On the 24th of December, 1891, fifteen persons interested in promoting the historical study of religions united in issuing a circular-letter, inviting a conference in the Council Chambers of the Historical Society of Philadelphia, on the 30th of the same month, for the purpose of instituting “popular courses in the History of Religions, somewhat after the style of the Hibbert lectures in England, to be delivered annually by the best scholars of Europe and this country, in various cities, such as

Contents :—Ethnology Defined—The Scientific Study of Religions—It is not Theology—Its Methods: 1. The Historic Method; 2. The Comparative Method; 3. The Psychologic Method—Strange Coincidences in Human Thought—Conspicuous in Primitive Religions—“Primitive” Peoples Defined—The Savage Mind—Examples—Means of Study: 1. Archæology; 2. Language; 3. Folk-Lore; 4. Descriptions of Travellers—Examples: The Early Aryans, Etruscans, Semites, Egyptians, American Tribes, Australians, Polynesians, etc.—“Religi

Contents :—An Echo Myth—The Power of Words—Their Magical Potency—The Curse—Power Independent of Meaning—The Name as an Attribute—The Sacred Names—The Ineffable Name—“Myrionomous” Gods—“Theophorous” Names—Suggestion and Repetition as Stimulants—I. The Word to the gods: Prayer—Its Forms, Contents, and Aims—II. The Word from the gods: The Law and the Prophecy—The Ceremonial Law, or tabu —Examples—Divination and Prediction—III. The Word concerning the gods: The Myths—Their Sources chiefly Psychic—So

Such are some of the numberless objects with which primitive man associated his idea of the Divine. The nature of this association must not be misunderstood. I repeat what I have already said, that it was not an identification of the spiritual with the material. The object was hallowed, not from anything in itself, but as the medium of invisible power. 8. Life and its Transmission. —What Professor Otfried Müller has so well said of the oldest forms of the Greek and Etruscan religions holds true

Contents :—The Ritual a Mimicry of the Gods—Magical Rites—Division of Rites into I. Communal, and II. Personal. I. Communal Rites: 1. The Assemblage—The Liturgy—2. The Festal Function—Joyous Character of Primitive Rites—Commensality—The “Ceremonial Circuit”—Masks and Dramas—3. The Sacrifice—Early and Later Forms—4. The Communion with God—Pagan Eucharists. II. Personal Rites: 1. Relating to Birth—Vows and Baptism—2. Relating to Naming—The Personal Name—3. Relating to Puberty—Initiation of Boys an

I. Rhys-Davids—Buddhism: Its History and Literature. By T. W. Rhys-Davids , LL.D., Ph.D., Professor of Pali and Buddhist Literature at University College, London. Crown octavo. Net , $1.50. “...An admirable handbook of Buddhism, written from a point of view at once scholarly and unprejudiced.”— St. Paul Pioneer Press. II. Brinton—Religions of Primitive Peoples. By Daniel G. Brinton , A.M., M.D., LL.D., Sc.D., Professor of Archæology and Linguistics in the University of Pennsylvania. Crown octavo

Edited by Orello Cone, D.D. Four volumes. Octavo. Each, net, $2.00 By mail, $2.15 I.— The Synoptic Gospels, together with a Chapter on the Text-Criticism of the New Testament. By George Lovell Gary, A.M., L.H.D., President of the Meadville Theological School. “We need hardly say that we find ourselves differing very seriously and very often from the editor of this volume, but we gladly recognize the thoughtfulness and intelligence with which he has worked. The student may learn much from this vo