Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection. By E. A. Wallis Budge, Keeper of the Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities in the British Museum. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York.

In two volumes of rare attractiveness and unusual interest Mr. Budge has given a very complete presentation of the religion of immortality in ancient Egypt as expressed in the worship of Osiris and Isis, a religion distinguished by its wide extent over all Egypt and its firm hold upon all classes through the changing dynasties of thousands of years.

The form of these volumes is worthy of note. Illustrations and original texts from the temples and tombs of the Egyptians are lavishly reproduced and at the same time so clearly arranged and explained that the uninitiated reader can follow them with interest even without the knowledge necessary to decipher the hieroglyphics or interpret the pictured scenes for himself. The translation of extensive passages from the texts carries us by its literalness straight to the heart of the convictions and beliefs expressed in the elaborate ceremonials and the funerary writings, while at the same time reproducing the majesty and beauty of these texts it reveals the upward striving which lifts the religion above the gross and base which some of the details would seem to express to the philistine of modern times.

If this faith were to be understood as imposed upon the Egyptians from without it would be more difficult to understand its content as well as to explain the dominance it had over all Egypt. But the author devotes a large portion of the book, and by no means the least