Chapter XVI: By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them (8)

But Bishop Hefele remained faithful to the Pope, and the German clergy unanimously declared that Döllinger’s assertion was a calumny. The King of Bavaria himself, who had given Döllinger so many proofs of his esteem, hesitated a long time about giving him his support, because he could not help seeing that the anti-ecclesiastical movement was chiefly led by a political party whose efforts openly tended to mediatize the reigning houses of the second and third ranks in order to form a united and centralized Germany, in imitation of the empire of Napoleon III. These efforts naturally met with the most favorable concurrence on the part of the democrats; for an empire of this kind, established on a broad and “liberal” basis, would lead, by a sort of fatality, to a republic, especially if they first succeeded in doing away with the religious and historic traditions.

Immediately after the close of the parliament, a fire was opened at Berlin upon the “clericals,” and especially upon the _Fraction du Centre_. The official journals did their best to open the way to “modern progress” by removing all the obstacles that might impede it, and to increase the diplomatic pressure that had so long been exerting its influence on the Bavarian cabinet. The whole German press, with the exception of a dozen journals, naturally joined in the chorus, and then began an attack on the Catholics, the like of which had not been witnessed since the Archbishop of Cologne was sent under guard to the fortress of Minden, under the pretext that he had conspired with the two revolutionary parties against the Prussian government.

The German Catholics are accustomed to these kinds of accusations, which have passed through all possible variations. Thus, the Catholics of the Rhenish provinces have been successively accused, according to the circumstances of the moment, of plotting with France, Belgium, Bavaria, and Austria, against Prussia, and of considering the Pope as their legitimate sovereign. Foreigners can hardly credit what I am obliged to relate here, and, if they should, it would excite their risibility. Unfortunately, these absurdities have a serious side for the Prussian Catholics. Independently of the circumstance that these perfidious calumnies, systematically repeated, might pervert public opinion in those sections of Germany where Protestantism prevails, they serve as a pretext for practically refusing Catholics the open equality which they should share with the adherents of other religions. For example, all the higher offices of influence are, with very rare exceptions, filled by Protestants, who, as a matter of course, specially favor the interests of their co-religionists in every way, and, so to speak, are obliged to do so, because genuine Catholics are officially designated as unpatriotic. An exact list of the functionaries of the German communes and government, drawn up with reference to the religion of each one, would be a valuable statistic, because it would incontestably establish how far the principle of _suum cuique_, which constitutionally recognizes the equality of Christian sects, is really applied. It is evident that such a report 274 will never be published or drawn up by the authorities, consequently the formation of a private agency to effect such an object is an urgent necessity. Perhaps this report might at last put an end to the constantly repeated accusations of the base ingratitude of Catholics against the Prussian government. The clear judgment of Frederick William IV., and the constitutions that sprang from the events of 1848, guaranteed a liberty of action to the Catholic Church and its organs which had not existed in any German state since the peace of Westphalia. The Prussian Catholics displayed a lively gratitude for this, and flattered themselves with the hope that several crying injustices which weighed on them would be removed, especially in the conferring of public offices and the nomination of professors at the universities. This hope was then the more reasonable, because, in the war against France, Catholics, as well as Protestants, shed their blood on the battle-fields, and submitted to the heaviest requisitions. The religious orders particularly signalized themselves by their services, as the recently published report of the Knights of Malta (Catholics) prove. Unfortunately, this hope has already given place to serious preoccupation.

Prince Bismarck appears no longer able to endure repose. Having vanquished our foreign enemies, he seems to aim, unless all appearances deceive us, at making adversaries of the Catholics of Germany and causing them to feel the weight of his hand. Perhaps he is influenced by the consideration that military unity, to be on a solid basis, should be founded on, or crowned by, political and religious unity. At all events, this is the opinion of the liberal party, whose course involuntarily recalls the expression of Tacitus, “_Ruere in servitium_;” whereas, while M. de Bismarck was rising to power, they abused him beyond all bounds. These worshippers of success have for allies the Catholics who are not willing to submit to the decrees of the Council of the Vatican. In the jargon of the liberals, these Neo-Protestants are designated as old Catholics, while the immense majority of Catholics who now, as formerly, consider the authority of the Pope and bishops in religious things as higher than that of certain professors, are styled Neo-Catholics, absolutely as if they had abandoned the faith of the church. A foreigner would find it difficult to understand how it is possible to give a completely opposite meaning to the real signification of a word, and this in a country like Germany, which prides itself on its intelligence.

But it is not the anti-religious journals alone that take this liberty. M. de Mühler himself, the Prussian minister of the public worship, treats the Catholics, who remain faithful to the decrees of the Pope and bishops as rebels to the government. Immediately after the suspension of the council, he took under his protection the professors, even those who were priests, who refused to submit to the decisions of the council and the bishops, and encouraged them in their revolt against ecclesiastical authority. Recently, _à propos_ of the affair of the Bishop of Ermland, he went so far as to submit to the ministry of Prussia, composed exclusively of Protestants, a resolution to ascertain what Catholics should be considered as orthodox, and he ordered a priest named Wollmann, who had been excluded from the fold of the church by major excommunication, to retain his professorship as religious instructor in the Catholic college of Braunsberg. The students, unwilling to receive religious instruction from a fallen priest, left the college. They were thus obliged to give up most of 275 their studies, as there is no other establishment of the kind at Braunsberg. It should also be remarked that the College of Braunsberg was founded by a bishop and sustained by Catholic foundations. In Silesia, another priest named Kaminski, likewise excommunicated, was appointed to a church that he might celebrate the divine service for those who protested against the Council of the Vatican. In a word, every where there is any reason, or even a pretext, the episcopal authority is sacrificed to those who refuse them the obedience solemnly sworn to them, or become unfaithful to the church by calling the episcopal crosier the _bâton_ of a police officer. On all sides were declarations, more and more threatening, that an end must be made of “Romanism,” that German science should take the place of idolatrous papistry, and the echo of this cry is to be found in the papers that seek their inspiration from the ministerial bureaux.

