Chapter XVIII: Choosing the Path (8)

Those who still doubt what I say have but to notice the intimate union of the ballet with the opera which the prevailing taste dictates as an inexorable law. In most cases, the ballet has no logical or artistic connection with the opera. It is a foreign element which imposes itself upon musical and dramatic action, and which is given with the avowed intention of exciting voluptuousness. Reason is forced to despise the ballet; moral sentiment condemns it; musical art is obliged to lament over it as a sad aberration; nevertheless, modern opera has concluded an alliance for life with this frivolous creation of the present time. You know the proverb, “Tell me what company you keep: I will tell you what you are.”

Our friends of the opera do not like to be told these things. Judgments like these are for them the expressions of a mind opposed to modern civilization, and lost in obsolete ideas. If one of these partisans of modern opera hears what I have just said, he will certainly say that the darkness of my ultramontane soul is blacker than the color of my robe. He will maintain that it is only æsthetic education, artistic sense, enthusiasm for music, which draws him and his equals to similar works; and, nevertheless, the old operas which are veritable works of art, but which do not contain any piquant subject and little food for sensuality, leave them cold and indifferent in the depth of their hearts. The symphonies of Beethoven and Mozart cause these lovers of art to yawn, and the name alone of an oratorio makes their flesh creep.

What position have we Christians to take, in order to oppose these alarming phenomena of the present day? A critic of the seventeenth century, named Wehrenfels, has laid down this principle for dramatic art in general: “Finally, all our dramatic representations should be 420 such that Plato could tolerate them in his republic, that Cato could listen to them with pleasure, that vestals could witness them without wounding their chastity, and, what is more important, that Christians could listen to them.”

You will say this is too antiquated a principle. Among the greater part of our amateurs at the theatre it will only provoke expressions of doubt; they will say that this poor Wehrenfels is far behind modern civilization. Notwithstanding, no one undertakes to refute this principle, to demonstrate that these requirements are groundless. But as long as they are not refuted, we must consider them justified, and we ask if they should not be applied to the opera. Is not the drama when sung to be submitted to the same true moral and æsthetic laws as the drama recited?

To the phenomena of life as produced before our eyes, we apply the scale of conscience and of reason. Why should it not be our right and our duty to apply them also to the opera, and to regulate our conduct from the result of such an examination? No one will deny that this question is well founded. Nevertheless, it would meet with much resistance. Our enthusiasts of the opera have tacitly agreed that, where it is a question of opera, good sense and conscience should be silent. But ourselves, gentlemen, ought never to abandon these principles. We should no longer be Christians, if we did not apply to the opera the principles we practise in our lives.

Let us, then, apply these principles to the music of our day. What must we do if it be condemned for frivolity, for immodesty and abuse of religious things? If we find that the scenes are arranged solely with a view to effect, and in disregard of good sense and logic? If reason and conscience, by common accord, condemn this degradation of art, and the deception with which this degradation is presented as veritable art? What must we do, in presence of these great accusations against modern opera?

Would you condemn to silence your reason and your conscience because you are promised amusement? Would you wish, as a return for your money, to have sung on the stage words you despise, words you would repulse if they were spoken? Would you put a temptation before your children, in leading them to the opera--these same children whom you tried to bring up in honesty, in religion, in piety, and the observance of all Christian duties? Do you believe that at the opera, where religion is made a plaything, where it is exposed to contempt, attacked and calumniated, they will learn to esteem and to obey it? Will they learn good morals, decency, and propriety from the dancers of the ballet? It is sufficient to place before you these questions; you will answer them yourselves. But why this severe criticism? What will result from it?

Will my words succeed in turning dramatic music from its bad course, and making it enter on a better? Will the thousands and thousands of individuals who find their greatest pleasure in modern opera take notice of them at all? I do not count upon that. But I hope with confidence, gentlemen, that my words will engage you to examine more closely the subject of which I have been treating. You will not form your judgment from charlatans of criticism and enthusiastic partisans of sensuality; but you will judge for yourselves, by vigorously applying your Christian principles. If you are thus affected, my words will have borne fruit.

[98] _Lecture of M. Stein, Curate of Cologne._ Delivered
before the Catholic Congress at Düsseldorf.

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THE STUDY OF SACRED HISTORY.[99] 421

It has been said that a distinguished English lady, remarkable for her intelligence in the treatment of many questions affecting the condition of the proletarian classes, and by whose persevering efforts the erection and management of reformatories for juvenile offenders, and industrial schools for that vagrant portion of the community known in our civilized era as “street Arabs,” and who herself personally superintended most admirably a reformatory for young girls in Bristol, was accustomed to say to her visitors, in reply to their astonishment at her wonderful perseverance and success: “Whenever I see anything that I can call radically wrong, I never feel satisfied till I can render to myself an intelligent reason why it has gone wrong; and then, when I know what the causes are, I set myself to the task of preventing, as far as possible, the occurrence of anything of the same kind in the future.”

