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 Stevens: Thomas Hariot 557 the century which had seen the rise of English maritime power, we come to the most valuable account of " one of the few serious attempts to put in practice the strategical dream of attacking England through Ireland," the failure of which Mr. Corbett attributes to " the yet unmeasured power of the sea ' ' and to ' ' two sagacious soldiers who felt the mastery it gave. ' ' After Cezimbra Road the narrative of events closes fittingly with the tragic chapter called " The Last of the Galleys " enabling Mr. Corbett to end his work on the Tudor navy as he began it, with strong emphasis upon the transition from the warship of the Middle Ages to the type which pointed to Nelson and Trafalgar. It is pleasant too that the galley should have emerged from this last trial, if not with success, yet with high honor to itself and above all to Spinola, whose greatness, however, only served to reveal with increased conclusiveness the superiority of the northern school. Though the narrative proper ends with the Dutch bullet that stretched intrepid Spinola spon his galley deck, there remain twojvaluable chapters discussing the results of the long war and the navy as Elizabeth left it. " In spite," Mr. Corbett concludes, "of all that seems at first sight so old-fashioned in the instruments and ideas which Drake and his successors used, they differed only in design, and that in no large degree, from those with which Nelson brought the art to its zenith." While it is possible that future writers may modify some of Mr. Cor- bett's verdicts, they will not alter the fact that he has written an excellent volume upon a period greatly in need of illumination. Amphibious as the heroes he has portrayed so well, he proves himself, whether describ- ing operations of war by land or sea, equally instructing, stimulating and brilliant. W. F. Tilton. Thomas Hariot, the ITatIieinaticia>i, the Philosopher, and the Seholar : developed chiefly from Dormant Materials, with Notices of his Associates, including Biographical and Bibliographical JDisquisi- tions upon the Materials of the History of ' Ould Virginia.' By Henry Stevens of Vermont, F.S.A. (London : Privately printed. 1900. Pp. xii, 214.) The editor of this book, Mr. Henry N. Stevens, tells us that the whole text has Iain "printed off" since 1885; and the printing was commenced in January, 1878. Nevertheless, its contents have not been forestalled. Nothing has appeared about Harriotts, since the earlier date, more important than the good but unoriginal article in the Dictionary of National Biography and three pages of critical estimate in the second volume of Dr. Moritz Cantor's Vorlesungeu iiher die Geschichte der Math- ematik. During the eight years of its printing, this volume grew by the accumulation of successive discoveries, and thus cannot be quoted as containing any definite opinions, as the author himself warns us. " Repe- tition, and perhaps some contradiction, are acknowledged. But mean- dering thoughts and ill-digested narratives, though tedious, are not crim- inal." They are not only not criminal, but to a careful student, they VOL. VI. -37.