Scandinavia. By R. Nisbet Bain. (Cambridge University Press. 75. 6d.)—Mr.
Bain, who has already given to the world a monograph on Charles XII. of Sweden, tells in this volume the story of the three Scandinavian kingdoms. His narrative is
excellently illustrated by maps, and should usefully serve the general purpose of the "Cambridge Historical Series" (edited by Dr. G. W. Prothero) to which it belongs. It is a story full of curious vicissitudes. Nowhere has been better realised the Horatian description of Fortune-
" bine spleen rapax
Fortuna cum stridore acute sustulit, hie posuisse gaudet."
Each of the three kingdoms has bad its turn of supremacy, and all, marked, it would seem, by nature for alliance, and even union, have been furiously jealous of, and even hostile to, each other. Mr. Bain's story is, by force of circumstances, highly compressed, but be has succeeded in making it both clear and attractive. The chapter on "Norway and Sweden since 1814" will be read with special interest, written as it was before the recent development of the situation.
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