Chapter II: ART (5)

_Iron Implements in Crannogues_.--In a letter addressed to the London _Reader_, by Mr. George Henry Kinahan, some important points relative to the antiquity of iron, and the necessity for seeking for traces of this metal, have been dwelt upon. While investigating one of the largest crannogues or artificial islands in Loughrea, County Galway, Ireland, he found only stone implements, with the exception of a rude knife, which appeared to be of some sort of bronze. But he observed facts which would seem to indicate that iron implements had been in use among the inhabitants of the crannogues. These facts are as follows: 1st, All the stakes that were drawn had been pointed by a sharp cutting instrument, as were evidenced by the clean cuts. 2d, Pieces of deer's horn that were found had been divided by a very fine saw, as was proved by the absence of marks of graining on the surface of the sections. 3d, On some of the bones there were farrows, evidently made by sharpening fish-hooks or some pointed implement on them. 4th, In various places nests of peroxide of iron were observed, as if an iron instrument had once been there, but had been corroded away in course of time. Mr. Kinahan draws particular attention to the circumstances that "few metals corrode as fast as iron, and that, while stone and bronze would last for ages, iron would disappear, owing to corrosion, in a comparatively short space of time."

_The Gibraltar Cave Fossils_.--Mr. Busk in his paper on this subject says: The rock in which the caverns of Gibraltar were found is limestone, and extends for about three miles from north to south, at an elevation varying from 1,400 to 1,200 feet. It is geologically divided into three nearly equal portions by cleavages which separate the higher parts of the rock on the north and south from the central and lower part. At the southern face of the rock there is comparatively low ground, the Windmill Hill being about 400 feet above the level of the sea; but the strata there are inclined in an opposite direction to the great mass of what is termed the "Rock of Gibraltar." In the Windmill rock the caverns have been found, and in these latter a great quantity of bones was discovered. The bones, which were mingled with pottery, flint implements, and charcoal, appear to have been deposited at different periods, and were found at various depths, the lowest being fourteen feet below the floor of the cavern. Those in the lowest layer consisted of the bones of mammals, several of which were of extinct species. They were imbedded in ferruginous earth partially fossilized, and were covered with stalagmite--no human bones were with them. Above this layer were deposited the remains of about thirty human skeletons, with fragments of pottery, flint implements, particles of charcoal, and a bronze fishing-hook. Some of the pottery had been turned in a lathe, and bore evidence of classic art. In another cavern, discovered under the foundation of the military prison, the remains of two isolated skeletons were also found. Only one skull had been discovered there, and that had been sent to Mr. Busk, who remarked that the lower jaw transmitted with the cranium did not belong to it, showing that there must have been another skull {279} in the cavern, though no trace of it had been found. There was nothing in the form of the skull to distinguish it from the ordinary European type; but the bones of the leg were remarkably compressed; for which appearance it was difficult to account. Since Mr. Busk's attention had been drawn to this character, he had observed a similar compression in the leg-bones of other human skeletons which were known to be of great antiquity. Whether this conformation was to be regarded as a race-character, or was produced by special occupation or habit, Mr. Busk would not venture an opinion upon.--_Social Science Review_.

_Sun's Photosphere_.--From a strict examination of the sun-pictures obtained at Kew, near London, and from Mr. Carrington's maps, Mr. De la Rue and assistants hare arrived at the conclusion that the sun-spots are cavernous, and lie below the general level of the luminous surface, whilst, on the contrary, the faculae are elevated above the latter. The reason that the faculae appear brighter is, that on account of their height above the solar surface, they are less dimmed by passing through its atmosphere. They further conclude that the sun's luminous surface is of the nature of cloud, and that the spots are influenced by the planet Venus. They find that the faculae retain nearly the same appearance for days together, and consider them to be small particles of solid or liquid matter in suspension, and composed of the same cloudy matter as the luminous surface of the sun. They notice that in the majority of cases the faculae appear to the left of the spots, as if they had been abstracted from them, and, rising to a greater elevation where the velocity of rotation is greater, are consequently left behind. They remark that all the spots which are seen on the solar surface about the same time show a resemblance to each other; for instance, if one spot increases to the central line or past it, another will do the same; if one spot diminishes from its first appearance, another will do the same; if one spot breaks out on the right half; another will do the same. It appears from Mr. Carrington's and all the Kew pictures, that the influence of Venus is exerted in such a manner that as the spots approach the neighborhood of this planet by rotation they decrease; but as the solar surface passes away in the same manner, this influence causes it to break out into spots on the opposite side. The question is also proposed, whether the falling behind of the faculae may not be the physical reaction of the motion of the spots detected by Mr. Carrington, the current passing upward and carrying the luminous matter falling behind, whilst the current coming down from a colder region moves forward, carrying the spot with it, and accounting for its deficient luminosity.--_Social Science Review_.