This practical view of the duties of life, which proved of such benefit to the beneficiaries of that philanthropic lady, seems to have been adopted by the author of the work before us, and to have been applied on a more comprehensive scale. Becoming convinced, after long investigation, that one of the evils which at present afflict society arises out of spiritual ignorance of the history of the church and of the pre-Christian era, instead of supinely contenting himself with bemoaning the calamity, he set to work and produced a book which, under its present modest title, contains a concise history not only of the Catholic Church, but of the ways of God’s providence to man from the creation, as far as they have been revealed to us through the pages of Holy Writ and in the writings of ancient authorities. The reverend author by this admirable work hoped, if he could not contribute to dispel the mists of doubt and dissent now so widespread in both hemispheres, to at least put into the hands of the rising generation a preventive and an argument against those who would either deny the existence of a revealed law, or, admitting, would pervert its commands to their own weak or vicious purposes. His success so far has been proportionate to his ability and purity of motive.

We are all aware that the best part of the Christian people has been plunged into profound grief and stupefaction by the recent murder, or, as the Holy Father more emphatically expressed it, the parricide of the late Archbishop of Paris, and so many of his faithful clergy. Now, who were the perpetrators of that most foul deed? In one sense, certainly, not a wild, tumultuous mob, acting without system or guidance, nor yet private assassins in the employment of the secret societies, or moved thereto by personal malice or revenge. On the contrary, the deed was done in the open day, by the arbitrary orders of what was claimed to have been a regularly established government, and executed by its armed soldiery, two of whom, even when about to obey the mandates of their supposed superiors, knelt at the feet of 422 the holy prelate and begged his forgiveness for the crime they were about to commit. It is not claimed by the apologists of the Communists that their illustrious victims were guilty of any offence against the state, or that even the form of a trial was accorded them; and yet there are to be found many persons, considering themselves honorable and intelligent, who openly or secretly applaud that glaring and cruel act of injustice, and who thoroughly sympathize with the European revolutionists--those enemies of all law, who, if they had the power, would repeat in every city in Christendom the late disgraceful scenes of Paris. It is a melancholy fact that outside the Catholic Church the horrible murder of the venerable Archbishop Darboy and so many of his clergy has been the cause of ill-disguised congratulation, not only among those who are in direct affiliation with the revolutionists, but amid the sects who profess to regard the Decalogue as part of their fundamental doctrine. Have we yet heard from the thousands of pulpits and hundreds of newspapers, occupied and controlled by the various Protestant sects, one open and manly protest against the atrocious criminals who have so recently sullied the fair fame of France by deeds that would have disgraced the most degraded forms of savage life? Not one.

A fact like this, so patent and portentous, while it shows how large a portion of civilized society has fallen away from the plainest teachings of Christian charity and justice, must necessarily lead to the inquiry as to the best means of arresting, and, if possible, correcting so monstrous an evil. Recognizing it as such, it is our duty fearlessly and persistently to endeavor to correct it, for “_Felix qui potuis rerum cognoscere causæ_” will always be a true maxim, even when we are engaged in the study of the worst of human miseries and disasters with a view to their alleviation.

In contemplating the many evils which now afflict Christian society, the creation and formerly the obedient creature of the Catholic Church, we must recollect that God has not given to his church the gift of being the infallible preserver of the faith in every nation and at all times, no more than she can guarantee to all people civil order and wise government. There is no doubt that the church is the tree set up in this world, the leaves of which are the health of mankind, “_et quis tibi imputavit si perierint nationes quas tu fecisti_” (Wisd. xii. 12); but who shall accuse her of countenancing the disorders which have arisen through the rejection of her authority, and to which she has ever been strenuously opposed? Our Lord himself contemplates the rebellion of nations and people against his doctrine. To the angel of the Church of Ephesus the Spirit said, “Be mindful from whence thou hast fallen: and do penance, and resume thy first works. Or if not, behold I come to thee and will move thy candlestick out of its place, except thou dost penance” (Apoc. ii. 5). Even the presence of the priesthood among us in adequate numbers is no assurance against schism and infidelity. Though we may have every confidence in their sanctity and the soundness of their teachings, we cannot always be certain that the duties of their holy calling will be performed with uniform discretion, intelligence, and zeal, or that the hearts of their congregations will respond on all occasions and amid all circumstances to the teachings of their pastors. It is true that at all times and in all places the soldiers of the Cross have proved themselves the faithful guardians of piety and morality, but it must be admitted that occasionally, 423 particularly in Europe, they have not attached sufficient importance to the necessity of the intellectual training of the masses and to the wonderful advances of the human mind in abstract and practical sciences. What the Abbé Fleury wrote of a past generation is partially, at least, true in this. In the preface to his _Historical Catechism_, he says:

“We see a great number of devout persons who have read great
numbers of spiritual books, and are familiar with a large variety
of devotional practices, but who are totally wanting in an
understanding of the very groundwork of religion.”

