Chapter III (3)

It is easy to see that the five first questions are delicate, difficult, and important, though they all centre in a point of chronology. But chronology in this case is the history of man. It is the Bible and revelation. It is tradition. It is faith. We must assign a reasonable date for those ancient _débris_ of labor, or of the human beings whom we certainly meet in all the strata called _quaternary_; and probably also in the last layers of the _tertiary_ strata, much more ancient than the quaternary. This date must in no wise change the sacred text. This date once found and demonstrated, would settle the dispute which still exists regarding the chronology of the Bible. We know that the Catholic Church gives us full liberty on this point. But the moment has not yet come for pre-historical archaeology to define the limits of the ages or years which it calls _the age of cut stone; the age of polished stone_, or of the _reindeer;_ the age of _brass_, and the _age_ of _iron_. The congress understood this well. Only two or three orators were bold enough to speak of thousands of years or of millions of years. Some _savans_ have wonderful imaginations! But in general, no one ventured to determine or define the time. Almost always the gentlemen used the words _epoch, age, period,_ without wishing to be more precise. They were afraid to compromise their reputations.

Without doubt, for the same reason, no _savant_ or person of consequence wished in the beginning to sign his name to the catalogues of the Exposition, relating to the pre-historical antiquities, or hold himself personally responsible for them. {706} But behold! after five months, when the _Exposition_ was near its close, on Thursday, August 29th, M. de Mortillet offered timidly to the congress a little volume of his composition, entitled, _Pre-historical Promenades in the Universal Exposition_. M. de Mortillet is also the author of an other book, _The Sign of the Cross before Christianity_. He is also collecting materials for the _positive_, or rather _positivist_ and philosophical history of man. For M. de Mortillet imagines that it is necessary for men of genius to astonish others, if not by discoveries in truth, at least by their eccentricities. M. de Mortillet is a man of genius. The world may deny it. But M. de Mortillet is a better authority on the subject than any one else. This learned gentleman concludes his _Promenades_ with these beautiful phrases: "The chronology taught in all our schools is _terribly distanced_. It hardly comprises the historical period. The law of the progress of humanity, the law of the development of races, and the great antiquity of man, are three consequences which follow clearly, distinctly, precisely, and irrefragably from the work which we have made on the Exposition." In these three phrases we perceive the wonderful wit, profundity, brilliancy, and genius of the author. It is astonishing how a gentleman of his extraordinary science, although he was secretary of its deliberations, could not exercise the smallest influence on the congress, either by his speeches or his books!

Pre-historical archaeology was enriched by many new discoveries at the congress. The Abbé Bourgeois, among other important facts, observed that traces of man were found in the tertiary stratum.

The anthropological question came last. Eight days before the close of the congress, M. de Quagrefages proposed that question, in presenting to it the first copy of his fine work, _Rapport sur les Progrès de l'Anthropologie_. With great science, clearness, and modesty, the illustrious naturalist, in rendering an account of his investigations, held the whole assembly attentive. The applause which he received showed the esteem in which the author was held, and the value of his book.

Other incidents formed a prelude to the final thesis; but some in an opposite direction. We cite a single example. It was asked whether the first men had been anthropophagi or not. It is well known that there is a school in France, as well as elsewhere, which deems it no dishonor to be descended from cannibals or monkeys. A member of the congress made a profession of faith on this point. The admitted head of this school (Doctor Broca) asked leave to speak on primitive anthropology. He began by saying that he had long hesitated before adopting the affirmative, and that the proofs so far given did not satisfy him; but a human bone, which he showed to the assembly, had finally convinced him. This bone had scratches at the end of it made by a flint. A man of the age of _cut stone_ had tried to break the bone at this spot. He could not succeed. He had then tried to saw the bone in the middle with a flint, in order to obtain the marrow, with which he wished to regale himself. Some of the members laughed, especially when one, interrupting the orator, remarked that the pretended marks made by the stone saw seemed fresh, and produced by recent rubbing. When the demonstration was finished, the eminent archaeologist, M. de Longpérier showed, from the example of several historical races, and by specimens which are found in public museums, that objects of luxury, as well as utensils, were often made out of human bones. {707} Instances were given of mallets, bodkins, and musical instruments. As to the bone in question, nothing showed that the cuts and scratches on it pointed out by Doctor Broca were not caused by _some one trying to make a whistle!_ The reader may guess the impression left on the congress by this remark, and the expression of the doctor's physiognomy.

In anthropology as in archaeology the celebrities of the congress alleged well-proven facts; either real fossils of the human body, bones, skulls, jaw-bones, teeth; or signs naturally connected with the subject, as hilts of swords, or bracelets fitting hands or arms much smaller than ours. But it was first required to prove the authenticity of these antique objects. Theories could not be established until after the discussion of these facts. So the theorists were not at ease. They may have complained of having been troubled or gagged. By whom? By men too learned to be the slaves of a system. If such complaint were made--and such is the rumor--they are the highest eulogium of those eminent men.

"Si forte virum quem
Conspexere, silent." [Footnote 66]

[Footnote 66: The vulgar herd in silence awestruck scan The
face of him whom nature marks a man!]

