of primitive religion ¹ which shows that he has thoroughly
mastered the method and principles of the modern science
of comparative religion in its widest application to the
beginnings of man's religious consciousness. Again, having
undertaken to write on the religious element in the ancient
Greek calendar, he quickly perceived that he could not
treat of it successfully without first studying the calendars
of primitive peoples all the world over; and he has pub-
lished the results of his inquiries in a book, ² of which it is
saying little to say that it is incomparably the most com-
plete and valuable treatise hitherto written on the subject.
Among the fruits of his researches in this wide but neglected
field are a memoir on the origin and religious significance
of the Greek calendar, ³ and another on the history of
Christmas. ⁴ In addition Professor Nilsson has contributed
many articles on various points of Greek religious antiquities
to a number of learned journals. In the interest of Greek
scholarship it is much to be desired that these scattered
writings should be collected and published in a form in
which they would be more accessible to students.

In the present work Professor Nilsson has traced in out-
line, but with the sure touch of a master, the history of
ancient Greek religion from the cradle to the grave, if indeed
we can speak of the grave of a religion which, as the author
points out, survives in certain primitive forms under all the
weight of an alien faith and ritual. He shows how the seeds
of its gorgeous efflorescence were planted deep in the fruitful
soil prepared for it by a people of another race and another
tongue, the possessors of a far more ancient civilization, the

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