Fleury’s testimony receives a remarkable corroboration in the circumstance that, in the last century, whoever derided the traditional belief in God and in the Christian revelation acquired credit with the multitude as an “_esprit fort_.” In short, the idea of there being so much as the possibility of an “_esprit fort_” who believed in God and who _ex animo_ professed the faith of the church, appeared to be unknown, and the universal notion in France was that the choice consisted in being feeble and pious or strong-minded and atheistical. Under the influence of this notion, the principal part of the male population of France fell away from the faith, and it has required the persistent efforts of at least two generations of priests, and with but partial success, to lead them back to the church. Religion in Great Britain during the past century is known to have largely taken its complexion from France, and it is remarkable that the bulk of the English Protestants affected to form precisely the same estimate of it, and that it was a power inimical to the cultivation of the understanding and a decided enemy of knowledge and progress. The same phenomenon appears in Italy. The Italian people are still deeply attached to the traditions of the Catholic faith, but the popular idea of the Catholic religion, misled by the slanders and misrepresentations of the revolutionists, is that it is the religion of the timid, the feeble, and the pious, that its wants are limited to functions and processions, beads and prayer-books, or what would be rather scoffingly called “_roba di pietà_,” and that it is in no way conscious of any wants proper to a manly understanding, and consequently never expected to take any pains to satisfy them. In Germany, there are perfectly analogous symptoms. Catholics in some parts of that great empire bear the contemptuous name of _Dunkelmänner_, men of darkness; and they are looked upon, not merely by the positive enemies of all religion, but by the busy throng, as certainly no friends to the legitimate progress and cultivation of the gifts of the understanding.

The consequences of these disastrous tendencies to fall off from the practice of the virtues and observances of the church are apparent to all thinking men, and, if not checked, will have an equally marked effect on the morals and faith of future generations. To some extent, we humbly submit, they are due to a want of thorough education, not only spiritually but humanly, among a large number of Catholics, who, not deficient in piety and the desire to live according to the precepts of Christianity, are too often led away by the sophistries and superior knowledge--real or affected--of the opponents of their faith. Learning is said to be the handmaiden of religion--and is never so brilliant as when employed in her service, while religion, profiting by her assistance, moves on from one triumph to another. It 424 does not appear to be a part of the providence of God that man should simply grow into a knowledge of the doctrines of the church, in the same manner as he advances to bodily maturity, but by intelligent and persevering teaching and diligent practice. In our world, every year brings new-comers on the stage, and the message to the Church of Ephesus was, “_Age pœnitentiam et prima opera fac_.” The Catholic clergy inherit a tradition, long anterior to that of the past century, of being the patrons and the cultivators of the human mind, and they still should remember these true and ancient glories of their sacred calling. The language of the sacred liturgy on the day of Pentecost is beautifully expressive on this subject:

“_Da tuis fidelibus_
_In te confitentibus_
_Sacrum septenarium._”

_Sacrum Septenarium_--the sacred seven gifts of the Holy Ghost, amongst which we find the “spirit of understanding and of knowledge.” All the gifts of the Holy Ghost doubtless require to receive their due share of honor and cultivation. But in a generation which has gone so widely and so terribly wrong by the way of a perverted and deceived intellect, the cause of faith in the world demands that the battle be fought with a special determination on the ground of the intelligence. If Satan relies on the perversion of the mind for leading them away from belief in the truth and divinity of the revelation brought by Moses, and perfected by the coming and ministry of one greater than Moses, St. Michael must contend with Satan for the possession of the body of Moses. The more the spirit of deception that has gone abroad seeks to discredit the Mosaic revelation, which is the forerunner in the world of the revelation of Jesus Christ, the more we must diligently persevere and insist that all who are willing to listen should stir up within themselves the gifts of the spirit of understanding and knowledge, and qualify themselves to resist and confront the spirit of error wherever they meet with it and on all fitting occasions. Every Catholic family ought to be a centre or focus of Christian information. In every household there ought to be books containing the narrative of the works of God through the line of his great saints, beginning from the sacred narrative of Moses downwards to the present time. Sacred history is the true tower of strength to the cause of faith.

This study should not, as it has heretofore generally been, confined to ancient history; for, though we may find in the Old Testament the wonderful working of God in his intercourse with his creatures, and see developed and completed his works and promises to his chosen people, we have, under the new dispensation and in the history of the Catholic Church, as indubitable proofs of the promises and fulfilment of them in the fulness of time by our divine Maker. The history of the Popes, for example, from St. Peter to Pius IX., is replete with providential incidents, astonishing the worldly and baffling the so-called wisdom of the sceptical. The perpetual rejuvenation of the church herself when apparently crushed and disintegrated beneath the load of kingly oppression and the lawlessness of the mob, is in itself not only a perpetual miracle, but the evident fulfilment of the promises of the Founder to be with her all days even to the consummation of the world. The lives of the grand throng of saints, martyrs, confessors, and missionaries--the glory and pride of the church--their sufferings, triumphs, and miracles; their love of art 425 and literature, and all that makes life holy and beautiful, are fraught with lessons before which even the story of Abraham’s sacrifice and Joseph’s forgiveness sink into comparative insignificance. Sacred history should be read as a whole, from the beginning of time to the present day, giving to the more ancient part its proper share of attention, not only for its own sake but as prefiguring the more perfect system of Christianity. But the history of the Church deserves and should receive our chiefest and most marked attention.