At the closing session some human skulls, very ancient or supposed to be, were ranged on a table. Those heads were remarkable for the extraordinary length of the occiput, by their retreating foreheads, high cheek-bones, and prominent jaw-bones. The object of these skulls was to show the great similarity between the primitive man and the monkey. Doctor Broca, standing before the table, made a speech more than an hour long about those skulls, discussing the authenticity of some and reasoning on the others. He spoke also of a singular jaw-bone. He said a few words about the small hands. He should logically have concluded that the primitive man was a brother of the ape. Every one expected this. But at the decisive moment, he wheeled about, and confessed that there were not yet proofs enough to justify such a conclusion, and that it should not be urged. Was he afraid of ridicule or was he really convinced in making this concession? Let us say that it was conviction on his part. But the doctor's premises were not as inoffensive as his conclusion. M. de Quatrefages made short work of them. He so pulverized the arguments of Doctor Broca, that Carl Vogt, summoned against his will to help the doctor, admitted the conclusion of his colleague.

Vogt began by declaring himself a Darwinian. Although the theory of Darwin cannot satisfy the best naturalists, it knocks the man-monkey completely off his legs. Vogt admitted that it was impossible, in the actual condition of science, to hold the man-monkey opinion; so great is the distance between the lowest human type and the highest ape type. The Genevan Darwinian indeed added, that we might _imagine_, or might discover at some future day a common type of both races; but he was not very sanguine on this point. Only one thing, said he in conclusion, remains indisputable after all our discussions on the capacity of skulls and the shape of the head, namely, the progressive development of the brain and of the human skull, in proportion to the increasing development of intelligences.

We shall not dispute this double progress. It has the sanction of that most eminent naturalist and anthropologist M. de Quatrefages. We even admit a third progress with this _savant_; that made from Congress of Neufchâtel to the Congress of Paris. Even though we the should be accused of optimism, we shall even hope for greater progress in the future congresses. Yes, we expect it. Pre-historical studies will add to the facts already known others more significative still; and the learned will finally and unanimously adopt, in default of certitude, theories more probable and more convincing as they approach nearer to the truth.

------

{708}

Miscellany.

_Singular Effects of Lightning_.--Sir David Brewster has published an account of the effects of lightning in Forfarshire, which is of much interest. In the summer of 1827, a hay-stack was struck by lightning. The stack was on fire, but before much of the hay was consumed the fire was extinguished by the farm servants. Upon examining the hay-stack, a circular passage was observed in the middle of it, as if it had been cut out with a sharp instrument. This circular passage extended to the bottom of the stack, and terminated in a hole in the ground. Captain Thomson, of Montrose, who had a farm in the neighborhood, examined the stack, and found in the hole a substance which he described as resembling lava. A portion of this substance was sent by Captain Thomson to Sir David's brother, Dr. Brewster, of Craig, who forwarded it to Sir David, with the preceding statement. The substance found in the hole was a mass of silex, obviously formed by the fusion of the silex in the hay. It had a highly greenish tinge, and contained burnt portions of the hay. Sir David presented the specimen to the Museum of St. Andrew's.

----

_Ancient Glacier in the Pyrenees_.--M. Charles Martens, who was present at the meeting of the British Association, read a paper on the ancient glacier of the Valley of Argelez. This glacier and its affluents descended from the crest of the Pyrenees, whose summits now reach an altitude varying from 6000 to 9000 feet. The roots of the glacier were in the _cirques_ of Gavarnie, Troumouse, Pragnères, etc., and the glacier extended into the plain as far as the villages of Peyrouse, Loubajac, Ade, Juloz, and Arcisac-les-Angles. Along the valley, polished and striated rocks, scratched pebbles, glacial mud, moraines, and erratic boulders, are the proofs of its existence. At Argelez, the thickness of the glacier was about 2100 feet, and, at the opening of the valley at the foot of the Pic de Geer, near Lourdes, 1290 feet. Between Lourdes and the village of Ade, the railway runs across seven moraines; and the railway from Lourdes to Pau is cut, as far as the village of Peyrouse, through glacial deposits. The Lake of Lourdes is a glacial lake, barred by a moraine, and surrounded by numerous erratic boulders proceeding from the high Pyrenean mountains. Some of the boulders are of large dimensions: thus one of them, between the lake and the village of Poueyferré, is thirty feet in length, twenty-three feet in width, and eleven feet in height. This lake of Lourdes, surrounded by hills covered with briars, reminds one, in many respects, of the small lakes of Scotland.

-----

_A Burning Well_.--While some artisans were engaged in making borings for an artesian well at Narbonne, France, the water rushed forth with great violence, and soon burst into flame. The flame, which arises from the combustion of carburetted hydrogen, is reddish and smoky, and does not emit a smell either of bitumen or sulphuretted hydrogen. {709} The "sinking" for the spring was made on the left branch of the Aude, in a plain situate about two metres above the sea-level, and composed of alluvial mud. The alluvial mud extends to a depth of six metres; then follow tertiary limestones and marls, with the remains of marine shells. At the depth of seventy metres, the spring containing the inflammable gas was met with.