_The Arctic Expedition--The Open Polar Sea again_--Last month we published an extract in which it was stated as the belief of the writer that there was an open Arctic sea. Here is another opinion which we find in the _London Reader_ of a late date: "We have received from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences a map of Spitzbergen, with explanatory remarks in illustration (by N. Duner and A. E. Nordenskiöld). This beautiful map is the result of the two last expeditions undertaken to explore that group of islands. It is based upon astronomical observations, made at about eighty different places on the shores of Spitzbergen, with prism-circles by Pistor and Martins, mercury horizons and good chronometers by Frodsham and Kessels. The observations were calculated by Professors D. G. Lindhagen and Duner. The latitude and longitude of seventy-nine different points are given--the longitude of Sabine's Observatory, determined as 11° 40' 80", being taken as the starting point of the longitudes. The value of such a map is at once apparent. All the highest mountains were ascended during the expedition, and the height of twenty-eight peaks is given; the highest being Lindström's Mount of 8,800 English feet. The permanent snow-line commences at about 1,500 feet. The whole interior country forms an even ice plateau, here and there interrupted by rocks. There are many good harbors, and on this map the places are marked where the explorers anchored. Fish, fowl, and reindeer are to be met with in great numbers. We quote from the memoir as bearing upon one of the most interesting questions of the day. 'During the last years the idea has been vindicated that the Polar {280} basin is composed of an open sea, only here and there covered with drift ice. The learned geographer, Dr. Petermann, has even asserted that it would be as easy to sail from Amsterdam Island (70° 47') to the Pole, as from Tromsö to Amsterdam Island. This view is in itself so contrary to all experience that it scarcely merits refutation, but as different prominent English Arctic navigators seem inclined to adopt the same view, in spite of the experience gained by their own numerous Arctic expeditions, we will here give some of the most important reasons against this supposition. All who for a long period have navigated the northern seas, whalers and Spitzbergen hunters, have come to the conclusion that the Polar basin is so completely filled with ice that one cannot advance with vessels, and all the attempts that have been made to proceed toward the north have been quite without success. Passing by older voyagers, Torell and Nordenskiöld ascended, during the expedition in 1861, on the 23d of July, a high top on Northeast Land, Snötoppen (80° 23' L.), without being able, from that height, to see trace of open water to the north of the Seven Islands. A few days later, when the ice between Northeast Land and the Seven Islands was separated a little, they could push forward as far as to Parry's Island, though they, even from the highest tops on these islands (1,900 feet, 80° 40' L.), could see nothing but ice northward. From the top of White mountain, at the bottom of Wijde Jans Water (3,000 feet), we could, on the 22d of August, 1864, not see anything but ice between Giles Land and Spitzbergen. Some vessels that had the same year attempted to sail round Northeast Land were shut up by ice, and had to be abandoned by their crews. Before leaving the ships, an attempt was made to sail north, in order to return this way to Amsterdam Island, but they were soon met by impenetrable fields of ice. Notwithstanding a high prize has been offered for the reaching of high degrees of latitude, none of the whalers, who else sail boldly wherever the hope of gain allures them, have considered it possible to win this prize. We have had opportunities of speaking to most of the masters of vessels sailing to Spitzbergen. All experience hitherto acquired seems thus to prove that the Polar basin, when not covered with compact, unbroken ice, is filled with closely-packed, unnavigable drift-ice, in which, during certain very favorable years, some larger apertures may be formed, which apertures, however, do not extend very far to the north. Older narratives, by Dutch whalers, who are said to have reached 86° or 87° nay, even 89-1/2° must therefore be received with the greatest diffidence, if not looked upon as pure fictions, and the prospect of being able to advance with vessels from Spitzbergen to the Pole is, no doubt, extremely slight. _It would be particularly unwise to choose the spring for such an attempt, and the passage east of Spitzbergen. At that time and by that passage it would be difficult, if not impossible, to reach even 78° of latitude._ Whereas, on the west side, one can every year depend on reaching the 80th degree of latitude, and in favorable years it might be possible, _in September or October_, to sail even a couple of degrees higher.'"

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{281}

NEW PUBLICATIONS.

SIXTEEN REVELATIONS OF DIVINE LOVE, made to a devout servant of our Lord, called Mother Juliana, an anchorite of Norwich, who lived in the days of King Edward the Third. 12mo., pp. 214. Boston: Ticknor & Fields.

We Catholics of the United States have good reason to congratulate ourselves upon the appearance of this work. The selection of such a work for republication is proof of good judgment in the Boston publishers, while certainly nothing can be more elegant and tasteful than the "getting up."

