There is considerable probability in the suggestion which Mr. Lang makes in his “Custom and Myth.”[F] He has attempted to find the key to myths in customs which have prevailed among early tribes, in opposition to those scholars who find their solutions in the names which they claim were once applied to objects, and of which the original meaning has been lost. The essays are made valuable by a great deal of material gathered evidently by much research in the lore of remote tribes, but they are singularly unsatisfactory. The work is loosely done. The solutions are mere suggestions, although such interesting suggestions that one feels loath to give up the search without more work. In some cases the myths presented simply show that similar tales exist in many nations. Until Mr. Lang does more work on this entertaining theory he must not expect a very wide following. A good work on English cathedrals has for a long time been in demand. The interest in architecture which recent years has developed, the increase in travel and the large scale on which the English people have carried on the restoration of their cathedrals have made such a work necessary. “The Cathedral Churches of England and Wales”[G] quite fills the demand. A book of superior make up, a very handsome parlor book, indeed, it is yet full of information. Thirty-five cathedrals are described, and so fully illustrated as to give very satisfactory ideas of the leading features of each. The articles, written in an encyclopedic style that seems slightly out of place in the company of such illustrations, paper, and letter press, are historic and architectural, concerning themselves very little with poetic associations and fine descriptions. They are, however, all the more useful for that. Two little books, helpful to all persons and bearing comfort for stricken hearts, and for those weary with the burdens of life, are to be found in “Meditations on Life, Death and Eternity.”[H] They are like friends to whom one would turn for companionship. The books were translated and compiled from the larger work of a distinguished German writer, and were arranged in their present form at the request of Queen Victoria, who prizes them very highly, as the original was a great favorite of the Prince Consort. That Mr. Barnes fully accomplished what he set out to do when he produced the “Hand-Book of Bible Biography,”[I] a brief examination of the work will satisfy any one. His aim was to produce a book that would be complete as to names, that should contain all the facts, and that should be within the means of all Bible students. Each biography is a story complete in itself, with many illustrations and maps. FOOTNOTES [C] In the Lena Delta. A narrative of the search for Lieutenant Commander De Long and his companions. Followed by an account of the Greely Relief Expedition and a Proposed Method of Reaching the North Pole. By George W. Melville. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1885.