The book of the Rev. Henry Formby, which, under its simple title, contains a concise and chronological narrative of sacred history from the creation down to our own times, in this respect is one of the most useful publications that has recently appeared from the English press, and, though but an abridgment of a much more voluminous work on the same subject, it preserves all the essential features of the original with singular simplicity and lucidity of style. The title gives but a faint idea of its merits, for in truth it is not a mere collection of stories in the general acceptation of that term, but short, succinct, and correct historical sketches of events related in the Old Testament, and a condensed and necessarily short history of the church from its foundation. The arrangement of the subject is admirable, and, in view of the vast field of Biblical lore to be traversed, and the numerous historical facts of the first importance to be touched on, at least in the confined limits of one volume, there are displayed a clearness of narration, and a nice appreciation of the salient points in the spiritual progress of the human race, that make the book easy to be read and understood by even the most ordinarily instructed person. In fact, if the author had substituted “pictures” for “stories” in his title-page, he would have been more correct.

A general knowledge of the history of the creation, and of God’s once chosen people, the Jews, as well as an acquaintance with that of the church herself, the perfection of what was imperfectly prefigured under the old dispensation, ought to be an essential ingredient in the education of every Catholic child and of every adult, no matter what may be his condition in life; but heretofore the undertaking has been so laborious on account of the want of elementary books on those all-important subjects, that but little was generally known of the workings of Providence in ancient times, and the typical significance of many of the events related in the Old Testament, except by the learned few. Even the early history of the church has been practically a sealed book to the English-speaking masses, whose ideas of her long years of suffering, persecution, and final triumph have been of the most indefinite and oftentimes erroneous character. We have to thank Father Formby for supplying this defect in our Catholic literature, and in future there can be no excuse for ignorance of at least the origin, labors, and progress of the religion we profess. In about one hundred and sixty pages, the half of his book, devoted to the Christian era, he presents to us very complete and exact, if not very elaborate, views of the leading events in the history of the church for over eighteen centuries. In addition to this, he has appended to many of the sections in the part occupied with the pre-Christian period short moral reflections, and institutes comparisons between the old and new order of things, which are not only edifying, but highly instructive, particularly to young readers. For example, with reference to the days of the creation of the world, he remarks: 426

“Jesus Christ rested in the tomb from the work of redemption on
the Sabbath or seventh day, and arose again from the dead on the
first day of the week. For this reason, the Christians no longer
keep holy the original Sabbath, but the Lord’s day, or first day
of the week, in memory of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”

And again, after relating the dispersion of the builders of the Tower of Babel, he draws this beautiful comparison:

“The nations of the world suffered a great punishment upon their
pride in the confusion of their speech, and in their separation
one from another. Jesus Christ has in part removed this
punishment; for he has again made all the nations of the earth
one religious family in his church, under the supreme government
of the successor of St. Peter, and as partakers of one and the
same sacrifice at the altar.”

In allusion to the well-known story of the sale of Joseph to the Egyptians by his brethren, he says:

“Joseph, hated by his brethren on account of his love of virtue
and innocence, and sold by them for a slave into the land of
Egypt, is a striking figure of Jesus Christ hated by his own
people on account of his love of justice and sanctity, and
delivered up by them bound into the hands of the Roman governor,
Pontius Pilate.”

Father Formby’s diction and treatment of his subject are varied and suited to the epoch which he describes. In the early pages of his book, he adopts the figurative orientalisms of the Hebrew writers, but further on he sobers down to the less florid and more matter-of-fact style of modern times. His descriptions of the crusades and the origin and growth of the religious orders are exceedingly graphic and correct, though of course merely outlines of what would fill books enough to make up an ordinary library if written in detail, and his summing up of the so-called reformation is deserving of particular notice.

“There is something worthy of being carefully observed as regards
the Protestantism which began in the sixteenth century to cause
whole nations and peoples to renounce the faith and discipline of
the Catholic Church. But as other great heresies, such as that of
Arius, have had a similar ruinous effect in causing a great
falling off from faith without the end of the world following in
their wake, Protestantism cannot simply for this reason by itself
be understood to be the sign to which St. Paul refers. What is
remarkable, however, in Protestantism is, that though Dr. Martin
Luther and the others who were leaders at the time formed sects,
the disciples of which called themselves by the names of
their masters--as Lutherans from Luther, Calvinists from
Calvin--Protestantism has long ago ceased to be the name of any
particular doctrine. Lutherans, Calvinists, Anabaptists,
Socinians, and all the different sects which arose at this time,
as regards what is meant by Protestantism, are just as good
Protestants the one as the other. They may, and do, dispute with
each other about what is to be held to be true as Christian
doctrine, but as regards Protestantism they are all quite agreed.
How come, then, those who are completely at war with each other
about Christian doctrine to agree completely about
‘Protestantism’? The reason is, that Protestantism proper has but
one solitary doctrine and one solitary precept, viz., ‘_Depart
from the Roman Church_.’ All who satisfy this one precept entitle
themselves to the name of ‘Protestant.’ It is true that, up to
the present time, those who have protested against the Roman
Church have generally had the credit of deserving to be, in some
way or other, known as Christians; but this is rapidly ceasing to
be the case. ‘Protestantism’ has now come to be the name of the
confederacy of almost all without exception whose cry is, ‘Depart
from the Roman Church,’ so that there would seem to be no
rashness in recognizing it as the departure (_discessio_) which
St. Paul points to as the sign indicating the world to be drawing 427
to a close.”

