Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/697

 Minor Notices 687 Books, Culture and Character, by J. X. Larned (Boston and Xew York, Houghton, Mifflin, and Company, 1906, pp. 187), is a compila- tion of public addresses delivered by the author. The work, being of a general nature, does not lend itself to exact analysis. Its purpose is to assist in the choice and use of books. Of its contents, the last chapter, and in all more than a fourth of the volume, are devoted to history, which is rated by ^Ir. Larned as the highest branch of the literature of knowledge, as distinguished from the literature of wisdom. Of historical works Mr. Larned discusses a list suitable for the general reader. In his concluding chapter he deprecates the present school- teaching of history with its formal questioning and periodical exam- inations. In place of this system h^ advocates a course of school- reading, judiciously selected from readable text-books and standard histories, along with a minimum of comment by the directing teacher. On behalf of the American Library Association the Library of Con- gress has issued a Portrait Index (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1906, pp. Ixxv, 1601), edited by William Coolidge Lane, librarian of Harvard University, and Nina E. Browne, secretary of the Associa- tion's Publishing Board. In the compilation many librarians and others have co-operated. The index is intended more especially for use in libraries, publishing houses, and newspaper offices. It confines itself to portraits in books, periodicals, and published collections, the indexing of current periodicals extending in most cases to the end of 1904. Comprehended in the index are some one hundred and twenty thousand portraits of forty thousand persons contained in six thousand volumes. In general, genealogical works and local histories are not indexed. With few exceptions, all the portraits in any work indexed are included. Ancient Sinope, by David M. Robinson, Ph.D., Associate in Class- ical Archaeology in the Johns Hopkins University, is a reprint (Balti- more, Johns Hopkins Press, 1906, pp. 105) of articles in the American Journal of Philology and the American Journal of Archaeology. The work nevertheless forms a unit. It is based on Dr. Robinson's studies at the American School at Athens in 1902 and a visit by him to Sinope in 1903. The author discusses in turn the site, commerce, foundation, history, civilization, and cults of the city. Sinope was probably of Assyrian origin. Its name antedates the Greek settlement, and the Assyrian element continued in force down to the fourth century. By Greeks the city was twice colonized, from Miletos before 756 and again, after the Cimmerian invasion, from Attica about 630. The making of Sinope with its harbor, the best on the southern shore of the Pontus. The importance of the city was such that it was a point for reckoning distances and elucidating geographic details. Before the building of the Roman roads, Sinope was an important port of Eastern trade ; and its commerce with the northern shore of the Euxine Dr.