----

_Comets and Meteors_.--In a paper on this subject, laid before a late meeting of the Astronomical Society, Mr. G. J. Stony, Secretary to the Queen's University in Ireland, makes the following interesting observations, which tend to show, as Schiaparelli has already pointed out, that there is a very natural relationship between comets and meteors. If interstellar space, external to the solar system, be, as is most probable, peopled with innumerable meteoric bodies independent of one another, a comet while outside the solar system would in the lapse of ages collect a vast cluster of such meteorites within itself. Each meteorite which approached the comet would in general do so in a parabolic orbit; and, if it came near enough to pass through a part of the comet, this parabolic orbit would, by the resistance of the matter of the comet, be converted into an ellipse. The meteor would, therefore, return again and again, and on each occasion that it passed through the comet its orbit would be still further shortened, until at length it would fall in, and add one to whatever cluster had been brought together by the previous repetitions of this process. In this way a comet, while moving in outer space, beyond the reach of the many powerful disturbing influences which prevail within the solar system, would inevitably accumulate within itself just such a globular cluster of meteors as the November meteors must have been before they became associated with the solar system.

----

_How the Earth's Rotation affects Gunnery_.--Some may be found to doubt that the movement of the earth affects the direction of a ball expelled from a cannon; nevertheless, the fact is correct. In the _Astronomical Register_, Mr. Kincaid says that a simple illustration of this effect may be made by attaching to the same axis two wheels of different diameters, so that both shall rotate together. If the one have a diameter of three feet, and the other of one foot, it is evident that any point on the circumference of the larger will, during a revolution, move through three times as much space as a similar point on the periphery of the lesser circle, and will, therefore, move with three times the velocity. The figure of the earth may be considered as made up of an infinite number of such wheels, diminishing in size from the equator to the poles, and all revolving in twenty-four hours. Now, if a gun be fired from the equator in the direction of the meridian, which is obviously that of maximum deviation, at an object nearer the pole, it is plain that that object, being situated on a smaller circle than the gun, but revolving in the same interval of time, will move, during the flight of the projectile, through less space eastward than the shot, which will have imparted to it the greater velocity of the larger circle from which it started, and the latter will therefore tend to strike eastward from its butt.

----

_Dodo-like Birds of the Mascarene Islands_.--The Committee appointed in 1865 to investigate this group, has produced little result beyond the collection of a number of bones from Rodriguez. Professor Newton made some general remarks upon the specimens collected, and he especially dwelt on an unexpected confirmation of the testimony of Leguat, by the discovery of an extraordinary bony knob near the extremity of the wing. Leguat, whose account of the "Solitaire's" habits was the only one we possessed, mentioned a curious "ball," as big as a "musket-bullet," which the male birds possessed under their wing-feathers. Now, the existence of this ball was proved by the bony knob exhibited, and thus the veracity of old Leguat, on this point, as on so many others, was confirmed. In conclusion, Professor Newton called attention to the fact that at present we only knew of the didine bird of the island of Reunion, _that it was white_. {710} In the course of last year, Mr. Tegetmeier had shown him an old water-color painting of a white dodo, and this, he was inclined to believe, might represent this lost species, of which he trusted the French naturalists in that island would succeed in obtaining actual relics.

----

Mr. Foley's model for the O'Connell National Monument in Dublin has been unanimously adopted by the Committee. The work will be forty feet high, executed in bronze and granite. £10,000 is already subscribed toward the cost of its erection.

----

_A Slander Refuted_.--A work has lately appeared in England, in which everything Spanish is spoken of with the greatest contempt. In reply to the accusations made against the queen's chaplain, the Reverend Canon Dalton writes thus to the _Athenaeum_: "Will you allow me to _protest_ against the character drawn by Miss Edwards of Padre Claret in her recent work entitled, _Through Spain to the Sahara_, which was reviewed in your last number, December 14th? When I was in Spain last year, I had several interviews with the queen's confessor. The estimate which I was then enabled to form of his character was the very _opposite_ to that drawn by the authoress. I should like to know if Miss Edwards ever spoke a single word to Padre Claret, or even ever saw him. Then there is the testimony of Lady Herbert, in her work entitled _Impressions of Spain_ in 1866, (London, Bentley, 1867,) at pages 211-12; her ladyship draws a very different character of the Padre, taken from a personal interview with the illustrious prelate. Again I should like to know what reasons Miss Edwards has for styling Claret's work, _La Clave de Oro_, a _coarse_ work? All the works which he has published are purely of a devotional or literary character, and I am quite confident that nothing 'coarse' or unbecoming can be found in any one of them. Lastly, I never heard of Padre Claret's coach being driven by _four splendid mules_, because I believe he is not possessed even of a cab! J. Dalton."

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New Publications.

Lectures On Reason And Revelation.
Delivered in St. Ann's Church, New York,
during the Season of Advent, 1867.
By the Rev. Thomas S. Preston.
New York: The Catholic Publication House, 126 Nassau Street.

The Lectures published in this volume were delivered during the Sunday evenings of Advent, in St. Ann's Church. They are five in number, on the following subjects: The Office of Reason, Relations of Reason and Faith, Conditions of Revelation, Revelation and Protestantism, Revelation and the Catholic Church. The author's thesis may be thus stated: The Catholic Church is proved by reason alone, from the evidences of credibility by which the Christian revelation is demonstrated. The Introduction, which is a distinct essay in itself, disposes of two objections; first, that the evidence of Christianity can be applied to pure Protestantism, and second, that the Catholic Church ought to be proved by miracles occurring in every age of her history, as well as at the outset. The Rev. author has handled his topics with great ability, in a clear, neat, and attractive manner, and with a brevity and simplicity which detract nothing from the force of the reasoning, while they lighten very much the task of the reader. These Lectures will be of great service both, to Catholics and to well-disposed inquirers after truth. The typographical execution of the volume is in the best style. As a specimen of our author's method and style, we extract the following passage from the introduction.