But in spite of the great power of the Prussian government, the centralists, to their severe mortification, were doubtful about succeeding in fully organizing a persecution against the Catholics unless the other German governments, or at least the most important of them, declare war against the church. The Würtemberg government was so wise as to declare from the first that it would ignore the decisions of the Council of the Vatican as long as no one was influenced by it against the laws and constitution of the kingdom. As this evidently would never be the case, the Würtemberg ministry, if the national liberals who have just begun an outcry in the assembly of representations at Stuttgart do not impose a different policy on them, will consequently remain strictly passive with respect to the church, as is the case in Belgium, Holland, England, the United States, and every country where genuine liberty prevails. The statesmen who govern those countries do not allow their slumbers to be disturbed by the decrees of the Council of the Vatican, and deem it beneath their dignity to regard them as a pretext to form a kind of Cæsaro-papism.

As we have remarked, the course of the Bavarian government in the ulterior development of this agitation, will be of great importance. The pressure brought to bear on that government by Prussia and all the parties inimical to the church has led to the retirement of Count Bray, whose devotedness to the church is well-known. Nevertheless, the king has not fully decided to create, by an open rupture with the religious authorities, unforeseen complications in his kingdom, already so shaken, and to recompense by moral violence the fidelity of those of his subjects who have shown themselves the most devoted partisans of the dynasty of Wittelsbach. This question, so painful for the majority of Bavarians, will be doubtless decided before this article is published.

Having given a general outline of the present state of affairs, I am led to ask myself what, before the end of the year, will be the stand of the Catholic representatives who are still faithful to the church in the legislative assemblies of Prussia and the German empire. The reports of those deputies to their electors appear to me adapted to strengthen them in their resolution to continue to struggle courageously against the supremacy of the state as well as against revolutionary absolution, and to remain defenders of the church and of all constitutional rights against the false apostles of liberty and an arbitrary ministry. At all events, I imagine these deputies will smile 276 with pity when they hear themselves styled unpatriotic by some parties in imitation of a part of the journals hostile to the church, or even accused of conspiring with foreigners or the _Internationale_. Some papers, in fact, have not shrunk from the ridicule attached to such foolish accusations. Does not this having to resort to such imputations prove the want of any serious charge against the members of the _Centre_? They are evidently not credited by those who make use of them, nor is any attempt made to convince others of their truth.

The members of the _Fraction du Centre_ figure, for the most part, among the notabilities of their districts. Many of them have occupied or occupy some public office with honor: and several have, for many years, showed their constant zeal in the old Prussian house of legislation, where they had a seat, and gave their devoted support to the government in the crisis of the year 1848 and the following year, often at the expense of their popularity. They were often known to defend the authorities against the attacks of those who are now endeavoring to excite the government against them.

In support of what I have just stated, it is sufficient to recall the names of those whom the confidence of their colleagues chose as a committee of the _Fraction du Centre_ in the German parliament and the Prussian house of representatives. I will mention M. de Savigny, the son of the illustrious jurisconsult so well-known throughout the whole world, who was formerly Prussian minister at Brussels, and latterly the representative of the King of Prussia at the Diet of Frankfort; M. Windthorst, who was president of the house of representatives in Hanover, and twice minister of justice in that kingdom; the Baron d’Arétin, the vice-president of the upper house in the kingdom of Bavaria; M. de Mallinkrodt, the counsellor of the Prussian regency; the Prince de Loewenstein; the Count de Landsberg-Velen, a hereditary member of the Prussian house of lords, etc. Perhaps I may be permitted to mention also my brother, a counsellor of the Prussian Court of Cassation, who was one of the most active leaders of the conservative party when the government was the object of the most violent attacks.[76]

He who consecrates his time and strength to the cause of justice and religious liberty, or uses them in the arena of political combat, should not expect to reap any gratitude, but the leaders of the _Centre_ and their friends could not foresee that they would be exposed to the calumnies I have alluded to. The only appreciable grievance uttered against the Hanoverian and Bavarian members of their _Fraction_ is, that the former disapproved of the annexation of their country to Prussia, and the latter used its influence to prevent Bavaria from joining the new German Empire. But these deputies have stated publicly that, these measures having been decided by vote, they were ready not only to fall in with the new order of things, but to endeavor to strengthen it, which cannot be the case if the national liberal party is not opposed, the evident tendency of which is not of a nature to fortify the constitution of the empire, being directed 277 against the federative principle, which is the fundamental characteristic of this constitution. No one has a right to suspect the statements and character of these men who merit the esteem of all honorable people for having defended in a purely conservative sense, and by all legal means, the traditions of their ancestors, to which they remain faithful, and which they wish to maintain as long as their duty evidently requires it.