Mother Juliana lived in the city of Norwich, England; and, as we are notified by the famous Father Cressy, who first published and edited her "Revelations," she wrote during the reign of Edward the Third, and about three years before his death. She was an anchoret or recluse, a religious woman who, like St. Bees and many others in England and elsewhere, lived alone, shut up by herself, in contemplation and prayer. It is to us a great mystery that these "Revelations," so excellent in themselves, and edited once by such a man, should be so little known in our day, and should owe their reproduction once more in English literature to Protestant curiosity and not to Catholic piety. We know of nothing of the same kind which can compare with them. There is an odor of supernatural sweetness about them, and a depth of contemplative thought, a freshness moreover and originality, which has never impressed us before when reading books of revelations. Critical authors have sometimes complained of works of this nature that much in them of what seems elevated or profound is evidently derived, at second hand, from the speculations of theologians, and especially of the philosophical schoolmen; while other things, supposed to have been seen in vision, are the reproduction of early histories, once popular, but proved to be apocryphal and destitute of all authority. Nothing of the kind can be said of these revelations of Mother Juliana. They sometimes touch upon questions most profound and difficult, but in the simplest and most inartificial manner, and there is not the slightest appearance of reproducing what she had read elsewhere. Every thought bears the stamp of originality and freshness. All is drawn from the same deep well of contemplation. All comes from her own mind, whether that mind be divinely illuminated or not. There is not the least semblance of searching after what is wonderful, or calculate to strike an undisciplined and curious imagination. For our own part, we cannot resist the impression that the beautiful and holy light which beams upon these pages is a divine illumination, is something supernatural. When we say _supernatural_, this does not necessarily infer anything strictly miraculous, or revelation in the highest sense of the word (supernaturally attested, as well as supernaturally given). We mean simply to say that there is apparent a certain unction and power of spiritual vision which betokens an extraordinary gift of divine love and light, to which her natural power, unaided, could never reach. In reading this book one is impressed in the same way as when reading the Holy Scriptures or Thomas à Kempis. There is a natural beauty of style and thought, but that is not all. There is inspiration, too. It is like a far-reaching landscape in a fair day, where the distant hills are not fairly distinguishable from the sky, and the beauty of earth is mingled with the beauty of heaven.

We have room to give just one example, which we select as showing, in a few lines, the general characteristics of piety, sweetness, simplicity, and beauty which everywhere pervade this little book:

"He is our clothing, that for love wrappeth us, and windeth us,
halseth us, and all becloseth us, hangeth about us for tender love,
that he maie never leave us. And so in this sight I saw that he is
all thing that is good, as to my understanding.

"And in this he shewed a little thing, the quantitie of a
hasel-nutt, lying in the palme of my hand, as me seemed; and it was
as found as a ball. I looked thereon {282} with the eie of my
understanding, and thought, What may this be?' and it was answered
generallie thus.

"'_It is all that is made_.' I marvelled how it might last: for
methought it might sodenlie have fallen to naught for litleness.

"And I was answered in my understanding, _'It lasteth and ever
shall: for God loveth it, And so hath all thing being by the love of
God.'_"

COMPLETE WORKS OF THE MOST REV. JOHN HUGHES, D.D., ARCHBISHOP OF NEW YORK. Comprising his Sermons, Letters, Lectures, Speeches, etc. Carefully compiled from the best sources, and edited by Lawrence Kehoe. 2 vols. 8vo., pp. 608 and 810. New York: Lawrence Kehoe, No. 7 Beekman street.

In opening these two capacious volumes, one of the first things that strikes us is the great number of excellent pieces from the pen of the late Archbishop of New York which are now entirely forgotten by the general public. There never was an author more careless of his fame than Dr. Hughes. He cast his writings upon the world, and gave no thought to them afterward He was not even at the pains of keeping single copies of his own publications. So it has happened that many of his best productions have not only been long out of print, but have never even been heard of except by a few of the writer's special friends, or some of our oldest and best read Catholic citizens. We make no doubt that the collection for which the Catholic public is so much indebted to the zeal and industry of Mr. Kehoe, will cause considerable surprise among those who supposed themselves to be well acquainted with Archbishop Hughes's literary labors. How many persons, for instance, have ever heard or remember anything of a tract of some thirty or forty pages called "An Answer to Nine Objections," which Father Hughes published when he was first a priest? Or of his controversies with Dr. Delancey, the late Protestant Episcopal bishop of western New York, and Dr. Onderdonk, P. E. bishop of Pennsylvania? Or of his letters on "Infallibility," written while he was in Philadelphia? Or his once famous series of letters on the "Importance of being in Communion with the Catholic Church?" And yet some of these deserve to rank among the most important and valuable productions of his pen. Our readers will find them all in Mr. Kehoe's volumes, and many other pieces with them which possess a more than ordinary interest. There is a long letter here to the Leopoldine Society of Vienna, in which Dr. Hughes exposes in a very graphic and masterly manner the condition of the Irish emigrants in this country: to the best of our belief it has never been published before. There is a touching and beautiful narrative, extracted from the Annals of the Propagation of the Faith for 1840 of the conversion of the Dodge Family in western New York. There is a description of a storm at sea, written during the bishop's voyage to Europe in 1839. And the second volume closes with a "Christmas Vesper Hymn," which has often been printed before, and even set to music, but will doubtless be new to many people.

We have mentioned these portions of Mr. Kehoe's collection, not only because they are less known than the archbishop's great controversies; but because every true friend of the lamented prelate's fame ought to desire them to be far better known than they are. Archbishop Hughes was one of the kindest, tenderest-hearted men that ever lived; and any one who should judge him by the severe, caustic tone of his letters to Breckinridge, for example, or his speeches on the school question, would gravely mistake his character. Most of the pieces that we have named, and some others as well, show him in his true and most amiable light.

The first volume is occupied principally by the archbishop's various letters and speeches on the School Question; his letters to David Hale, Mayor Harper, and Colonel Stone: Letters on the Importance of being in Communion with the Catholic Church; Kirwan Unmasked; and a number of miscellaneous lectures and sermons. The second contains a number of letters, sermons, etc., on the Temporal Power of the Pope; various lectures; over thirty miscellaneous sermons; the Church Property Controversy with Senator Brooks and others; and a great deal of miscellaneous matter, including the archbishop's speeches at banquets etc., during his last visit to Europe. Bishop Bayley's admirable lecture on {283} the Life and Times of Archbishop Hughes is given in full, by way of introduction to the second volume.

