It is simply an
induction in which a kind of artistic instinct, not communicable or
equally valuable to all people, has had the greatest part, but to this
mode of interpretation archaeologists as a class have been far too
indifferent; and it is certain that in the present case it has given us a
theory which is most fruitful and suggestive.

The little temple of Nike Apteros has had, as Mr. Stillman reminds us, a
destiny unique of its kind. Like the Parthenon, it was standing little
more than two hundred years ago, but during the Turkish occupation it was
razed, and its stones all built into the great bastion which covered the
front of the Acropolis and blocked up the staircase to the Propylaea. It
was dug out and restored, nearly every stone in its place, by two German
architects during the reign of Otho, and it stands again just as
Pausanias described it on the spot where old AEgeus watched for the
return of Theseus from Crete. In the distance are Salamis and AEgina,
and beyond the purple hills lies Marathon. If the Melian statue be
indeed the Victory Without Wings, she had no unworthy shrine.

There are some other interesting essays in Mr. Stillman's book on the
wonderful topographical knowledge of Ithaca displayed in the Odyssey, and
discussions of this kind are always interesting as long as there is no
attempt to represent Homer as the ordinary literary man; but the article
on the Melian statue is by far the most important and the most
delightful. Some people will, no doubt, regret the possibility of the
disappearance of the old name, and as Venus not as Victory will still
worship the stately goddess, but there are others who will be glad to see
in her the image and ideal of that spiritual enthusiasm to which Athens
owed her liberty, and by which alone can liberty be won.

On the Track of Ulysses; together with an Excursion in Quest of the So-
called Venus of Melos. By W. J. Stillman. (Houghton, Mifflin and Co.,
Boston.)

LITERARY AND OTHER NOTES--V

(Woman's World, March 1888.)

The Princess Emily Ruete of Oman and Zanzibar, whose efforts to introduce
women doctors into the East are so well known, has just published a most
interesting account of her life, under the title of Memoirs of an Arabian
Princess. The Princess is the daughter of the celebrated Sejid Said,
Imam of Mesket and Sultan of Zanzibar, and her long residence in Germany
has given her the opportunity of comparing Eastern with Western
civilisation. She writes in a very simple and unaffected manner; and
though she has many grievances against her brother, the present Sultan
(who seems never to have forgiven her for her conversion to Christianity
and her marriage with a German subject), she has too much tact, esprit,
and good humour to trouble her readers with any dreary record of family
quarrels and domestic differences. Her book throws a great deal of light
on the question of the position of women in the East, and shows that much
of what has been written on this subject is quite inaccurate. One of the
most curious passages is that in which the Princess gives an account of
her mother:

My mother was a Circassian by birth, who in early youth had been torn
away from her home.