To the _Fraction du Centre_ in the German Parliament belongs also M. Kraetzig, the leader of the Catholic department of the ministry of public worship, which has just been dissolved. This division, composed of three counsellors belonging to the Catholic faith, was organized by Frederick William IV. with the benevolent intention of giving the Catholics of Prussia a sort of guarantee for the suitable administration of the funds for public worship: it was not wished that such matters should be decided by a Protestant government without at least listening to the advice of the Catholic functionaries. (The leader of the Catholic department of public worship had only a consultative voice.) The existence of this division was a pledge to the Catholics, being an assurance that their religious interests would never fall into hostile or indifferent hands. If we except the Prince de Hohenzollern, no Catholic ever had a seat in the ministerial council, and especially no Catholic was ever appointed minister of public instruction. The suppression of this division, decreed on the eighth of last July, is the more serious a symptom that it has been applauded by the journals opposed to the church, and with a joy equal to that manifested at the measures taken in Alsace against the brothers devoted to instruction and against the Catholic press. The party of the _Centre_ will naturally oppose with all its might the current of opinion which these acts prove to exist in the region of power. Its voice, it is true, will be stifled by the majority, but it will not be raised the less energetically for liberty and justice, with the hope of seeing a better day dawn, and, whatever the event, with the conviction of having fulfilled an obligation of conscience not only toward the church, but to the state.

The hope of soon seeing the clouds disperse that have been accumulating of late around Germany in so unexpected a manner is founded on the political prudence, the experience, and the opinions of the Emperor William. It is not possible for this monarch crowned with laurels, after having established peace with foreign powers through the bravery and fidelity of the _whole_ German nation, to authorize the persecution of millions of Germans on account of their faith, and consent to sacrifice the national peace--the peace which is especially due to his royal brother, whose memory is still blessed by Catholics. There is no doubt but the appeals of the Catholic population will be heard and listened to, as soon as they reach the foot of the throne. The statesman who, in such an unparalleled manner, has been so highly exalted to the very steps of that throne, and whose celebrated name is displayed, without his consent I am persuaded, on the standard of the enemies of the church, cannot be ignorant that, when these troubles shall have assumed more formidable proportions, it will be more difficult to overcome moral resistance than to triumph over physical obstacles, and that measures of policy will be powerless against the former. He will hardly consider it chivalric; with all the enormous 278 material resources of the state at his disposal, to enter into a combat against people who can and will only oppose him passively, as is suitable in the defence of a cause which represents the most powerful interests of humanity.

But perhaps all these hopes are illusory; perhaps we are about to see in our Fatherland the beginning of a sad and fruitless struggle, such as has so exhausted the strength of other countries by giving a free course to the most dangerous passions. In this case the Catholics of Germany should prepare themselves to endure a long succession of contradictions, for their moral courage will be severely tried. They will have to make sacrifices of all kinds for their faith, recalling the precept of the Gospel that commands us not only to render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar’s, but also to God the things that are God’s, whatever may happen, whatever may be the consequence of such a struggle, the church of God, which has always been victorious through patience, will never yield either under assaults of unbelief or the attacks of a false science, that in its pride seems to declare anew: _Eritis sicut Deus_. Truth is great, and it will prevail: _Magna est veritas et prævalebit_.

A. REICHENSPERGER.
COLOGNE, Aug., 1871.

[76] The modesty of the eminent author of this
article did not permit him to mention his own name among the
most illustrious members of the _Fraction du Centre_. It
would be ungrateful not to supply this omission by adding to
the valiant champions enumerated above the man whose
multiplied labors, marked by his superior intelligence and
ardor of feeling, are at once an honor to Germany and the
church.--(_Note of the Editor._)

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THE MOUNTAIN.

The mountain’s sides are green anear,
In clouds is lost its snow;
And he who climbs that Alpine height
Shall earth and heaven know.
Lo! like a temple to the skies,
For toil, for prayer, for sacrifice,
Its green and snowy heights arise.

A thousand pilgrims wander up
To yonder blue abode,
And some are lost, and some are slain,
Or robbed upon the road.
Far up the holy hermits dwell,
And sounds the monastery bell
The safe and ancient way to tell.

And they who mount that highest steep
Are tired and sad and poor,
But lo! a starry house is there,
And angels at the door.
Rich joy for poverty and pain
They give, that summit to attain:
All earth they leave all heaven to gain.

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COLOR--ITS POETRY AND PROSE. 279

The three primary colors, according to the latest conclusions of science, are _red_, _green_, and _blue_.

Oersted, in one of the chapters of his _Soul in Nature_, gives us a little diagram to show how the _complementary_ and _characteristic_ combinations of colors are produced.

The colors opposite in the figure complete each other in white, hence are called complementary colors--red and green, orange and blue, yellow and violet. These are the harmonious colors.

Two colors, between which there is only one intermediate color, constitute characteristic combinations of color, as Goethe calls them--for instance, red and yellow, yellow and blue, blue and red--and are the combinations most common in uniforms.