{711}

"In the following lectures it is the aim of the author to set
forth, in a clear and concise manner, a simple argument whereby
the claims of the Catholic Church are substantiated by reason
alone. In the midst of the excitements of our day some of the
plainest truths are forgotten, and men hold opinions or pass to
conclusions without any logical grounds whatever. They even
sometimes contradict the propositions which are self-evident to
reason in their zeal for intellectual progress and emancipation
from the thraldom of the past. That which is new is sought
after, even though it overthrow the belief of truths heretofore
generally admitted. We are not believers in total depravity,
and have, therefore, great confidence in the good which still
remains in human nature. And as we know that God's grace is
ever with man to assist him to the knowledge of the truth, and
to lead him in the way of virtue, we have great hopes that the
intellectual and moral movements of our day will guide the
honest and sincere mind to the true light which is its only
illumination. It is a great mistake to suppose that the
Catholic Church requires of any man that he should do away with
his reason, or cease to exercise those powers which God has
given him for the proper appreciation of truth and goodness. To
man's intelligence revelation is addressed, and every new light
from above only serves to enlarge the thirst for knowledge. The
divine ways are ever harmonious, and the supernatural truth
will never contradict the natural. The argument of these
lectures depends upon the force of reason alone. We briefly
explain the nature of human reason and the sphere of its
operation. We show how the divine revelation gives its unerring
evidence, to which a just intelligence must submit. We
vindicate all the natural powers, and defend the exercise of
their just prerogatives. God, speaking to man, is bound to give
him unmistakable signs that he is speaking, and that no
deceiver is imposing upon us. When these signs are given, then
we are bound to believe the divine testimony, and entirely to
accept truths which the veracity of our Maker vouches for.
Private judgment has its full scope, as to it are clearly
presented the tokens of every supernatural intervention. The
extrinsic credibility of doctrines proposed to faith is thus
assured to the full conviction of the understanding. If we go
on to say that reason assured of a revelation cannot then be
the judge of the intrinsic credibility of a dogma clearly
revealed, we only say that reason must act in its own sphere,
and that the finite must not venture to measure the infinite.

"It seems to us that no logical objection can be made against
such a restriction of private judgment. If man, by his unaided
powers, could find out all necessary truth, there would be no
need of a revelation. Of things beyond the scope of his
understanding, man can certainly be no judge, while it is
equally certain that the word of God can never deceive.

"It is also a great misunderstanding to suppose that Catholics
are not allowed to use their reason, or that faith has taken
the place of our ordinary intelligence. So far from the truth
is this supposition, that the aim of the present work will be
to show that Catholics alone are the followers of true reason,
always yielding obedience to its just dictates, and never
swerving in any way from its rigid conclusions. The Catholic
faith presents all its unanswerable claims before the mind, and
then, as it appeals to our natural sense of truth and justice,
it cannot contradict itself by doing away with the very faculty
which is made the judge of its pretensions. Reason, rightly
understood, leads with certainty to the light of revelation,
and that light does in no way extinguish the spirit or vitality
of nature. There is full scope for the play of the highest
intelligence, not in the contradiction of evidence clearly
established, nor in doubting truth already manifest, but in the
constant and daily increasing appreciation of the beauties of
God's revelation whereby all our faculties are brought into
perfect harmony. There is neither manliness nor wisdom in the
state of perpetual doubt which appears to be chosen by many as
the exercise of a precious liberty. The Catholic believes
because he has evidence of the divine power and goodness, and
in the very highest exercise of reason bows down to God and him
only. No human organization has a right to bind our
consciences, and no body of men can form or direct our faith.
God alone is our master, whose word is a law to our
understandings and our hearts. The church is recognized by us
because he has established it, and given to it authority to
teach in his name, and we are ever ready to give to any honest
mind a reason for the faith we hold and profess."

----

{712}

Poems.
By Ellen Clementine Howarth.
Newark: Martin R. Dennis & Co. 1868.

Poets are said to deal in fiction, which does not, however, imply that what they sing is false. One may relate a purely fictitious story, and it be "an ower-true tale" for all that. In fact, poetry is the most beautiful form of the expression of truth. Tell the truth in honest plain prose, and the chances are that you tell something very unpalatable. Facts are proverbially hard. On the contrary, poetry (if it deserves the name) is ever charming, winning, and popular. We say without hesitation, few of our living lyric poets have wreathed more charming verses than Mrs. Howarth. Simple and unaffected as they are, every line breathes the purest sentiment, and sends its touching pathos straight to the heart. The reason is plain. She reveals the truth as her own heart has known it. Here she guilelessly tells more of her own life, with all its struggles, toil, and bitter sorrows, than we think she intended. In a word, it is a volume not for the eye of strangers, but for the loving perusal of friends to whom she would wish to speak "eye to eye and soul to soul." We do not wonder, therefore, that, when these poems appeared a few years ago under the title of "The Wind Harp," without any prefatory key to their origin, a few careless critics should have failed to penetrate the hidden depths of their meaning. Our space does not permit us to quote as freely as we could wish. There are some undoubtedly better than others, but there is not one which our readers would not find worthy of particular choice and of special merit.