In addition to the merits and attractions of this valuable contribution to contemporaneous Catholic literature, we observe that most of the leading incidents recorded in sacred history are illustrated by wood-cuts very handsomely designed and executed, so that the eye as well as the understanding is made familiar with the historical places, incidents, and characters sought to be portrayed, and the frontispiece is a large and excellently clear engraving of Jerusalem. The growth of Catholic literature in England, where even in the recollection of many of us Catholicity, confined to the humble minority, was banned and ostracized by author and reader alike, is one of the most healthful signs of the times, and it will be a great dereliction of duty on our part here in America if we do not profit by the labors of our co-religionists abroad, hoping some day to reciprocate the favor.

[99] _The Pictorial Bible and Church History Stories,
Abridged._ By the Rev. Henry Formby. New York: The
Catholic Publication Society. 1871. 8vo, pp. 320.

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NEW PUBLICATIONS.

ESSAYS CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL. By John Henry Newman, formerly Fellow
of Oriel College, Oxford. Vols. I. and II., 8vo. London: Basil
Montagu Pickering, 196 Piccadilly. 1871. New York: For sale by The
Catholic Publication Society, 9 Warren Street.

“These essays, with the exception of the last, were written while their author was Fellow of Oriel, and a member of the Established Church. They are now, after many years, republished, mainly for the following reason: He cannot destroy what he has once put into print: ‘Litera scripta manet.’ He might suppress it for a time; but, sooner or later, his power over it will cease. And then, if it is, either in its matter or its drift, adapted to benefit the cause which it was intended to support when it was given to the world, it will be republished in spite of his later disavowal of it. In order to anticipate the chance of its being thus used after his death, the only way open to him is, while living, to show why it has ceased to approve itself to his own judgment.... This, accordingly, has been his attempt in the present edition of these essays, as far as they demand it of him; and he is sanguine that he has been able to reduce what is uncatholic in them, whether in argument or in statement, to the position of those ‘difficultates’ which figure in dogmatic treatises of theology, and which are elaborately drawn out, and set forth to best advantage, in order that they may be the more carefully and satisfactorily answered.”--_Author’s Preface._

Anything from Dr. Newman’s pen has a strong personal claim upon the interest of Catholics. The volumes before us contain fifteen essays, written at different times between the years 1828 and 1846. The subjects are mainly connected with the intellectual progress at that time developing in the mind of the author. The volumes are necessary to a collection of his works, and also to a perfect acquaintance with classic English literature.

THE FOURFOLD SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD. By Henry Edward, Archbishop of
Westminster. London: Burns, Oates & Co. For sale by The Catholic
Publication Society, New York.

The rapidity with which volume follows volume from the prolific pen of 428 the Archbishop of Westminster has often astonished our mind. From hints given in the preface to this last publication, we get, in part, an explanation. It appears that his Grace employs a skilful stenographer to take down and then copy for the press his extemporaneous lectures. In this way, one who has a mind stored with the acquisitions of a lifetime, and is gifted so unusually with the _copia fundi_, can accomplish what could otherwise be done only by a man of more leisure than is enjoyed by the active prelate of the London diocese.

These four lectures make a pendant to the last four published, and complete the general view of the subject. They are like all the works of Archbishop Manning, of which our opinion has been so lately expressed. We need, therefore, only to announce the publication of these new lectures, and our readers will understand for themselves the value and interest they possess.

THE TRADITION OF THE SYRIAC CHURCH OF ANTIOCH, concerning the
Primacy and the Prerogatives of St. Peter, and of his successors,
the Roman Pontiffs. By the Most Rev. Cyril Behnam Benni, Syriac
Archbishop of Mossul (Nineveh). London: Burns, Oates & Co. 1871. For
sale by The Catholic Publication Society, 9 Warren Street.

This unique production symbolizes the contrariety and unity of the East and West in a singular manner. It begins at both ends, and finishes in the middle, where the appendices usually put at the end are snugly sandwiched between the Syriac original and the English translation. This translation has been made by the Rev. Joseph Gagliardi, and is, of course, at that end of the volume which, to our Occidental habits of thought, appears to be the natural beginning. The Syriac begins at the opposite end, and thus both languages have their own way, and the book will answer equally well for the reader in Nineveh and the one in London. The tradition of the Church of Antioch, where St. Peter established his first see, is scarcely inferior in interest and importance to that of the Roman Church. The learned prelate has gathered together the best and most authentic testimonies to the supremacy of the Roman See from documents both ancient and modern, liturgies, official acts, and writings of prelates and learned men, both Catholic and schismatical. The references are most carefully given, and the whole work is critical and scholarly. It is published in a very handsome and ornamental style, and cannot fail to interest the curious, the learned, and all who are engaged in theological pursuits. The testimonies to the authority of the Holy See which it contains are very valuable, and as they are given in a clear English translation, methodically arranged, and accompanied by full explanations, they are intelligible to any person of ordinary education. We cannot flatter ourselves that we have very many among our subscribers who will be able to appreciate the beauties of the Syriac original.

THE LIFE OF JESUS THE CHRIST. By Henry Ward Beecher. Illustrated.
New York: J. B. Ford & Co. 1871. Vol. I.