In regard to the symbolism of colors, Oersted gives the following enumeration:

White fitly typifies _innocence_; the purity of snow and summer clouds, and all the analogies of nature, suggesting and completing its significance. Black, which, as the withdrawal of light, denotes loss of life-giving power, as in night, and to which is added in the storm-cloud unwonted gloom and desolation, stands appropriately for the color of mourning. Red is the color of love, from the hue of the blood, to which is united the idea of the heart, heat, and intensity of life. Yellow denotes falsehood, as indicating the deceitfulness of that which shines, also as the color which, when it departs from purity, soonest becomes disagreeable. Green symbolizes hope, the green of spring in nature giving token of the fruition of summer. “If we consider also,” says Oersted, “the satisfaction with which the eye can rest on it, we should call it the color of trust. Blue,” he adds, “is called the color of fidelity, but since faith, hope, and love are so frequently named together, and the two last each has its symbolical color, we might assume that one of the colors belonged to this noble quality. It is evident that blue, since it indicates distance, vacuity from matter, therefore the immaterial is suitable as a symbol of faith. It is the color of the sky also, and this leads us away from the earthly. Then the repose in blue, and the feeling that of all colors it is the least splendid, with the exception of violet, which, when unmingled with red, really the violet of light, is so feeble, and has in it so little power, that it is not much considered. Goethe says that blue is a ‘_stimulating negation_.’ We learn from natural science that blue united with violet is reflected back every time that light passes through a less occupied space, namely, a vacuum, hence Goethe’s expression. Violet and blue also indicate darkness, since they are the colors which have the least light in them, and the pigments which they represent are easiest converted into black.

Faith, which looks up out of the blackness and shadow of death into 280 the full-orbed splendor of the sun of righteousness, may not inappropriately take for its symbol the “stimulating negation” of the poet.

Thus do the three primary colors, blue, green, and red, represent the triad of Christian graces, the primary virtues of the Christian life--faith, hope, and charity, or love.

But leaving the poetry of color, we come to the subject of its place and function as it imprints itself on the myriad forms of the organic world. The question has been asked, Are all these tints of nature in the flower and shrub, the gorgeous plumage of the bird, only meant to please the eye of man and to gratify the artistic sense? Is there a deeper, subtler purpose running through all this apparently wanton pageantry, aside from the delight which it affords the mind of man, and looking only to the perfecting and preservation of the organism itself?

A utilitarian age has answered in the affirmative, and the researches of Darwin, Wallace, and others are daily opening new vistas into this interesting field of inquiry.

Darwin was the first to establish the fact that the bright coloring of flowers is for the purpose of attracting insects in order to accomplish their fertilization, and deduces the general rule that all flowers fertilized by the wind are of dull and inconspicuous colors. In the animal kingdom the principle of assimilation guides and modifies coloring in conformity with surrounding nature, and it is, therefore, to a great extent, protective.

The lion inhabiting the desert is of the color of the sands, so as hardly to be distinguished at a short distance. The leopard lives in jungles, and the vertical stripes on its body harmonize admirably with the vertical reeds of its tangled lair, and completely conceal it from view.

In arctic regions, white is the prevailing color, as here reign perpetual snows; therefore, it is that the bear is only found _white_ in this part of the globe.

The curious fact that among birds the female is usually of a dull neutral tint, while the male monopolizes the bright colors, is accounted for on the principle of protective coloring, the female needing the obscurity afforded her by her sober plumage. When there is an exception to this rule, the protection is afforded in some other way. And this leads us to the subject of _birds’ nests_.

Wallace, in a chapter on the theory of birds’ nests, divides them into two classes, those in which the eggs are protected by the shape or position of the nest, and those in which they are left exposed to view. He then gives the following law: “That, when both sexes are of strikingly gay and conspicuous colors, the nest is of the first class, or so as to conceal the sitting bird; while, whenever there is a striking contrast of colors, the male being gay and conspicuous, the female dull and obscure, the nest is open and the sitting bird exposed to view.”

In connection with the subject of protective coloring, the phenomenon of _mimicry_ is not the least curious. Wallace gives several instances of butterflies, moths, snakes, etc., where the coloring of protected families is imitated by weak and unprotected ones not in any way allied to them. A large and bright-colored butterfly, the heliconidæ of South America, which is protected by a disagreeable quality affecting its taste, thus rendering it secure from insect-eating birds, is imitated by a smaller and eatable family, resembling it so completely as to be quite indistinguishable by its enemies from the 281 former. Thus it is protected and enabled to perpetuate itself by borrowing the colors of its secure and powerful neighbor.

The elaps among venomous snakes is another instance where protection is afforded through mimicry to a harmless snake that would otherwise be defenceless. The elaps and the species that copy its coloring are found only in tropical America, and are peculiar as being the only snakes marked in the same manner by red, black, and yellow rings.

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NEW PUBLICATIONS.

THE WORKS OF AURELIUS AUGUSTINE, BISHOP OF HIPPO. A New Translation.
Edited by the Rev. Marcus Dods, M.A. Vols. I. and II. The City of
God. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark. For sale by the Catholic Publication
Society, New York. 1871.

