Studies in Ancient History

Abstract

IT is now many, many years since Mr. M‘Lennan came before the public as an expounder of the beliefs and habits of early man, and we think that no one will deny to him the credit of having brought a trained mind and good powers of reasoning and deduction to his work. More than this, it must be admitted that he collected his facts with great care, and that although some of his results have not stood the test of time, they have at least served as finger-posts to point others to the right paths. More than twenty years have gone by since the first series of his “Studies in Ancient History” saw the light, and twenty years in the science of anthropology and its cognate subjects represent a vast amount of progress in these times. It was evident to Mr. M‘Lennan himself that some of his views would have to be modified by the results of other workers, and though, alas, he never lived to re-edit a second edition of the “Studies,” he was fortunate enough to have found a sympathetic supporter in his brother Mr. D. M‘Lennan, who not only published as “a preliminary and polemical inquiry” “The Patriarchal Theory,” but also a second edition of the “Studies” with notes by himself. Soon after this Mr. D. M‘Lennan was himself carried off by death, and the late Prof. W. R. Smith undertook to finish the work which the two brothers had begun. About this time, however, Prof. W. R. Smith was deeply engaged in the study of Oriental kinship and marriage, and totemism, and he was also planning his series of lectures on “fundamental institutions”; it is evident that he had little leisure in which to arrange the labours of other workers. That little leisure, moreover, was broken in upon by the increase of the malady which subsequently caused his death, and as a matter of fact he left M‘Lennan's work pretty well as he found it. Mrs. M‘Lennan then determined to attempt the publication of all papers that were at all in a fit state, and she was fortunate enough to find not only a willing, but a most able friend in Mr. A. Platt, who as long as she lived assisted her in the work, and when she was dead, completed the labour of love which she had begun.

Studies in Ancient History.

By J. F. M‘Lennan. Second Series. Pp. xvi + 605. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1896.)