"the scientific study" of Babylonian religion dates from the publication of Professor Jensen's somewhat pretentious and superficial Kosmologie, whereas its real founders were Rawlinson and, above all, Lenormant. Lenormant's work upon the subject is still our leading clue through its labyrinths, and must continue to be so for many years to come. So, again, the identification of the star Sibzianna with Regulus was due to Oppert, not to Jensen, as Mr. King supposes (p. 115), and was made years before the younger scholar was ever heard of. An acquaintance with older Assyriological literature, moreover, would have taught Mr. King that an essential preliminary to a book on Babylonian magic ought to be some attempt to settle the date of the texts with which he deals. There is nothing in his pages which would lead the non-initiated reader to suppose that the copies of them made for the library of Nineveh are merely later editions of originals which probably go back to the third or fourth millennium B.C.
This is a very interesting volume to the student of folklore, and more especially to those amongst us who are interested in the science as it relates to animals and plants. Mr. Seager has compiled a volume of extracts from books relating to natural history which were standard authorities in the poet's day; and he has wisely included not only the fauna of Shakespeare but the flora as well. The plan observed is to take a quotation where the name of an animal or plant occurs (or in some case give merely the reference), and then quote an account of it from some work which in the early part of the seventeenth century was regarded as an authority upon the subject.
It will easily be seen that a volume formed upon this plan is a very useful book of reference. The compiler has added interesting notes where he thought it necessary; and in the preface he gives a list of the authorities he uses. It is obvious that no new information is here given, but much that was already scattered about