Mr. Kehoe's collection is the most important contribution to the history of the Church in the United States that has been made for many a year. Archbishop Hughes not only played an important part in the ecclesiastical history of his time and country, but he may be said without much exaggeration to have _made_ that history. His writings are destined to hold a permanent place in American Catholic literature by the side of those of Bishop England, while from their subjects, as well as the comparatively cheap form in which they are now presented to us, they will no doubt be more popular than those of the illustrious Bishop of Charleston.

CAPE COD. By Henry D. Thoreau. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 1865. 12mo., pp. 253.

This is a readable book, notwithstanding some of its critics have put it down as "dry." The keen observations, and quaint remarks sprinkled all over its pages, keep its reader in good humor chapter after chapter until the book is read. Thoreau's books are healthy, and deserve to be read, especially by our young men.

This is true of the general tone of his writings. Occasionally, however, there is a slight vein of skepticism running through them. But he has less of this than his contemporaries. Thoreau had deep religious feeling, but he found no expression for it in the religious denominations around him. Had he lived in the fifth century he would have been a father of the desert. As it is, he gives you the natural side of life and things exclusively, but with freshness and originality.

The sturdy integrity of the man, the fixed determination of seeing life and things with his own eyes, and his resolve to have his own say about them, is what characterizes all his writings, and what makes them valuable where popular opinion sways.

As a sample of his talent for description, read the following pen-drawing of a wrecker:

"We soon met one of these wreckers,--a regular Cape Cod man, with a
bleached and weather-beaten face, within whose wrinkles I
distinguished no particular feature. It was like an old sail endowed
with life--a hanging cliff of weather-beaten flesh--like one of the
clay boulders which occurred in that sand-bank. He had on a hat
which had seen salt water, and a coat of many pieces and colors,
though it was mainly the color of the beach, as if it had been
sanded. His variegated back--for his coat had many patches, even
between the shoulders--was a rich study to us, when we had passed
him and looked around. It might have been dishonorable for him to
have so many scars behind, it is true, if he had not had many more,
and more serious ones, in front. He looked as if he sometimes saw a
doughnut, but never descended to comfort; too grave to laugh, too
tough to cry; as in different as a clam,--like a sea-clam with hat
on, and legs, that was out walking the strand. He may have been one
of the Pilgrims--Peregrine White, at least--who has kept on the
back side of the Cape and let the centuries go by. He was looking
for wrecks, old logs, water-logged and covered with barnacles, or
bits of boards and joists--even chips, which he drew out of reach
of the tides and stacked up to dry. When the log was too large to
carry far, he cut it up where the last wave had left it, or, rolling
it a few feet, appropriated it by sticking two sticks into the
ground crosswise above it. Some rotten trunk, which in Maine
encumbers the ground, and is, perchance, thrown into the water on
purpose, is here thus carefully picked up, split and dried, and
husbanded. Before winter the wrecker painfully carries these things
up the bank on his shoulders by a long diagonal slanting path made
with a hoe in the sand, if there is no hollow at hand. You may see
his hooked pike-staff always lying on the bank, ready for use. He is
the true monarch of the beach, whose 'right there is none to
dispute,' and he is as much identified with it as a beach bird."

THE STORY OF THE GREAT MARCH. From the Diary of a Staff Officer. By Brevet Major George Ward Nichols, Aid-de-camp to General Sherman. With a Map and Illustrations. 12mo., pp. 394. New York: Harper Brothers.

The advance of General Sherman, with 70,000 men, through the heart of the seceded states, will ever be memorable in the annals of American history as the greatest achievement of modern times. From the time of his departure from Atlanta, Ga., until the purpose on which he started was accomplished in the surrender of Gen. Johnston, near Raleigh, N.C., his {284} movements attracted the attention, and called forth the criticism, of _un_military as well as military men in Europe and America. Many were the prophecies uttered of his total failure, but the able captain who conceived the plan and to whose care it was intrusted, carried the expedition successfully through. Of this march most of our readers have read more or less, in the daily papers. These statements have oftentimes been very incorrect and vague, from the excitement and hurry of the correspondents in getting them up. The handsome volume before us, however, is a clear and concise narrative of that great march, noted down from day to day by a member of General Sherman's staff. The author in this sketch gives us a true narrative of the entire march, and account of the interview between Sherman and Johnston. His style is plain and unaffected, but occasionally a little inflated. This, however, is pardonable, for he is very brief, and brevity, the poet says, "is the soul of wit." He wastes but few words in "saying his say," and has evidently taken much pains in getting his statements in as small space as possible. The book is embellished with a fine map of the march, and several appropriate wood-cuts. It also contains General Sherman's official reports of the campaign, and statement before the Congressional committee on the conduct of the war--valuable documents in themselves. We copy the following extracts from the chapter personal to General Sherman:

"Late in the summer of 1864, I was relieved from detached service in
the west, and ordered to report to the general commanding the
military division of the Mississippi. I found General Sherman at
Atlanta, seated in the parlor of his headquarters, surrounded by
several of his generals, and shall never forget the kindness with
which he received me when he heard that I was a stranger in the
western army; he said, "Very well; I will retain you on my staff."
The expression of gentleness, sympathy, and consideration which
accompanied this brief announcement, made an impression upon me
which will be fully understood by any officer who has had the
fortune to be suddenly ordered to a strange and distant field of
duty, where anxiety and embarrassment awaited him. The incident is
introduced here because it gives the key-note to a striking feature
in the character of General Sherman.