The Messrs. Clark, of Edinburgh, are well known and honorably distinguished among publishers for the works of a high class of scientific and literary worth in sacred literature which they are regularly bringing out in the best style of the typographic art. Besides their series of works by the most eminent German Protestant theologians of the orthodox school, some of which are really valuable to the Catholic student, they are issuing a set of translations of the Ante-Nicene Fathers, and have now commenced a series of translations from St. Augustine which they design to extend to sixteen or eighteen volumes. We cannot sufficiently rejoice in the publication of these patristic works. Nothing can produce an equally powerful impression in favor of the Catholic Church on serious and educated minds with the perusal of numerous and extensive works translated from the early Christian writers. The two volumes before us are, in every sense of the word, superb. The editor has prefaced them by an introduction, whose style reminds us of Macaulay--while its matter is excellent, interesting, and in all respects unexceptionable--in which he gives an account of the nature and the circumstances of the great work of St. Augustine, and of the various judgments of eminent scholars upon it. So far as a merely cursory glance can warrant us in judging of the merit of the translation, it appears to us that the extremely difficult task of rendering the Latin accurately into good English has been successfully accomplished. The work itself has been considered by some eminent scholars as one of the great masterpieces of human genius. It is the first great work on the philosophy of history which was ever written. It was the fruit of the latest and most mature period of the great doctor’s life. Its plan embraces a comprehensive defence of Christianity against the objections of the Roman statesmen and philosophers of the fifth century. A vast number of interesting topics are treated in it, so that, apart from the philosophical value which it possesses, it is most interesting and curious as a museum of antiquities from the epoch when paganism was passing away to give place to Christianity. It is to be hoped that Catholics as well as Protestants will patronize the truly noble and useful undertaking of the Messrs. Clark and their literary _collaborateurs_, to enrich our 282 English libraries with these splendid patristic translations.

A Life of St. Augustine is also promised to accompany the selections from his writings. From this we can scarcely expect as much satisfaction as from the other parts of the undertaking. The theology and opinions of the writer must unavoidably prevent him from understanding and correctly representing a Catholic bishop and doctor, and giving a perfectly complete and correct account of the state of the church during the period in which he lived. No one but a Catholic can achieve this task with success, although a Protestant who is sufficiently learned, accurate, and skilled in the art of composition, may make a perfectly satisfactory translation of Catholic works. It were much to be desired that some competent Catholic scholar would give us a biography of St. Augustine so complete and perfect that it would supplant all others, and take rank as the standard history of his life and times.

LIGHT IN DARKNESS. A Treatise on the Obscure Night of the Soul. By
the Rev. A. F. Hewit, of the Congregation of St. Paul. New York:
Catholic Publication Society. 1871. Pp. 160.

This is a very small volume in bulk, and of very modest pretensions, but of great merit, and treats with much truth and justice a very important subject. It belongs to what is called _Mystic Theology_, and gives us in a small compass the simpler elements of the science of the saints, and cannot fail to interest all those who are entering upon a life of Christian perfection, whether in religion or in the world. The “obscure night of the soul,” as St. John of the Cross calls it, is experienced in some degree by all whom the Holy Spirit is conducting through purification, not to be effected without pain and sorrow, to the highest and closest union with God possible while we are still in the flesh. It is a deprivation of all sensible sweetness in devotion, a desolation, a deadness of all but the very highest faculties of the soul, in which all is dry and hard, and the soul discerns not a ray of light to relieve the darkness that seems to pervade and envelop her every act, and everything seems listless, prayer demands an effort, and brings no consolation, and meditation is painful and fruitless. This obscure night of the soul, sometimes called passive purgation, is supernatural, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and is intended to try the soul, to test its faith and confidence, to purify it, and enhance its merit by bringing it in the end into joyful union with God.

If carefully distinguished from sadness and melancholy, which may spring from the physical constitution and a variety of natural causes, this inward desolation, in which the soul longs for light, for spiritual life, and to behold the countenance of the Lord, is a great good, and a proof that the Holy Spirit has not left us, but is present within, and is preparing us for the joyful day that will dawn in the soul, and permit us to ascend to the Mount of Vision with the saints. Sensible sweetness, even visions, which are not seldom experienced by one just entering a religious life, are baits to lure us on, or to save us from discouragement, but they cannot create in us a robust and solid piety. Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son that he receiveth. Far more profitable to the soul is this obscure night in which the Lord hides his face from us, and leaves us desolate, and yet does not leave us, nor cease to love and care for us.

Father Hewit explains the sources and solidity, the certainty, the infallibility, of the science of the saints; shows the principles on which it rests; describes the desolation of the soul due to the discipline to which the Holy Spirit subjects the aspirant to Christian perfection; gives plain and simple directions to distinguish it from natural sadness or melancholy, and for the behavior of the soul while 283 suffering, and for deriving the greatest possible spiritual benefit from it. He also gives us a criterion by which the operations of the Holy Ghost may be distinguished from visionary illusions sent by Satan to deceive and ruin the soul, which the spiritists make so much of. His remarks on spiritism are just and opportune, are exceedingly valuable, and should be pondered by every Catholic. The ravages of spiritism are fearful.

The work is addressed solely to Catholics, and we think young and inexperienced confessors and directors will find much in it to aid them in their noble but arduous duties of directing souls in the way of perfection. To the class of Christians for whom it is specially intended, it will serve as a valuable and trustworthy guide, and will assist them to profit by the many larger and fuller treatises on the spiritual life whose excellence is unquestionable, and without superseding them. We thank the author for the rich present he has made us.

THE MONKS OF THE WEST, FROM ST. BENEDICT TO ST. BERNARD. By the Count
de Montalembert. Boston: Patrick Donahoe. 1872. 2 vols.

