Mankind in Many Ages. By Thamzen L. von Oldckop. (Virtue
and Co.)—This is the somewhat fanciful title of a compendium of universal history, written by a lady. Miss Oldckop appears to have embarked on a rather difficult undertaking. It can by no possibility be an easy task to compress the history of the world, from the Creation to the death of Prince Albert, within the narrow compass of less than 400 very moderate-sized pages, especially when more than a fourth of that space is occupied by the events of the last fifty years. Under these circum- stances it will readily be imagined that a considerable portion of the world's history must be squeezed up in a very uncomfortable manner. Yet Miss Oldckop feels no sort of misgiving while giving herself a few extra centuries to account for, for she adopts a chronological system which fixes the date of the Creation at 4963 B.C. It is by no means easy to assign any plausible object which this work is likely to answer. It has but little chance of being read for its own sake, and it is not nearly copious enough in details to be of any use as a school-book. We sincerely hope that we may be mistaken ; but as far as we can see we are much afraid that Miss Oldckop will find that she has laboured in vain.
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