SPRINGS AND WELLS IN GREEK AND ROMAN LITERATURE. By James
Reuel Smith. (Putnam's. £1.) —The legends attached to springs and wells in classical literature might have been retold in a more attractive way, but they could not have been catalogued more thoroughly. Three indexes are supplied to assist the reader through the seven hundred pages of matter. Mr. Smith must have ransacked the classics when compiling his book, not a single allusion to the smallest runlet of water seems to have escaped him. Under Latium we read of the patriotic spring of Ausonia mentioned by Ovid, which saved the Capitol in a far more meritorious way than even the much-praised geese. The Sabines were attacking the city and had succeeded in opening a gate unheard when the spring decided to interfere. It flooded the gateway, became boiling hot and steamed at the Sabines until the Romans were able to arm and repulse them. Under the heading England we are disappointed to find only the four curative springs of Bath. They are apparently legendless, and we are given instead statistics as to filth temperature and the quantity of water they produce drily.
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