The first, "The Passion Flower," well deserves its place of honor. We give the opening verse:

"I plucked it in an idle hour,
And placed it in my book of prayer;
'Tis not the only passion flower
That hath been crushed and hidden there.
And now through floods of burning tears
My withered bloom once more I see,
And I lament the long, long years,
The wasted years afar from Thee."

From a poem entitled "Gethsemane" we cull this most beautiful and truly sublime thought.

"'Tis said that every earthly sound
Goes trembling through the voiceless spheres,
Bearing its endless echoes round
The pathway of eternal years.
Ah! surely, then, the sighs that He
That midnight breathed, the zephyrs bore
From thy dim shades, Gethsemane,
To thrill the world for evermore!"

And who can read the following without emotion?

My Soldier Comes No More

"Yes, many a heart is light to-day,
And bright is many a home,
And children dance along the way
The soldier heroes come:
And bands beneath the floral arch
The gladdest music pour;
While beats my heart a funeral march--
My soldier comes no more.

One morn from him glad tidings came,
Joy to my heart they gave;
At night I read my hero's name
Amid the fallen brave.
I know not where he met the foe,
Nor where he sleeps in gore;
Enough of woe for me to know,
My soldier comes no more.

Now here they come with heavy tramp,
And flags and pennons gay,
Who were his comrades in the camp,
His friends for many a day.
The music ceases as they pass
Before my cottage door;
The flags are lowered; they know, alas!
My soldier comes no more.

What care I for the seasons now?
The world has lost its light:
No spring can clothe my leafless bough,
No morn dispel my night;
No longer may I hopeful wait
For summer to restore:
My heart and home are desolate--
My soldier comes no more.

Judging from such poems as "The Tress of Golden Hair," "Adrift," "The Stranger's Grave," and other pieces suggested by some ordinary accident in life, Mrs. Howarth possesses one of those finely strung natures which, like the AEolian harp, are moved to give forth harmony at the slightest breath that passes. The former title of her book, "The Wind Harp," was, to our thinking, singularly appropriate. The present volume is published in first-class style.

---- {713}

An Epistle Of Jesus Christ To The Faithful Soul.
Written in Latin
by Joannes Lanspergius, a Charter-House Monk,
and translated into English by
Lord Philip, XIXth Earl of Arundel.
New York: Catholic Publication Society.

This little book will be hailed by the faithful soul who desires to increase very much in the love of God, as if it were, what its title expresses, a letter written by the Saviour of the world himself, and addressed to him personally. It embodies the very, spirit and life of his instructions, and teaches us practically how to carry out in a systematic way the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount. It is easy to read that divine sermon in a sentimental way, to feel somewhat good while reading it, but without gathering much of its meaning, or with any desire to practise it any more than may be convenient. This book will not be very palatable to such persons. It contains the strong meat for vigorous and earnest souls, rather than the light and unsubstantial froth which merely nourishes a sickly sentimentalism. We do not doubt there are thousands of devout persons in this country who would find in this little work an invaluable treasure, and, once possessing it, they would on no account be willing to part with it. They would find its directions plain and simple, and eminently fitted to lift them up out of a low spirituality to the highest state of religious peace and perfection. Would to God this notice may meet their eye, so that they may not be without it. We need just such books now in this country, to serve to make a number of saints and saintly persons, who shall draw down from heaven a benediction on not only themselves, but on the church of God and all our fellow-citizens. May more of them be drawn out of the storehouse of old true Catholic piety and devotion, for our spiritual joy and edification.

It is only necessary to add, that the English of the translation is delightful, while the mechanical getting up of the book, its paper and type, render it most agreeable to read.

----

1. Napoleon And The Queen Of Prussia.
An Historical Novel, by L. Mühlbach.
Translated from the German, by F. Jordan.
Complete in one volume, with illustrations.
New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1867. 8vo, pp. 265.

2. The Daughter Of An Empress.
An Historical Novel, by L. Mühlbach;
translated from the German by Nathaniel Greene.
Complete in one volume, with illustrations.
New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1867, 8vo, pp. 255.

3. Marie Antoinette And Her Son.
An Historical Novel, by L. Mühlbach.
Complete in one volume, with illustrations.
New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1867. 8vo, pp. 301.

