"Few books of its size contain the result of so much wide thinking, able and laborious study, or enable the reader to gain a better bird's-eye view of the latest results of investigations into the religious history of nations. As Professor Tiele modestly says, 'In this little book are outlines--pencil sketches, I might say--nothing more.' But there are some men whose sketches from a thumb-nail are of far more worth than an enormous canvas covered with the crude painting of others, and it is easy to see that these pages, full of information, these sentences, cut and perhaps also dry, short and clear, condense the fruits of long and thorough research."--_Scotsman._ * * * * * Four Volumes Ready. Volume V. in the Press. Post 8vo, cloth, price 10s. 6d. each. THE SHÁHNÁMA OF FIRDAUSÍ. Done into English by ARTHUR GEORGE WARNER, M.A., AND EDMOND WARNER, B.A. February 25th of the present year (1910) is the nine hundredth anniversary of the completion of the Sháhnamá. Its author, the Persian poet Firdausí, spent over thirty laborious years in its composition, only to experience, when the task had been achieved, a heart-breaking disappointment well worthy of inclusion in any record of the calamities of authors. His work has survived the test of time, and by general consent is accounted to be one of the few great epics of the world. Geographically and in some other respects it may be said to stand half-way between the Epics of Europe and those of India. In its own land it has no peer, while in construction and subject-matter it is unique. Other Epics centre round some heroic character or incident to which all else is subservient. In the Sháhnamá there is no lack either of heroes or of incidents, but its real hero is the ancient Persian people, and its theme their whole surviving legendary history from the days of the First Man to the death of the last Sháh in the middle of the seventeenth century of our Era. It is the glory of the Persian race that they alone among all nations possess such a record, based as it is on their own traditions and set forth in the words of their greatest poet. In another sense, too, the Sháhnamá is unique. The author of the other great Epics tell us little or nothing of their own personalities or of their sources of information. Their works are fairy palaces suspended in mid air; we see the result, but know not how it was achieved. The author of the Sháhnamá takes us into his confidence from the first, so that in reading it we are let into the secret of epic-making, and can apply the knowledge thus gained to solve the problem of the construction of its great congeners. To the student of comparative mythology and folk-lore, to the lover of historic romance or romantic history, and to all that are fond of tales of high achievements and the gests of heroes, the Sháhnamá is a storehouse of rich and abundant material. To set forth a