The publishers of this work have given it a very handsome exterior, and adorned it with a number of excellent illustrations of scenes and places in Palestine. The attempts at reproducing some of the most celebrated representations of our Lord are, however, not successful. As for the work itself, it is an effort to imitate the fascinating and popular style of Renan in such a way as to satisfy those Protestants who call themselves Evangelical. That the author has the art of pleasing the multitude cannot be questioned. That he is an artist in the highest and truest sense we cannot admit. And, so far as more solid qualities are concerned, he is not to be compared for a moment, in respect to that erudition which brings rabbinical and classical 429 treasures to enrich and illustrate the Evangelical narrative, with Dr. Sepp, whose _Leben Jesu_ still remains both the most valuable and the most interesting of all works of this class thus far produced, in spite of much that is fanciful and visionary.

If the doctrine of this book were sound, we should hail its publication with joy, even although we could not consider it to be a literary masterpiece. Even if it contained only the errors common to Protestants; still, if it were sound on the great central truth of the Incarnation; one might think it likely to be useful in preserving among Protestants the true doctrine of the divinity and humanity of Christ contained in their formularies. As it is, we must condemn it as more mischievous and absurd than the _Vie de Jésus_ of Renan. Of course, no Catholic who has any regard for his own principles will ever think of looking for religious instruction or edification in any book proceeding from Mr. Beecher’s pen. The evil which this shallow and utterly heretical production, coming forth in such a taking guise, will cause will be among Protestants. One class of them--those who swallow its honey with pleasure--will take in a deadly poison of heresy. Another class, who will look at its doctrine coolly and critically, will be strengthened in their tendency to rationalism and unbelief by its crude absurdity.

Mr. Beecher teaches a more gross and monstrous doctrine than that of Arius, Nestorius, or Appolinaris. It is, namely, that God contracted and diminished his divine nature within the mental and physical limits of manhood. God became the human soul of a human body. This is the anthropomorphism of Swedenborg. It destroys all true conceptions both of the human and the divine nature of our Lord. Pantheism is better than this. The reasoning and exegesis on which this revolting doctrine is based are not worthy of a moment’s notice. All is mere superficial, rhetorical, sentimental talk, without a shred of philosophy or theology. We shall look with some curiosity to see what judgment the Episcopalian and Presbyterian divines of the stricter sort will pronounce on this latest product of the pseudo-Evangelical school. What those of them who have some theological knowledge will think, we know very well; but we are desirous of seeing whether they will express their thoughts in clear and emphatic language, and caution the Protestant public against a doctrine which subverts the Nicene Creed and the Presbyterian Confession of Faith, to say nothing of other formularies which are essentially the same with these.

Behold a new proof of the utter insufficiency of the text of Scripture alone by itself even to preserve the orthodox doctrine after it has been fully presented to the mind! How much more, then, to give it at first hand! What the orthodox Protestants still retain of the faith is the faith of creeds, councils, and tradition, and the exercise of private judgment on the text of Scripture is destroying it fast.

CINEAS; OR, ROME UNDER NERO. From the French of J. M. Villefranche.
1 vol. 12mo. Philadelphia: Peter F. Cunningham. 1871.

If we except _Fabiola_, _Callista_, and _Dion_, we feel no hesitation in saying that _Cineas_ is equal to any production of its kind yet offered to the English reader. In this tale, history and tradition are interwoven with fiction, and the result is a graphic sketch of Christianity in the apostolic ages. The portico, the Pantheon, the temple, and the catacomb are brought upon the stage, and made to represent their parts. The scene changes from the Circus Maximus to the Mamertine, from Rome to Jerusalem, from Jerusalem to Athens; and at each change of scene the infant church appears clothed in new 430 beauty, in new holiness, in new strength. It is much to be desired that Catholics of the present day should become acquainted with the religious life of their brethren of the early church. No other study is so well calculated to enliven our faith, animate our hope, inflame our charity, and incite us to that heroic virtue so necessary to perseverance in the present age. _Cineas_ tends to promote this study, and as such we welcome it, commend it to the perusal of every Catholic, and thank the translator and publisher for the care with which they have performed their respective tasks.

THE LETTERS OF MADAME DE SEVIGNE TO HER DAUGHTER AND FRIENDS. Edited
by Mrs. Hale. Boston: Roberts Brothers. 1871.

THE LETTERS OF LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGU. Edited by Mrs. Hale.
Boston: Roberts Brothers. 1871.