On a former occasion we noticed three of the Mühlbach books, all we had then read, as favorably as our conscience would permit; for we wish to be thought capable of recognizing literary merit in books written by others than Catholics. Now, Catholics have at least nature, and, though we do not recognize the sufficiency of nature without grace, we yet do not hold it to be totally corrupt, or count it good for nothing. We are always ready to recognize merit in literary works, by whomsoever written, if able, and true to genuine nature. The Mühlbach novels are written with spirit and ability, a talent almost approaching to genius, with some touches of nature, and with considerable historical information. Having said so much, we have exhausted our praise. The works are true throughout neither to nature nor to history, and their moral tone is low and unwholesome--pagan, not Christian. Their popularity, which can be but short-lived--for it is hardly possible to read one of them a second time--speaks very little in favor of the taste, the knowledge of history, or the moral tone of our American reading public, as far as published. The least faulty, and to us the least repulsive of the series, is _Napoleon and the Queen of Prussia_, though it shows less ability than _Joseph II._ and his Court. We broke down before we got half through _The Daughter of an Empress_, and we have read only a few pages of _Marie Antoinette and her Son_. We have had no desire to have our feelings harrowed up by a fresh recital of the horrors of the French Revolution, especially of the wrongs of the beautiful and lovely Queen of France, and the young Dauphin. _Napoleon and the Queen of Prussia_ is, however, a book we can read, and some portions of it with deep interest; but even this is disfigured by namby-pamby sentiment. {714} Adulterous love, self-murders, and horrors of all sorts, enough both to disgust the Christian reader, and to give even a reader of strong nerves the nightmare for weeks after reading it. The Mühlbach is in ecstasy of delight when Napoleon overcomes the virtue of the Countess Walewski, and has no doubt that the self-murderer has ended all his troubles and rests in peace. She seems, through all her books, not to regard adultery, if prompted by love, or suicide either, if inspired by disappointed patriotism, as a sin. Indeed, throughout she writes as a low-minded pagan, not as a high-minded Christian. She apotheosizes persons who die with imprecations of vengeance on their enemies in their mouths, and by their own hands; and even the beautiful and slandered Queen Louisa has no higher aspirations than those of patriotism.

We have heretofore said of the Mühlbach books that they have too much fiction for history, and too much history for fiction; but even a great part of her history is itself fiction, in the sense of being untrue, which fiction never need be. Scott, in his historical novels, commits a thousand anachronisms, mistakes one person for another, and is rarely accurate in the minuter details; but he never falsifies history, and the impression he gives of an epoch or a historical person is always truthful. The impression the Mühlbach gives, even when historically correct as to details, is unhistorical and untrue. We are no believers in the immaculate virtue or high-mindedness of the royal and imperial courts of the eighteenth century, but no one who reflects a moment can believe that the Mühlbach gives a true picture of them. There is no doubt at all times much illicit love, cunning, intrigue, cruelty, vice, and crime, in the ranks of the great, but our experience proves that there is something else there also. At the time of the French Revolution the nobility were corrupt enough, but were they more so than the people who warred against them? Were the murderers and applauders of the murder of Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette superior to them in either public or private virtue? If the great are bad, the little are seldom better; and nothing can have a more unwholesome effect on society than the multitude of novels poured forth by little women and less men, professing to describe the manners and morals, but really traducing the manners and morals of the upper classes. Such novels are untrue in fact, and serve only to gratify the mean curiosity and malice of the envious and the malignant. Whoever reads the late book of the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland will find that she and her husband furnished a model of the domestic virtues and affections. Even when the Mühlbach professes to write history, she does not write it, and perverts it quite unnecessarily when by no means demanded by the aesthetic exigencies of her story. We pass over the calumnies of the Jesuits and the private life of Ganganelli, Pope Clement XIV. They please us better than would her praise. But she represents Charles III., King of Spain, as refusing his consent to the suppression of the Society of Jesus after he had expelled the Jesuits from his own dominions, and when he was most urgent of all the Bourbon princes for their suppression. She represents France as in favor of the suppression, but holding back her formal assent till she could secure that of Spain, when it is well known, that the King, Louis XV. and Choiseul, then at the head of the French government, were rather favorable to the Jesuits than otherwise, and gave them up only after a decree of parliament had been rendered against them, and even then only in order to obtain from the parliament, always their bitter enemies, the registering of certain edicts in which the minister believed France was more interested than in preserving the society. The Spanish, French, Portuguese, and several of the Italian princes, demanded of the pope, under threats of schism, the suppression of the order before the Empress Marie Theresa reluctantly consented, at the order of the pope, to allow the Bull suppressing the society to be published in her dominions, as the Mühlbach has herself described in her _Joseph II. and his Court._ {715} These works are not only not trustworthy in their history, not only in their grouping and coloring falsify it, but they pervert the judgment, prejudice the mind so against the truth that it is able only with great difficulty to recognize it when it comes to be presented by learned and faithful historians.

The real name of the writer of the Mühlbach books is no secret. She is a widow, said to be personally a very estimable lady; and it has been reported that she intends coming to this country and taking up her residence with us, and certainly we would not treat her uncourteously. But if the report be true, it is a good proof that her works are not very popular in Germany, and bring her but small pecuniary remuneration. Her works will not long be popular even in this country; for their popularity here has, to a great extent, been due to their supposed value as truthful pictures of the courts of Berlin, Vienna, St. Petersburg, Paris, and Rome, in the last century, not to their weak and sickly sentimentalism, their low moral tone, their worship of Venus or Anteros, or their cynicism in religion. The American people are excessively fond of reading about courts, kings and queens, emperors and empresses, dukes and duchesses, counts and countesses; and chiefly because they have no such things among themselves, they see them only as shrouded in mystery. But when they find that the Mühlbach books do not, after all, raise the veil, or give any trustworthy account of them, they will drop them; for they adopt as their motto, _Ernst ist das Leben_, and can never be long fascinated by the debased paganism of the Mühlbach. We would by no means do the author the slightest harm in character or purse, but we advise her in the future not to make her novels sermons or moral lectures, but to animate them with a real ethical spirit, so that they will make the reader stronger and better, not weaker and worse even in the natural order.