This is an American reprint of the English translation of Count Montalembert’s great work. The English edition is not only very splendid, but very costly. Mr. Donahoe’s edition is compressed into two volumes, at the reduced price of eight dollars, and is nevertheless very handsomely printed, with type sufficiently large and clear, and in all other respects well brought out. We welcome its appearance as a most fortunate event, and recommend the work most heartily as one which every intelligent Catholic ought to read as a glorious monument of his religion, and every literary man as one of the finest historical and literary productions of the age.

It is without a question that the Count de Montalembert was one of the greatest and noblest men of this century, whether in or out of the Catholic Church. The present work is the most complete and splendid monument of his genius and piety which he has left to perpetuate his fame. It is no mere compilation of biographies of the common sort, but a history of the great monastic institution in the West, of its stupendous works, and of the civilization of which it was one of the chief organizing powers. It includes some most important and little known chapters in the history of the chief nations of Christendom. Its copious and exact erudition is only equalled by the majestic eloquence of the style in which it is written, and which the translator has well rendered into English. There are a few passages in the introduction in which the author has allowed a certain bitterness of feeling to disturb the ordinarily pure current of his sentiments, and has betrayed some signs of his sympathy with the errors of the party of so-called Liberal Catholics. We do not consider this blemish, however, sufficient to detract seriously from the value and merit of this great work, or to make its perusal in any way dangerous. It is a work thoroughly Catholic, and pervaded with the same spirit of loyalty to the Holy See which the illustrious author has expressed in his dedication of the work to Pius IX. Whatever he said or did in a contrary spirit was a lamentable inconsistency, which we trust God has pardoned, as the Holy Father has done in so tender and magnanimous a manner.

PETERS’S CATHOLIC CHOIR. A Monthly Magazine devoted to Catholic
Church Music. New York: J. L. Peters.

The purpose of this publication is to offer in a cheap form selected musical Masses, hymns, and motets for the use of our church choirs. 284 The selections, from a purely musical point of view, are as good as publications of this nature generally contain.

THE PICTORIAL BIBLE AND CHURCH HISTORY STORIES. Abridged. A
Compendious Narrative of Sacred History, brought down to the
present Time of the Church, and complete in one Volume. By the
Rev. Henry Formby. New York: The Catholic Publication Society,
9 Warren St. 1871.

This is a book which deserves to find a place as a text-book in all Catholic schools, and to be put by all Catholic parents into the hands of their children. Even the very little ones will be found capable of comprehending the easy and familiar English of the narrative; nor can too much stress be laid on the importance of thus familiarizing them from the start with the history of God’s dealings with men. For this purpose, the plan of acquainting them with the Bible history simply is far from sufficient. It leaves too great a gap between the past and the present--as if sacred history had virtually come to an end eighteen centuries ago, and since then everything had been merely secular and profane. A well-instructed child needs to have the whole of sacred history, from the creation of the world to the usurpation of Rome by Victor Emanuel, laid before his eyes in a series the connections of which are plain and unbroken. Such a simple historical knowledge will be apt to prove the best safeguard of his faith in a time when there is no longer any great temptation for him to abandon it in favor of misbelief, but when open unbelief in the providence of God is fast becoming his only real enemy. The task which Father Formby has undertaken, of presenting this history in an easy and compendious form, is one which he has very satisfactorily accomplished, and for which there seemed to be a crying need.

We can only hope that American Catholics will make haste to avail themselves of the results of his labors. The book is an attractive one, very fully illustrated by pictures which, if they are not to be called artistic, have at all events the merit of being often suggestive, and the letterpress will be found good reading by older readers as well as by the young ones.

THE ILLUSTRATED CATHOLIC FAMILY ALMANAC FOR THE UNITED STATES FOR
THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 1872. Calculated for different Parallels of
Latitude, and adapted for use throughout the Country. Illuminated
cover, 12mo, pp. 144. New York: The Catholic Publication Society.
1872.

There are many good works to be done for our Catholic community, and here is one of them. A little annual at a trifling price, yet, in paper, typographical execution, and illustrations, wonderfully attractive, now finds its way to over seventy thousand Catholic homes, and gives to perhaps a quarter of a million of Catholic readers information, instruction, and entertainment.

The material is new and healthy. It is a commentary on the communion of saints. Catholics are not of one state or country, of one age or century. We are a brotherhood embracing all. The young growing up wish to know of the past glories of the church as the old love to speak of them; and all desire information of the actual life of the church.

God’s hand is not shortened in the nineteenth century. He overlooks the great and wise, and reveals himself to little ones, now as of old. Bernadette Soubirous, whose likeness is given, kneels there, and all cluster round her to hear the wonderful history of Lourdes. The lately martyred Archbishop of Paris will be viewed with interest, and the sketch of him will be imprinted on all minds. The beautiful portraits of Adelaide Procter and Eugénie de Guérin bring to mind the representative women of the church in our day, whom to know is to 285 love; and many thousands will here begin to appreciate those two beautiful souls. In the history of the church in America, all will feel that Catholicity is no stranger in the land when we see before us the remains of a cathedral in Greenland, built in the twelfth century; a bishop in Florida in the sixteenth, predecessor of the illustrious Carroll in the last, and the saintly Flaget in our own.