"A striking evidence of his sense of justice and his unselfishness
may be seen in his refusal to accept the commission of a
major-general in the regular army which was offered him previous to
the fall of Atlanta. In his letter declining the honor, he said:
'These positions of so much trust and honor should be held open till
the close of the war. They should not be hastily given. Important
campaigns are in operation. At the end, let those who prove their
capacity in merit be the ones appointed for these high honors.'

"General Sherman's memory is marvellous. The simplest incidents of
friendly intercourse, the details of his campaigns, citations of
events, dates, names, faces, remain fresh in his mind. A soldier who
may have addressed him long years ago in the swamps of Florida; some
heroic deed of an officer at Shiloh; a barn or a hill-side in
Georgia; a chance expression of your own which you may have
forgotten; minutest description of the plan of the campaign;
whatever he has seen, heard, or read, he remembers with astonishing
accuracy. Napoleon had a similar trait.

"He is also remarkably observant, especially of the conduct and
character of the officers of the army. He sees what many persons
suppose it is impossible for his eye to reach. In an army of 70,000
men, it might be reasonably imagined that the commanding general is
too far removed from the great mass to know or be known by them; but
when it is remembered that Sherman has marched during this campaign
alternately with one and another corps, it ceases to be a matter of
surprise that he is thoroughly acquainted with the character of the
different organizations. In truth, nothing escapes that vigilant and
piercing eye, from the greatest to the minutest detail of the
command.

"General Sherman is sociable in the best sense of the word. When the
responsibilities of the hour are cast aside--and he throws them off
with the utmost facility--he enters into the spirit of a
merry-making with all the zest and appreciation of the jolliest of
the party. He has a keen sense of wit and humor; and not
unfrequently he is the centre and life of the occasion. He converses
freely, yet he is reticent to the last degree, knowing how to keep
his own counsel, and never betraying his purpose. He is cautious and
often suspicious; yet no man ever accused him of deceit or
dishonesty either in word or deed. His unmeasured scorn and contempt
are visited upon pretense, new philanthropy, arrogance,
self-conceit, or boasting; but he never fails to recognize and pay a
hearty tribute to unpretentious merit, courage, capacity, Christian
manliness and simplicity. He is not prodigal of promises, but his
word once given is {285} sacred as holy writ. General Sherman is
terribly in earnest in his method of conducting war, but he is
neither vindictive nor implacable. He once said to a Methodist
preacher in Georgia who had, by voice and example, helped to plunge
the nation into war: 'You, sir, and such as you, had the power to
resist this mad rebellion; but you chose to strike down the best
government ever created, and for no good reason whatsoever. You are
suffering the consequence, and have no great reason to complain.'

"Yet there is a depth of tenderness akin to the love of woman behind
that face, which is furrowed with the lines of anxiety and care, and
those eyes, which dart keen and suspicious glances. Little children
cling to the general's knees and nestle in his arms with intuitive
faith and affection. During our sojourn in Savannah his headquarters
and private room became the play-ground of hosts of little ones,
upon whom the door was never closed no matter what business was
pending.

"General Sherman's integrity seemed to pervade every trait in his
character. His intense dislike of the men who have been interested
in the war only to make money out of it, is well known. From the
first instant of the rebellion pecuniary considerations were cast
aside by the general, and he has given himself wholly to the service
of his country. He knows the value of money, but he can say with
honorable pride that the atmosphere of integrity and honesty about
him withers and destroys the lust of gain. Not even the taint of
suspicion in this regard has ever been cast upon him nor upon the
officers associated with him.

"In person, General Sherman is nearly six feet in height, with a
wiry, muscular, and not ungraceful frame. His age is only
forty-seven years, but his face is furrowed with deep lines,
indicating care and profound thought. With surprising rapidity,
however, these strong lines disappear when he talks with children
and women. His eyes are of a dark brown color, and sharp and quick
in expression. His forehead is broad and fair, sloping gently at the
top of the head, which is covered with thick and light brown hair,
closely trimmed. His beard and moustache, of a sandy hue, are also
closely cut. His constitution is iron. Exposure to cold, rain, or
burning heat seems to produce no effect upon his powers of endurance
and strength. Under the most harassing conditions I have never seen
him exhibit any symptoms of fatigue. In the field he retires early,
but at midnight he may be found pacing in front of his tent, or
sitting by the camp fire smoking a cigar. His sleep must be light
and unrestful, for the gallopping of a courier's horse down the road
instantly wakes him, as well as a voice or a movement in his tent.
He falls asleep as easily and as quickly as a little child--by the
road-aide, upon the wet ground or the hard floor, or when a battle
rages near him. His mien is never clumsy or commonplace; and when
mounted upon review he appears in every way the great captain that
he is.