------

Two Thousand Miles On Horseback.

Santa Fe And Back.

A Summer Tour Through Kansas,
Nebraska, Colorado, And New-Mexico,
In The Year 1866.

By James F. Meline.
New York: Hurd & Houghton. 1867.

Really good books of travel have been found so entertaining and successful in time past, that more recently every quarter of the accessible globe has spawned tourists, and journals, and diaries, and "notes," and "visits," of a thousand varieties of vapidness. England, as usual in matters of _superficial_ mediocrity, has been completely distanced by America. We have dozens of diarists who are promising candidates for the compliment some wicked spirit once paid Bayard Taylor--of having travelled more and seen less than any man living. Singularly enough, our own country has fared the worst at our own hands; singularly, because, full of natural wonders of its own, it has not to send its Winwood Reades to Senegambia for interesting material, and its charming, boy-beloved Captain Mayne to swear at the luckless "closet-naturalist" from all the corners of the world. We could turn all the Royal Societies loose along the Mississippi, and furnish them matter for a quarto to each F.R.S. Yet since Porte Crayon sharpened the lead-pencil into the war-spear, and his charming cousins stepped finally out of the carriage, and "Little Mice" sank to the level of a "man and a brother, and possible Congressman," only one traveller worth following has kept the field--the inimitable, the perennial Ross Browne, in Washoe, or Italy, or St. Petersburg, still the prince and paladin of tourists. Thus there is wondrous great room in the upper story of this literature, with a whole fresh young continent to hold the mirror to. Mr. Meline has challenged boldly and well for a good place in the front rank of our books of travel. He has great advantages and great aptitude for the task. His advantages are that, unless our spectacles and his artifice deceive us, he is a thorough good fellow--the _sine qua non_ of the traveller everywhere--the shibboleth of the brotherhood of cosmopolites. But besides this, _mores hominum multorum vidit et urbes_. {716} If we are not mistaken in remembering Mr. Meline as the same gentleman who was formerly French Consul in Cincinnati, he is a man who has known European capitals and landmarks, and, what is better, galleries and sculptures, and not known them in vain. And apt he certainly is. In the difficult art not to harp on anything, this book displays consummate judgment, and the choice of subjects shows a tact and skill most remarkable in what we understand to be a first book. There is just about enough fact to make the work decently solid, a good deal of fancy and impression, and above all, a light hand. The style as a whole is really good, because it does pretty evenly just what it attempts and professes--sometimes more, seldom less. The descriptions of Denver and Central City, and the account of the Pueblos of New Mexico interested us especially the former for its manner, the latter for its interesting and curious facts. But another reader would call our selection invidious, and cite quite another set of incidents. The fact is, Mr. Meline is everywhere vivid, easy, and suggestive, and we do think we like those two parts best because we have friends in Denver, and take a special interest in the old Poltec question.

Only one thing, barring a little pedantry here and there, we have to growl at in taking a grateful leave of a beguiling book. The author feels it his duty at painfully short intervals to say something funny, and has preserved and dished up the selectest assortment of aged, stale, and stupid jests we ever saw. We suspect him to be one of those terrible people who enjoy a witticism not wisely but too well. The moment he tries humor, his wonted taste and sparkle seem to take flight, and he grows to a dotage of inane merriment. It is hard to say whether the jokes he cracks himself, or those which he rehashes, ready cracked, are the more benumbingly dismal. The most provoking thing is, that the man is not at all wanting in play of wit; there are a hundred good and a few clever little side-hits in his volume. Only he must not force it. The moment he sets out systematically to be jocose, he is flatness itself.

But take him for all in all, Mr. Meline has written no commonplace book on a subject where commonplace has been achieved frequently and fully; and if he will learn to sketch like Ross Browne, or half so well, or else hire one of those private ubiquities, a "special artist," make no more jokes, quote some, if quote he must, that others have made within twenty years, and rely more on his liveliness of style, he has a future before him as a writer of travels.

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Golden Truths.
Boston: Lee & Shepherd. 1868.

The aim of the above volume is a good one. The purpose of its author is to aid the soul on its way in Christian perfection. The "truths" which it contains are taken from various Protestant authors, and a few from Catholic sources. The selections struck us at first as having been made without any sectarian bias or bigotry. Had we found it so unto the end, we should have given it our approval. But on page 166 we find the following:

"Will the martyrs, who sowed the seed of the church in their
blood, have no part in the final harvest? The mighty reformers,
who battered down the walls of tyrant error about the ears of
wicked priests," etc.

Who G. W. Bethune is, from whose writings the above is extracted, we know not; we would, however, advise him, whoever he may be, when writing for the public, to respect its intelligence more, rant less, and remember there is a commandment which reads as follows,

"Thou shalt not bear false witness."

The aim of this volume was to be acceptable to all readers; the quotations from the above writer omitted, would remove at least what is offensive to some.