Ireland, the fatherland of so many sons of our Holy Mother, is not forgotten. The ruins of religious houses, caused by hate, and the excellent portrait of the Liberator, O’Connell, show the close union between Catholics of all lands and times.

This little attractive bouquet of Catholic flowers, rich with the aroma of faith, will, by its suggestions, its information, and its creditable appearance alone, keep alive and stimulate the true Catholic feeling; and there can be no better work than to disseminate it widely and more widely in every parish, until it finds its way to every Catholic family in the land.

LIFE OF THE REVEREND MOTHER JULIA, Foundress and First Superior
of the Sisters of Notre Dame, of Namur. Translated from the
French. With the History of the Order in the United States. New
York: The Catholic Publication Society, 9 Warren Street. 1871.

Marie Rose Julia Billiart, the foundress of the Sisters of Notre Dame, was born at Cuvilly, in Picardy, in 1751, and died in 1816. The life from which this is translated was first published in 1862, for the use of the Sisters, but will be found also of great interest to the general reader. It is certainly so, or at least should be, in this country, where they are so widely diffused, are doing so much for the cause of Catholic education, and are so well known. Mother Julia was also a saint, and the lives of the servants of God are always interesting, especially when told in a natural and unaffected way. Her whole life was an extraordinary one, though her congregation was not established till 1803, when she had reached the age of fifty-two; its foundation being, as it were, necessarily delayed by the disturbances in France during the Revolution; but of course the greater part of this memoir is occupied with her last years, which were more abundant than those that preceded in visible service to others, though not perhaps in merit to herself. At her death, the order was firmly established, though not without passing through many trials and difficulties, and had a number of houses in France and Belgium. It was brought to this country in 1840, and to England three years later; it now has seventeen houses there, and twenty in the United States, having the care, in these two countries alone, of more than thirty thousand children. The latter part of the book, as stated in the title, is occupied with its foundation and establishment here; also an interesting account is given of its introduction into England and Guatemala, to which latter place they were sent in 1859.

We have before us a list of the houses of the Sisters in Massachusetts, nine in number, at which nearly seven thousand children are instructed, as well as over a thousand night-scholars; they have also more than five thousand attending Sunday-school. It is very much to be desired and hoped that so useful a body of religious may be everywhere as abundant as in this favored state; and yet there are not enough even there, and probably never will be. The words of our Lord are always verified: “The harvest indeed is great, but the laborers are few.” Still, there will, no doubt, be vocations when they are really asked for.

The _Life of Mother Julia_ is well and clearly printed, and beautifully bound; and the translation was made by an American lady fully qualified 286 for the task.

An excellent portrait of Mother Julia embellishes the book.

THE FOUR GREAT EVILS OF THE DAY. By Henry Edward, Archbishop of
Westminster. London: Burns, Oates & Co. 1871. Pp. 142. For sale by
The Catholic Publication Society, New York.

The Four Great Evils exposed in these four lectures are the Revolt of the Intellect against God, the Revolt of the Will against God, the Revolt of Society against God, the Spirit of Antichrist. The author shows how the revolt against the Roman Church and the Vicar of Christ results in atheism, immorality, social anarchy, and the disruption of the whole fabric of Christianity, involving the destruction of the human race, and of the world, the Catholic Church excepted, which is preserved by miracle to the end of time. These lectures are very timely, and ought to be read by every reflecting person. The Archbishop of Westminster is equal to the greatest of our modern prelates in his clear insight into Catholic principles, and thorough knowledge of the atheistic and communistic tendencies of Protestantism. Hence the respect, fear, and hatred with which he is regarded by the enemies of the church. One thing especially noticeable in these lectures, and which we have observed with peculiar pleasure, is the exhibition of the intellectual as well as moral degradation of modern infidelity. The superstition and absurdity into which the proud rebellion of the mind against the authority of the church has plunged it is shown by Archbishop Manning, in a different way from that employed by Dr. Newman, but with a force equally irresistible. We recommend all our intelligent readers, and we presume that all our readers are intelligent, who desire to master the true and pure principles of the Catholic religion in their relation to the errors and disorders of the day, to obtain and study carefully all the works of the Archbishop of Westminster.

A CRITICAL GREEK AND ENGLISH CONCORDANCE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.
Prepared by Charles F. Hudson, under the direction of Horace L.
Hastings, editor of _The Christian_; revised and completed by Ezra
Abbot, LL.D., Assistant Librarian of Harvard University. Second
edition, revised. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1871.

This handy little volume is evidently the result of a good deal of painstaking and conscientious labor. As the production of several hands, it is a monument of somewhat heterogeneous scholarship. It professes to be “critical”; and critical and scholarly we are sure it is, so far as it is indebted to the contributions of Dr. Ezra Abbot, a gentleman whose minute bibliographical knowledge is only equalled by his rare modesty, and by his readiness to place his learning at the disposal of others. To his careful hand, we take it, is due the collection of various readings as given by Griesbach, Lachmann, and the latest editions of Tischendorf and Tregelles. The student will find in this compilation a mass of information which we do not remember to have seen in so compact a form elsewhere. For the rest, the work will doubtless fulfil the purpose announced by the editor-in-chief, as a “book available to the mere English reader,” and will be welcomed by evangelical ministers of all denominations who may have felt more or less keenly the need of supplementing the defects in their early classical education by some easy artificial helps. How convenient, for example, when we run against the word γυνή, to find, on the authority of Messrs. Hastings and Hudson, that, in a given number of passages, the majority in fact, it signifies _woman_, undoubtedly _woman_, whereas in several other given passages, including 287 1 Cor. ix. 5, it means _wife_--even though there may be some misgivings about the “margin.” Whether or not it be “critical,” under cover of scholarship, to turn a supposed Greek concordance into nothing more nor less than a quiet vindication of the accuracy of the King James Version, we leave it to ordinary unbelievers to determine.