These two books, simultaneously issued from the same press and edited by the same author, bear strong marks of similarity and contrast. Each, in its way, has long been looked upon as a model of epistolary correspondence in its appropriate language, and each is defaced by that superficial, not to say anti-Christian, philosophy which prevailed among the “higher classes” in France and England during the last and the preceding century. The French authoress, however, has somewhat the advantage of her English sister, not only in the possession of a language especially adapted, by its grace and flexibility, to this species of composition, but from the fact that she lived surrounded by a strong Catholic public opinion, which, with all her cynicism and fashionable scepticism, she could not wholly disregard. We find, therefore, in many of her letters, particularly those to her daughter, flashes of true, genuine moral sentiment, which are the more striking from contrast with the worldly tone which generally characterized her life and correspondence. Lady Montagu, on the contrary, was brought up in that hard, unsympathetic school which was inaugurated in England after the frenzy of the Reformation had subsided, and with all her wit and womanly elegance we cannot look upon her otherwise than as an intellectual pagan. We may search from cover to cover of Mrs. Hale’s edition of her correspondence in vain to find one religious sentiment that would not have been as appropriate in the days of Horace or Zeno as in the eighteenth century of the Christian era. This is the more singular when we recollect that these gifted women, married to husbands far their inferiors mentally, and, as it appears, merely for the sake of conventionalism, by a not unnatural effort transferred the love women usually bear to the partners of their joys and sorrows to their offspring, and centred all their affections and hopes in their children. With our children we are apt “to assume a virtue if we have it not,” yet still we find these two intellectual mothers writing to their daughters in strains which, if not positively immoral in the broad sense of that term, certainly could not actively conduce to strengthen them against the temptations by which they were constantly surrounded, or to elevate their minds above the glitter and hollowness of the society in which they were obliged to move. Both these distinguished writers were well-bred, thoroughly educated according to the idea of their times, and were the associates of generals, statesmen, poets, and artists, and their frequent and familiar reference to the then leading men of their respective countries are not only interesting, but instructive, as giving us a view of the interior life of many eminent personages hitherto known to us only by their public acts; but when we consider how many unexceptionably good books this age of cheap printing has put 431 within our reach, and the shortness of this busy life itself, we cannot recommend to our readers, particularly the younger portion, the perusal of either volume; nor do we see the necessity of a new edition of works which are merely ornamental, without having the merit of being innocuous.

A COLLECTION OF LEADING CASES ON THE LAW OF ELECTIONS IN THE UNITED
STATES. With Notes and References to the latest authorities. By
Frederick C. Brightly, author of “The Federal Digest,” “The United
States Digest,” etc. Philadelphia: Kay & Brother, 17 and 19 South
Sixth Street, Law Booksellers, Publishers, and Importers. 1871.

Mr. Brightly, who has done so much in his previous works to facilitate the law-student and the lawyer in their studies and preparation of cases, by means of his admirable and learned digests and treatises, has now acquired a new claim upon the gratitude of the student and professional man by his _Collection of Leading Cases on Elections_. The author has been most happy in the selection of his subject, for there are few branches of the law so important, in a free and representative government like ours, as the law of public elections.

In the early days of our Republic, when there was more conservatism than at present, only the most important civil officers of the Federal and State governments were elective by the people, and the elective franchise was not so universally participated in by the masses as at the present time. Then the executive, elected by the people, was clothed with the appointing power, which he exercised with greater deliberation, calmness, and discrimination than is possible to the people amidst the excitements and intrigues of a popular election. He was held responsible to the people for an honest, faithful, and judicious exercise of this high prerogative. But gradually the executive, elected by, and justly accountable to, his constituents, has been stripped of this power, and the same has become vested in or been resumed by the people, who, while possessing, according to the theory of the lawgivers of Ancient Greece, a greater amount of purity of intention, are swayed more by impulses and the passions of the hour. The legislative bodies then, as now, have always been elected by the qualified voters. Then elections were comparatively few, and the contests in the courts over executive, judicial, and ministerial offices, and in the legislatures over the contested seats of members, were comparatively few.

The law in such cases was sought for entirely from the analogies of the English common law cases and the parliamentary precedents and decisions. Now, while the Federal offices remain mostly as they were under our first Presidents and Congresses, in the States almost every office, from governor and judges of the highest courts down to magistrates and constables, has become elective by the people, and the States, with whom, under the Constitution, rests the power of regulating the qualifications for the exercise of the elective franchise, have generally removed all qualifications thereon, and conferred universal suffrage, as it is called, upon the people.

There is scarcely a function of government, from the most vital and momentous to the most trifling, that is not discharged in our regard by elected officers; our lives, our liberties, our property, our castles, and our reputations are confided to the protection or neglect, if not abuse, of officers elected for short terms; so that every interest of life and of society is thus governed, controlled, and administered indirectly by the voting masses.

We will give a single illustration of this: If we take thirty-three and a third years as the average span of human life, it may be said that in every thirty-three and a third years [the time has been 432 estimated as much shorter in regard to what we are going to state], the entire property of the country, its countless millions, are administered or acted upon by a single officer, the Judge of the Probate Court, or other officer of the law, elected by the people, and thus incidentally by the masses themselves. Thus the various elections, which we so heedlessly disregard or pass by, are, in fact, the casts of the die that determine the fate of the nation, its prosperity, happiness, and honor. The importance, therefore, of the law regulating these elections in their varied relations may be estimated from this fact.

That numerous questions and contests should have arisen in a country where so many offices are to be filled, and where elections are so frequent, is not strange, and that the decisions of our own courts upon these litigated cases should have become numerous and controlling is a natural result. The law of elections has been greatly developed and expounded in this country in recent years. The leading cases bearing upon these subjects have been skilfully and carefully collated by Mr. Brightly, illustrated by his own notes and references, and presented to the legal profession and the public in the volume before us. He could not have selected a theme of greater interest or importance to our country, especially at this time, than the law of elections. He has handled it with the same accuracy, learning, and industry which have always characterized his works, and elevated his reputation as a jurist and author. The present work carries with it an interest far more general than professional works usually possess, and may be read with improvement and pleasure by all who are fond of a good and readable book, who seek for useful knowledge on a matter of vast public import, or who take an interest in the purity of elections, and in the general morals and welfare of the commonwealth. We commend it to their perusal.