It is not often that a neglected catholic truth finds so beautiful an expression as in the following passage by the "Country Parson:"

"There are few who have lived long in this world, and have not
stood by the bed of the dying; and let us hope that there are
many who have seen a Christian friend or a brother depart--who
have looked on such a one as life, but not love, ebbed away as
the eye of sense grew dim, but that of faith waxed brighter and
brighter.
{717}
Have you heard such an one, in bidding you farewell, whisper
that it was not for ever? have you heard such an one tell you
so to live, as that death might only remove you to a place
where there is no dying? And as you felt the pressure of that
cold hand, and saw the earnest spirit that shone through those
glazing eyes, have you not resolved and promised that, God
helping you, you would? And ever since have you not felt that,
though death has sealed those lips, and that heart is turning
back to clay, _that_ voice is speaking yet, _that_
heart is caring for you yet, _that_ soul is remembering
yet the words it last spoke to you? From the abode of glory it
says, 'Come up hither.' The way is steep, the ascent is
toilsome; it knows it well, for it trod it once; but it knows
now what it knew not then, how bright the reward, how pleasant
the rest that remaineth, after the toil is past. And if we go
with interest to the grave of a much-loved friend, who bade us
when dying, sometimes to visit the place where he should be
laid when dead; if you hold a request like _that_ sacred,
tell me, how much more solemnly and earnestly we should seek to
go where the conscious spirit lives, than where the senseless
body moulders! If day after day sees you come to shed the
pensive tear of memory over the narrow bed where that dear one
is sleeping; if, amid the hot whirl of your daily engagements,
you find a calm impressed as you stand in that still spot where
no worldly care ever comes, and think of the heart which no
grief vexes now; if the sound of the world melts into distance
and fades away on the ear, at that point whence the world looks
so little; if the setting sun, as it makes the gravestone glow,
reminds you of evening hours and evening scenes long since
departed, and the waving grass, through which the wind sighs so
softly, speaks of that one who 'faded as a leaf' and left you
like 'a wind that passeth away and cometh not again,' oh! how
much more should every day see you striving up the way which
will conduct you where the living spirit dwells, and whence it
is ever calling to you, 'Come up hither!' It was a weak fancy
of a dying man that bade you come to his burying-place; but it
is the perpetual entreaty of a living seraph that invites you
to join it _there._"

----

The Layman's Breviary.
From the German of Leopold Shefer.
By C. T. Brooks.
Boston: Roberts Brothers. 1868.

Whatever may be the merit of the original German, certain it is, this English version flows like a free rivulet. Mr. Brooks is singularly happy in his versification. It might, however, just as well have been entitled by the author, the "Priest's Breviary" as the "Layman's Breviary," for it is quite plain he thinks both of those terms convertible. We search in vain for any trace of faith in the supernatural, and, considering the beauty of the sentiments, are sorry to find it wanting. The lack of it jars upon our Catholic nerves from the beginning of its perusal to its ending.

----

The Young Fur Traders, A Tale Of The Far North;

The Coral Island, A Tale Of The Pacific;

Ungava, A Tale Of Esquimaux Land;

Morgan Rattler; or,
A Boy's Adventures in the Forests of Brazil.

By R. M. Ballantyne.
New York: Thomas Nelson & Sons.

In these "books for boys" amusement and instruction are admirably combined, the adventures met with being varied and thrilling, while the local descriptions embody so thoroughly the natural features of the regions visited, the productions, atmospheric phenomena, etc., as to render them not unworthy the perusal of children of a larger growth; they are also well got up; good paper, neat binding, numerous illustrations.

Where so much is praiseworthy, we are sorry their universal diffusion should be so seriously impeded, or rather utterly destroyed, by a most wanton display of sectarian rancor. In the _Young Fur Traders_, for instance, we meet with the following definitions, certainly not according to Webster: "Papist, a man who has sold his liberty in religious matters to the pope;" "Protestant, one who protests against such an ineffably silly and unmanly state of slavery." And in _Morgan Rattler_, a virulent attack on the Brazilian clergy, who, we are told, "totally neglected their religious duties; were no better than miscreants in disguise, teaching the people vice instead of virtue a--curse not a blessing to the land," etc.

{718}

We regret this pitiful outpouring the more that, as books of adventures for boys, they are otherwise all that could be desired.

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The Spirit Of St. Vincent De Paul;
Or, A Holy Model Worthy Of
Being Imitated By Ecclesiastics,
Religious, And All The Faithful.

Translated from the work of the learned M. Andre--Joseph
Ansart, converted Priest of the Order of Malta, etc.
By the Sisters of Charity,
Mount St. Vincent, New York.
New York: P. O'Shea, 27 Barclay street. 1868.

It is a valuable service to present to the public, as the author of the above translation has done, the pith of other and more compendious lives of the great St. Vincent de Paul. The life of our Saint cannot be read too often by priests, by the people, and by all lovers of their race. His zeal for religion and his love of the poor were unbounded almost; and the extent of his labors, and the good he did to the poor and distressed of humanity, were never perhaps equalled by any other man. To our non-Catholic readers we would say, read the life of this man, great in goodness, if you would obtain a true idea of the genuine and perfect fruit of the catholic faith. No one, whatever may be his creed, can read the life of St. Vincent de Paul without feeling his love for God and his fellow-men increased and inflamed. May it please God to raise up in his holy church in our own country a priest like St. Vincent de Paul!

----

Rome And The Popes.
Translated from the German of Dr. Karl Brandes,
by Rev. W. J. Wiseman, S.T.L.
Benziger Brothers. 1868.