"When sounds of musketry or cannonading reach his ears, the general
is extremely restless until he has been satisfied as to the origin,
location, and probable results of the fight in progress. At such
moments he lights a fresh cigar, and smokes while walking to and
fro; stopping now and then to listen to the increasing rattle of
musketry; then muttering 'Forward,' will mount old 'Sam,' a horribly
fast-walking horse, which is as indifferent to shot and shell as his
master, and starts off in the direction of the fire.

"One afternoon during the Atlanta campaign the general paid a visit
to General Hooker, who had pitched his headquarters in a place
almost as much exposed to the fire of the enemy as any that could
have been found along the line. The two generals seated themselves
comfortably, with their feet planted against the trees, watching the
operations immediately in front and in full view of the rebels. Very
soon a rebel shell passed them, shrieking overhead, clearing the
crockery from the dinner-table with amazing rapidity, and
frightening the cook Sambo, who afterward excused himself on the
ground that his mate had been killed the night before by one of
'them things.' Another shell quickly followed, demolishing a chair
which had just been vacated by an officer. Meanwhile the rifle
bullets were singing and 'fiezing' about in a reckless way, chipping
the bark from the trees, and cutting their leaves and branches.
Still the two generals sat, discussing military questions, with the
utmost indifference until the sun went down; while the staff
officers, not seeing any fun in the business, carried on their own
conversation as companionably as could reasonably be expected in a
spot where the protecting trees were five to ten feet apart.

"The general's habits of life are simple. Primitive almost as first
principles, his greatest sacrifice will be made when he resigns
campaigning for a more civilized life. He has a keen sense of the
beauty of nature, and never is happier than when his camp is pitched
in some forest of lofty pines, where the wind sings through the
tree-tops in melodious measure, and the feet are buried in the soft
carpeting of spindles. He is the last one to complain when the
table-fare is reduced {286} to beef and 'hard tack,' and, in truth,
he rather enjoys poverty of food as one of the conditions of a
soldier's life. I remember that he apologized to our guest, the
secretary of war, one day at Savannah, because certain luxuries,
such as canned fruits and jellies, had found their way to his table.

"'This,' he remarked, 'is the consequence of coming into houses and
cities. The only place to live, Mr. Secretary, is out of doors in
the woods.'

"General Sherman's patriotism is a vital force. He has given himself
and all that he has to the national cause. Personal considerations,
I am sure, have never influenced him. Doubtless he is ambitious, but
it is impossible to discern any selfish or unworthy motive, either
in his word or deeds. I do not believe it possible for a man more
absolutely to subordinate himself and his personal interests to the
great cause than he. His patriotism is as pure as the faith of a
child; and, before it, family and social influences are powerless.
His relatives are the last persons to receive from his hand
preferment or promotion. In answer to the request of one nearly
allied to him that he would give his son a position on his staff,
the general's reply was curt and unmistakable: 'Let him enter the
ranks as a soldier, and carry a musket a few years!'

"In no instance is it possible for the general to favor the
advancement of soldiers upon mere political grounds; bravery and
capacity are the considerations which weigh with him. When a paper
is handed to him for endorsement, accompanied by questions relative
to promotion, he leaves the selection of the candidate to army or
corps commanders, reserving his own opinion until the proper time.

"He has had as great responsibilities to meet as any man of the age,
but there has never yet been an instance when he was not equal to
the occasion, even to the acceptance of a new truth. Few men have so
harmoniously united common sense and genius as General Sherman."

THE OLD HOUSE BY THE BOYNE. By Mrs. J. Sadlier. 12mo., pp. 375. New York: D. & J. Sadlier & Co. 1865.

Another new story by Mrs. Sadlier! "Why, it is only the other day," the reader will naturally exclaim, "I read one also from her pen." But such is the fact. "The Old House by the Boyne" is, however, her latest production, and well does it sustain her reputation as one of our best living Irish novelists at home or abroad. Mrs. Sadlier is thoroughly Irish in her stories, and her sole object in them all is the elevation and edification of her countrymen and countrywomen on this side the Atlantic. A most praise-worthy object, and one which must in the end bring forth good fruit. The low and the vulgar, which the English novelists, and we are sorry to say some Irish writers also, take particular pains to bring forward as _the_ leading characters in their works, find no place in Mrs. Sadlier's books. All that is good and generous in the Irish character is given its true value, and when necessity compels her to describe the ruffian, she does so in such a manner as to make the reader abhor his actions, and not as other writers have done--make him a sort of a hero, as if his crime was the rule and not the exception.

Her descriptions of Irish manners, customs, and characteristics can always be relied upon as correct, for she has made the Irish character her constant study, and beside, she feels for the miseries and misfortunes of that unfortunate but generous and kind-hearted people.

Mrs. Sadlier has done much for the Catholic literature of America. Her works, original and translated, put together, make a large library in themselves, and every year sees additions to them. We trust she will be spared a good longtime yet, to aid by her prolific pen the good cause in this country.