The title of Father Doane’s new book is to be _To and from the Passion Play in the Summer of 1871_. It will soon be published by Mr. Donahoe, Boston.

MR. P. O’SHEA announces as in press, and to be published by subscription, _The Lives of Deceased Bishops of the Catholic Church in the United States_, by Mr. Richard H. Clark, A. M. The work will be published in two large octavo volumes, and will be ready about the first of December. These volumes will contain the biographies of all the deceased members of the American Catholic Hierarchy, from the earliest dawn of Christianity on this continent to the present day, and will trace the history of the church through the important episcopate of Archbishop Carroll, and chronicle with graphic effect the labors, sacrifices, and achievements of over fifty bishops who have been called to their reward.

The Catholic Publication Society will soon publish a new edition of Father Young’s _Office of Vespers_, greatly enlarged and improved.

The volume of _Sermons of the Paulist Fathers for 1870_ will be ready for delivery on the 25th of November.

THE 433

CATHOLIC WORLD.

VOL. XIV., No. 82.--JANUARY, 1872.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by
REV. I. T. HECKER, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at
Washington, D. C.

WHO IS TO EDUCATE OUR CHILDREN?

Every day that passes over our heads and witnesses the rapid increase of the population of the country adds to the interest which attaches to the reciprocal rights and duties existing between the state and the citizen, as far as the question of the proper education of our children is concerned. It has become a matter of the most vital importance, superior to mere party consideration in the success of this or that faction of politicians; for in the proper appreciation of its magnitude and in its judicious and permanent settlement may be said to lie not only the future welfare of this republic, but the supremacy of Christianity itself on this broad continent. The history of the church from its very foundation is full of instances of the decay of religion and morality in one country simultaneously with their growth or revival in another. It was thus that the faith, grown weak in the farther East, found so many earnest professors in Italy, and when Gaul and the Spanish peninsula succumbed to their pagan conquerors, the light of the Gospel was transferred to the islands of Britain and Ireland, and brightened into an effulgence which, in a few centuries, penetrated the darkest recesses of the then semi-barbarized continent. In Europe to-day, the church, assailed on one side by Cæsarism and on the other by the secret societies, can hardly hold her own, notwithstanding the justice of her cause and the zeal and learning of her champions; and it would seem to be one of the mysterious designs of Providence that the theatre of her triumphs and conquests is, for a time at least, to be transferred to the fresher and more vigorous New World. The astonishing growth of Catholicity in America in our own day is an evidence of this, but our present victories will be barren of any good results if we neglect the proper education of our children, who, as we gradually pass away, are destined to take our places for good or evil.

The time has come when the question, Who is to educate our children? should be definitively answered. Pulpits, forums, and the press, in 434 their respective spheres, have discussed the matter from almost every stand-point, and some of the ablest thinkers, particularly in the Eastern States, have devoted their time and erudition to the elimination of order out of the chaos of crude and transcendental opinions which of late have filled the pamphlets and books of so many writers in Europe and America on the subject of education. Theories innumerable have been advanced, and historical precedents quoted in favor of particular systems, without much approach to unanimity, and still the problem remains as ever unsolved.

Amongst other expressions of opinion on this all-important subject, we have before us a long and very elaborate essay in the _Congregational Quarterly_ of Boston, strongly in favor of the continuance of the public-school system as received in that classical city, and as earnestly endeavoring to demonstrate that, unless the Bible, “without note or comment,” prayers, hymns, and piety, be taught in the state schools in conformity to the statute of 1826, these institutions will become worse than useless, and should be discountenanced. In the language of the writer: “The school system which requires the ethics can receive them only as indissolubly one with the religion, and the state that cannot sustain a statute like the Massachusetts law of 1826, which requires the principles of piety as well as those of morality to be taught, cannot sustain a common school system.”

As a counterpoise to our New England contemporary, we find in the last number of the _American Educational Monthly_, a magazine published in this city, as stout a defence of secular education, while exhibiting a decided preference for the removal from our public schools of the Bible and the discontinuance of all teaching of a religious character. Its arguments on these points, if less subtle, are more practical than those of the _Congregational_, and some of the facts it adduces in support of its views are thus plainly stated:

“It is well to repeat here what was said in the beginning: that
knowledge is not virtue itself, but only the handmaid of virtue.
This is the lesson of Connecticut statistics--a state having a
first-class university as well as the usual network of common
schools: in every nine and seven-tenths marriages there is sure
to be one divorce. Ohio, which has no university comparable to
Yale, and whose common schools are presumably no better than
Connecticut’s, has but one divorce in twenty-four marriages in a
much larger population. There are graduates of common schools who
make it their business to procure divorces by observing
prescribed forms, yet without the knowledge of one or other of
the parties--contrary to the spirit of the law.”