LIFE OF JOHN BUNYAN, with Notices of some of his
Contemporaries, and Specimens of his Style. By D. A. Harsha, M.A.,
author of “Life of Philip Doddrige, D.D.,” etc. Philadelphia: J.
B. Lippincott & Co. 1871.

Nothing, we suppose, is more likely to strike the ordinary Catholic reader, supposing him even to waste his time over books of the kind, than the great meagreness and poverty of what are known by Protestants as religious lives. Even a non-Catholic, like Mr. Matthew Arnold, has somewhere commented on the superiority of Catholic biographies to Protestant ones, with that air of easy insolence which has made him anything but a pleasing subject for contemplation to the majority of his countrymen and co-religionists.

Mr. Harsha’s life of the allegorizing tinker of Bedford can boast of no advantage in this respect over other efforts of the same general description. It is not, we should say, the fault of the biographer, who seems to have genuine religious instincts, and to be principally hampered by his ignorance of what true spirituality means, and the poverty of the material he works in. These, however, are in his position necessary evils.

This book has other faults for which he is more actively responsible. A man who wonders that Bunyan should have been molested for his religious views under what he, perhaps facetiously, calls the “mild rule of Cromwell” (a characterization that John Evelyn would have been as slow to endorse as any Catholic Irishman of Zedah) and is puzzled to account for his freedom during the reign of the Second James, needs something besides an acquaintance with the _Pilgrim’s Progress_ and Bunyan’s sermons to qualify him for the task of a biographer. Perhaps, however, a thorough knowledge of history would be as successful an agent in the work of un-Protestantizing a sincere man as any other merely human one that could be named.

GRADUALE DE TEMPORE ET DE SANCTIS, juxta Ritum Sacrosanctæ Romanæ
Ecclesiæ cum cantu Pauli V. Pont. Max. jussu reformato cui addita
sunt officia postea approbata sub auspiciis Sanctissimi Domini
Nostri Pii PP. IX. Curante Sacr. Rituum Congregatione, cum
privilegio. Ratisbonæ, Neo-Eboraci et Cincinnatii: Sumptibus,
chartis et typis Frederici Pustet.

About the time of the opening of the Œcumenical Council, the firm of F. Pustet were permitted by special indult to publish a revised edition of the Gradual known as the Medicean. A commission was appointed by the Sacred Congregation of Rites to undertake this revision, but the suspension of the Council and the political troubles ensuing prevented the completion of their labors. A dispensation, however, was granted to Mr. Pustet to publish and sell the work, adding the portion yet unrevised as it stands in the original edition. We reserve a fuller notice for some future date, when we hope to lay before our readers a critical essay on the various editions of the Gradual and other books of chant published in Europe and Canada.

THE GRAND DEMONSTRATION in Baltimore and Washington, D. C., in honor
of the XXVth Anniversary of the Election of Pius IX. to the Chair
of St. Peter, June 17, 18, 19. A.D. 1871. Baltimore: John Murphy &
Co.

It would be scarcely possible to add anything on the general subject of this handsome brochure--the theme of so many thousand eloquent pens 288 and voices. The celebration in the Province of Baltimore, however, was an exceptional one, as became the oldest See in the United States. Besides the addresses, letters, and resolutions, etc., which we naturally look for in such a publication, it includes encyclical and other letters from His Holiness, and some historical and chronological matter which the reader will find highly useful.

THE MARTYRS OF THE COLISEUM; or, Historical Records of the Great
Amphitheatre of Ancient Rome. By the Rev. A. J. O’Reilly,
Missionary Apostolic at St. Mary’s, Capetown. London: Burns,
Oates, & Co. 1871. For sale by the Catholic Publication Society,
New York.

The basis of the narratives of this volume is furnished by the ancient _Acts of the Martyrs_. The story of several of the most illustrious martyrs of the early ages is told by the author, according to history and legend, with some embellishments of imagination, poetry, and fancy. There is also an account of the history of the Coliseum itself, as far as knowledge or probable conjecture can furnish it. The author’s style is warm, exuberant, and brilliant. The volume is instructive and entertaining, and ought to be a favorite, with young people especially.

MANUAL OF PIETY, for the use of Seminarians. Second American Edition.
Baltimore: Published by John Murphy & Co., 182 Baltimore Street.
1872.

This is a new edition of an excellent and well-known manual for seminarians. It can hardly be too highly commended either as regards matter or form. It contains an immense amount of matter in a very small space, and the type is clear and beautiful.

MR. ROBERT CODDINGTON has in press, and will publish about Christmas, _The Vicar of Christ; or, Lectures upon the Office and Prerogatives of our Holy Father the Pope_, by Rev. Thomas S. Preston, pastor of St. Ann’s Church, New York, and Chancellor of the Diocese. It will be published uniform in style with the other volumes of Father Preston’s lectures.