.
The interiors and monuments generally are carefully described in the late George Godwin's 'Churches of London' (1839). In George A. Birch's superb work entitled 'London Churches' (1896) many of the old cenotaphs may be seen in the exquisite illustrations it contains. Neither author, however, seems to have noticed the ancient brasses. HARRY HEMS.
Fair Park, Exeter.
^ In the early seventies was published 'Eccle- siastical Antiquities of London,' by Alex. Wood, M.A., a small 8vo volume (London, Burns & Gates). If I remember right, it contained the information desired by MRS COPE.
JEROME POLLARD-URQUHART, O.S.B.
NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.
Myth* of Greece Explained and Dated. By George
St. Glair. 2 vols. (Williams & Norgate') A SECOND title of Mr. St. Glairs work describes it as an embalmed history from Uranus to Perseus including the Eleusinian Mysteries and the Olympic'
Games." Wide as is the range thus indicated, the
two volumes constitute but half the meditated
accomplishment, and are to be succeeded by a con-
tinuation carrying the history to the times of the
'Iliad' and the 'Odyssey,' and comprising an
account of the stories of Thebes, the labours of
Hercules, the voyage of the Argonauts, and other
matters. Discontented with the explanations of
myths hitherto attempted, Mr. St. Glair aims at
showing for the first time that, so far from having
various origins due to the vagaries of human fancy,
these myths have one common basis and are organic-
ally connected from beginning to end. " This basis
is," he holds, "the observation of the seasons, the
study of the heavenly bodies, and the attempt to
frame a correct calendar." That the myths are
closely connected with astronomical phenomena
has long been known. The mere names of single
stars arid constellations attest abundantly this
truth. It is a long step from perception of this
self-evident fact to the acceptance of Mr. St. Glair's
conclusions. In a passage of his preface he says,
"The secret of Greece is an allegory of astronomy
and the calendar. The facts and phenomena of the
heavens were the basis of the religious system. The
priests were astronomers, the astronomers were
priests. The mythology is their record a religious
history embalmed." Somewhat further on in the
preface he makes two appeals to his critics. One of
these is justice itself. His book is to be judged by
those only who have read it. A second postulate is
that it is to be reviewed by those only who under-
stand astronomy. With the earlier condition we
"nave complied. That we have sufficient knowledge
- >f astronomy to grasp the whole significance of his
argument we will not say. Under these conditions we will refrain from criticism, and so meet his wishes. It is obviously impossible to study astro- nomy afresh for the purpose of reviewing a single work. Besides, the power to acquire and retain istronomical knowledge is not universally diffused, and there are those to whom, when the receptive period of youth is over, the labour would be fruit- less. We will deal, accordingly, with portions only of his work. His opening chapters, which are partly historical and partly controversial, are ex- cellent. Attempts to demonstrate a principle of unity in mythology have hitherto been vain. Gon- sistency is, however, Mr. St. Glair holds, to be found when once we have the key. Nowhere can we " take a myth and find it clear cut from all asso- ciations with the myths around it. All are but parts of one wide-spreading whole ; and the whole mythology is a system." The difficulties by which we are confronted are the same by which the ancients were beset, and those who received the mythic traditions knew even less than we what to make of them. They go back to a time so ancient that Herodotus understands literally the rape of Helen and the siege of Troy, and Plutarch holds that the Egyptians of his day did not know the meaning of their own Sphinxes. Pausanias is at one time on the point of making some revelation concerning the Eleusinian mysteries, but receives in a dream, a warning that prevents him from speaking. Lucian turns pious myths into ridicule with a freedom that caused the Christians to claim him as an ally or a believer.
Dealing with the various explanations attempted, Mr. St. Glair shows how all, from the theories of Kuhemerus to those of the modern anthropologists, fail to meet the requirements of the case.