THE PEEP O' DAY; or, John Doe,|and Crohoore of the Billhook. By the O'Hara Family. A new edition, with Introduction and Notes. By Michael Banim, the survivor of "The O'Hara Family." Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4. New York: D. & J. Sadlier. 1865.

These are the first four parts of "The Works of the Brothers Banim," known as "The O'Hara Family," now publishing in numbers by the Sadliers. The Banims were, without an exception, the most powerful Irish novelists of the present century. Their style of writing was altogether different from that of Griffin, who was their superior in describing some phases of Irish life. All through Griffin's writings can be found that deep religious feeling which he never for a moment lost sight of. The Banims, although Catholics, launch {287} out more boldly into the world of passion and folly, and give us more dramatic scenes; more of reality than the "gentle Griffin" could possibly allow his pen to write. For this reason we look upon Banim's works as bolder and more vivid pictures of Irish life, as it existed forty years ago, than Griffin's. Griffin's are sounder and safer reading, for no word ever escaped his pen that could not be uttered in any society.

The present editor, Mr. Michael Banim, says in the preface to the first volume "that my brother and myself were joint producers of the stories now about to be republished. This being the case, it will, I trust, be conceded that the editorship has not been intrusted, by the publisher, to unfit hands. It is my intention, as each volume appears, in condensed shape, to state in how far I have been concerned therewith. It is my intention also, as we go on, to append notes here and there. It will be my endeavor to make these notations as little cumbrous as possible, and to throw into them whatever of anecdote or historical reference may appear to me interesting to the reader."

So far the notes are highly interesting. We only wish the publishers had given us the work in volumes, just as it appears in Dublin, instead of in numbers. We do not like to read a story by "piecemeal," hence our objection to the publication of novels in monthly or semi-monthly parts. When the whole is completed and published in bound volumes, these writings will be a valuable addition to our literature.

REMY ST. REMY; or, The Boy in Blue. By Mrs. C. H. Gildersleeve. 12mo., pp. 352. New York: James O'Kane. 1865.

Another story of the late rebellion. And we may make up our mind to be overloaded with stories of this description for at least the next ten years. "The Boy in Blue" is the latest we have seen, and is an indifferent one enough. There are plots sufficient in the book for two or three good stories, but they are badly managed, and the various parts of the story clumsily put together. "The Boy in Blue" proves to be a girl, who thus unsexed herself for the double purpose of thwarting the vengeance of a rejected lover, whom she refused to marry because he was _disloyal_, and of being near a _loyal_ lover whom she afterward married. The scene opens in Massachusetts, jumps abruptly to the army of the Potomac, and from there to that of the Cumberland, where the principal events occur. The characters are nearly all East Tennesseeans, and are made to figure in the story without any regard to time or place. The book is one we cannot recommend; for none of the characters are any better than the law allows them to be. The heroine is no model for any virtuous modest girl; for no woman of correct training or good morals could dress herself in the habiliments of the opposite sex. If the authoress cannot write a better story than this one, she had better give her time and attention to something else than novel writing. It is not her _forte_.

CATHOLIC ANECDOTES; OR, THE CATECHISM IN EXAMPLES. The Apostles' Creed, etc. Translated from the French by Mrs. J. Sadlier. 12mo., pp. 236. New York: D. & J Sadlier. 1865.

An excellent little book, and should meet with a general circulation. The present volume contains anecdotes on the different articles of the Creed, and is to be followed, we believe, by two more on the other portions of the Catechism. The translation is well made, and the book is very neatly got up. We earnestly recommend it to our readers as a book worthy of universal circulation.

THE METROPOLITES; OR, KNOW THY NEIGHBOR. A Novel, by Robert St. Clar. 12mo., pp. 575. The American News Company. 1865.

Here is a formidable volume describing fashionable society in New York. The parentage of the leading character in the story is at first unknown, but is supposed to be the son of some German emigrant who was shipwrecked and drowned off the coast. He was brought up by a German woman, and passed through all phases of New York life, from being a bootblack and newsboy, to find himself an office boy with a lawyer, who, seeing in him talent, sent him to college and paid for his education. Nathan P. Trenk is the cognomen by which this person is designated {288} in the story. The author seems to have taken every good quality possessed by different men and placed them _all_ in the person of his beloved Nathan. His hero far exceeds in perfection the gods of the ancients. He speaks French like a Frenchman; German like a German; Spanish like a Spaniard; English of course, and we are led to infer that if he chose he could converse in the language of Timbuctoo, Malay, or in the Sanscrit. In fact, he excelled in all things--was perfect in dancing, music, tragedy, yachting, _and the law_. He is made to possess nearly all these qualities before he was even sent to school!! He was also better looking than any of his comrades--a perfect Apollo. One gets tired of this hero called Nathan, and cannot help asking, with the poet,

"How one small head could hold it all."

As a story, "The Metropolites" is a failure. There are many good passages in it; but it is too inflated in style, too absurd and impossible in its scope and plot, and too pretentious, to suit the merest tyro in light literature. It ends too abruptly--in fact, the story is not finished; for only one or two of the characters are disposed of, and you are left to imagine what became of the author's _beau ideal_ of a man--Nathan. But there is no danger of such a question troubling the reader, for it is very few will have the patience to wade through its pages to the end. If there be any such, we pity them.

THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC. Its Constitution, Tendencies, and Destiny. By O. A. Brownson, LL.D. New York: P. O'Shea.

We have seen some of the advance sheets of Dr. Brownson's forthcoming work with this title. The book will be out in the course of this month. It will make a very handsome octavo volume of nearly 500 pages, elegantly printed. It appears from what we have seen of it to have been written with great care, and to be a profoundly philosophical work on the principles of government, and especially on the constitution of the United States.

NATURAL HISTORY. A Manual of Zoology for Schools, Colleges, and the General Reader. By Sanborn Tenney, A.M. Illustrated. 8vo., pp. 540. New York: Charles Scribner & Co. 1865.

This is an excellent manual for schools and colleges; beautifully illustrated; well printed on fine paper, from large type; nicely bound; and is altogether a _fine_ book.

THE LIVES OP THE POPES. By Chevalier d'Artaud. Translated from the French. Edited by Rev. Dr. Nelligan. Nos. 1 and 2, pp. 96. New York: D. & J. Sadlier & Co. 1865.

This is, we believe, the first attempt to give the "Lives of the Popes" in English. The French work from which this is a translation has been looked upon as a very reliable one. This work is one that was much needed in this country, and will no doubt have a decided success.

BOOKS RECEIVED.

From P. O'Shea, New York. Nos. 13 and 14 of the GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, by M. l'Abbé J. E. Darras.

From P. Donahoe, Boston. PARRA SASTHA; or, The History of Paddy Go-Easy, by William Carleton.

From Ticknor & Fields, Boston. LYRICS OF LIFE, by Robert Browning.

From Charles Scribner, New York. Froude's History of England. Vols. III. and IV.

------ {289}

THE CATHOLIC WORLD.

VOL, II., NO. 9.--DECEMBER, 1865,

----

From Le Correspondant

GENERAL DE LA MORICIÈRE.

I.

It is the sad destiny of those who outlive their generation to be called upon to speak over the graves of friends, companions, and chiefs who have the happiness of being the first to depart. Forced to envy those who precede them their lot, they readily yield to the temptation of beguiling their regrets by recalling their memory; and while thus essaying to lighten their own griefs, they think, perhaps not justly, that they have something of which to remind forgetful contemporaries, or which they may teach an indifferent posterity.

The _élite_ of the men who date from the early years of the century begin already to be decimated by death, and this death which strikes them with a premature blow, while in the full possession of the gifts which God had lavished on them, has often been preceded by a disgrace or a retreat so prolonged that we naturally regard them as having long since entered into history. Their stern and melancholy fate, aggravated by the inconstancy of their country, may at least serve to lengthen the perspective from which our eye contemplates them.

What can less resemble the times in which we live than those early and splendid years of the parliamentary royalty in which Léon de la Moricière was first revealed to France and to glory? A whole powerful generation, delivered from military despotism and the imperial censorship, enfranchised, brought up, or completed by the free and loyal _régime_ of the Restoration, was then in full sap and full bloom. A constellation of rare men, men of original powers and popular renown, appeared at the head of all the great departments of the national intelligence, and fulfilled the first condition of the life of a people that are free and master of their destiny. The nation was governed or represented by its most eminent men. All its living forces, all its real wants, all its legitimate interests, were represented by men of an incontestable superiority. The names of Casimir Perier, Royer-Collard, Molé, Berryer, Guizot, Thiers, Broglie, Fitz James, Villemain, Cousin, Dufaure, gave to the contests of the tribune and to the country itself an _éclat_ never surpassed, not even in 1789. Lamartine, Victor Hugo, and Alfred de Musset stamped poetry with a character as original as ineffaceable. Ary Scheffer, {290} Delaroche, Delacroix, Meyerbeer, in the arts; Cuvier, Biot, Thénard, Arago, Cauchy, in the sciences; Augustin Thierry, Michelet, Tocqueville, in history and political philosophy, opened new paths, into which rushed the ardent and high-spirited youth of the nation. Lacordaire and Ravignan made radiate from the Christian pulpit a halo of eloquence and popularity unknown since Bossuet.

Perhaps this fertile opening of political, intellectual, and moral life did not encounter an analogous development in the military life; perhaps this purely civil glory extinguished the necessary attraction of the glory of arms. To this doubt, the army of Africa takes upon itself to reply.

In the ranks of that army new men, predestined to glory, began forthwith to appear. Each year, each day, augmented their renown. The true soldiers of free and liberal France were found. We learned to greet in that army a new line of soldiers, as chivalric, as formidable, as brave, as the bravest among their fathers, and adorned with virtues but too often wanting in our soldiers in former times --modest and austere virtues, civic virtues, which were the honor, and in the hour of danger the salvation, of their country. The illustrious Changarnier is the only one of that glorious phalanx that can receive here below the homage of our loyal gratitude. Of his noble companions, some, like Damesme, Négrier, Duvivier, Bréa, gave themselves to be killed in the streets of Paris in 1848, so that France might remain a civilized country; others, and the most illustrious, Cavaignac, Bedeau, La Moricière, have died one by one, obscurely and prematurely, rendered by implacable destiny useless to the country they had saved. This oppresses the heart, and certainly does no honor to our times.