Chapter XLIV: Part I: Awakening (8)

LETTERS OF HIS HOLINESS PIUS IX. APPROVING THE RULES OF THE “UNION OF CHRISTIAN WOMEN.”

The following letters of the Sovereign Pontiff which we have taken from the Boston _Pilot_ are published in the present number of THE CATHOLIC WORLD, on account of their bearing upon the topics discussed in the articles on the “Duties of the Rich.” We recommend their perusal in a special manner to all Catholic ladies in the United States.

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PIUS IX., POPE, TO HIS DEAR DAUGHTER IN JESUS CHRIST, MARIE DE
GENTELLES:

DEAR DAUGHTER IN JESUS CHRIST--Health and Apostolic Benediction.

We congratulate you, dear daughter in Jesus Christ, upon the success which God has been pleased to grant to your efforts against extravagance in dress. Editions of your “Appeal” have multiplied; you have seen it translated into several languages, and received by Catholic women with such eagerness that persons of great prudence and discernment have deemed it a duty to urge you to propose to your sisters in the faith the establishment of an association having for its aim a crusade against extravagance--that scourge of society, that enemy of morality, of public and private economy. Without doubt, if the wills and strength of many were united in the firm bond of an association, the power of example would become much greater, and its influence much more efficacious upon other women, especially if those distinguished by fortune and social position would subscribe to the project.

If this association succeed in establishing among women a taste for moderate expenditure and a contempt for love of display, it would not only serve to promote modesty, and prevent a waste of means which might often be employed in assisting the poor, but it would leave a great portion of the day free to be devoted to works of piety, to the education of children, or to household duties.

The rules which you have laid down are well adapted to attain the desired end, especially that which prescribes that every member of the union shall fix in advance, and unalterably, the sum of her expenses, and pay _ready money_ upon all occasions.

The task is indeed a delicate one. It will encounter great obstacles in that love of show and desire to please so natural to your sex. Still, he whose grace has already been powerful enough to lead many of your companions to this difficult but withal most noble work, can inspire others to follow the good example. This is the success which, from our inmost heart, we presage for your project. Meanwhile, as an auspice of the divine favor, and as a pledge of our paternal kindness, we grant, with the most lively tenderness, to you and all your pious associates in the good work, our Apostolic Benediction.

Given at Rome, near St. Peter’s, Nov. 6, 1869, in the twenty-fourth year of our Pontificate.

PIUS PP. IX.

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PIUS IX., POPE, TO HIS BELOVED DAUGHTER IN JESUS CHRIST, MARIE DE
GENTELLES:

DEAR DAUGHTER IN JESUS CHRIST--Health and Apostolic Benediction.

The expressions of respect which you address to us, dear daughter in Jesus Christ, in your name and in the name of your associates, are received by us with the most lively satisfaction, the greater that they are not limited to mere _expressions_ nor to _offers_ of assistance by prayer, but they are doubly grateful from the zeal you have employed in seeking to extirpate the evil of extravagance in dress so common among your sex. You have also tried to promote habits of simplicity, modesty, and piety among your sisters in the faith. By this, much evil can be prevented--nay, more, your success will be a most useful ally in the war we are now waging against the powers of darkness. Therefore, for you and for the “Union of Christian Women” devoted to this excellent work, we implore from heaven perseverance in your undertaking, never-wearying progress, and the efficacious assistance of divine grace. As a prelude of these favors, and as a pledge of our paternal affection, we grant most tenderly to you and all your pious companions the Apostolic Benediction.

Given at Rome, near St. Peter’s, April 17, 1871, in the twenty-fifth year of our Pontificate.

PIUS PP. IX.

NEW PUBLICATIONS.

A CRITICAL DICTIONARY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE AND BRITISH AND
AMERICAN AUTHORS, LIVING AND DECEASED. From the earliest
accounts to the latter half of the Nineteenth Century.
Containing over forty-six thousand articles (authors),
with forty indexes of Subjects. By S. Austin Allibone.
Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1871.

It would be strange indeed if a dictionary of authors, in three volumes, each of one thousand pages, closely printed in double columns, “the fruit of many years of anxious research and conscientious toil,” should not contain a large amount of information valuable not only to the general reader, but to the scholar and the man of letters.

Valuable information Mr. Allibone’s _Dictionary_ certainly does impart; but we feel compelled to express regret that its author should have made a serious mistake as to the importance of much of the matter inserted. Into this error he appears to have been led in seeking to increase the number of authors by the insertion of names which never possessed the slightest literary value or significance.

The title-page announcement that the work contains “_over_ forty-six thousand articles (authors)” awakens within us no special throbs of pleasurable anticipation, for we know how dictionaries are made. And the delight with which one might contemplate its array of one hundred and forty-eight Robinsons, its one hundred and eighty Browns, its one hundred and eighty-nine Joneses, and its solid phalanx of eight hundred and ten Smiths, exclusive of a formidable list of Smyths and Smythes, undergoes serious diminution, for the reason that one cannot help reflecting how much valuable space might have been far more advantageously occupied.

In works of this description, mere book-making manifests itself in its most flagrant aspect. In each successive publication in the dictionary (alphabetical) form, upon any given subject, the effort is made to surpass all its predecessors in the quantity of matter and in the number of articles or names. Now, in a literary sense, names die, as in actual life people die; and names which might have some possible interest for the readers of Blount’s work, published in 1690, have still less for people of the following century, and positively none at all for our readers of 1870. It most resembles a vain attempt to keep alive the memory of people not worth remembering by constant transcription and repetition of what is written on their tomb-stones. We are, therefore, unable to discover any merit in the uniform numerals 46,000. It is more a matter of mere assertion than of intelligent investigation and selection, and the figure may be reached merely by the simple addition of the contents of a few well-known bibliographical works. One of them alone, the _Bibliotheca Britannica_, of Watts, furnishes 22,700 names of British and American authors, and more than half as many more may be found in the copious indexes of English magazines and quarterlies, not to speak of Griswold and other American works.

We by no means wish to be understood as desiring that the reduction should be restricted to the elimination of the familiar household names we have mentioned. We would have it ruthlessly extended to the nullities in literature, whose sole contributions consist of such productions (single specimens) as “Sermon,” “Almanac,” “Funeral Sermon,” “Instruction in Water Drawing,” “Report of ‘Smithers _vs._ Tompkins,’” “Copy-Book,” “Edition of Laws of Texas,” “Sermon on Popery,” “Pyrotechnics”--being careful to pair off these two last named, for the “Popery” man clearly means “pyrotechnics,” if he could have his way. What cares any one nowadays for such a piece of information as this: “_Darch_, John, ‘Sermon,’ 1766. 4to”? Why, for instance, should the names of a thousand such nobodies as R. P. Blakely go down to posterity as authors, this R. P. B., as we learn from the _Dictionary_, having merely translated some passages from _Liguori_ and called them “Awful Disclosures”? Had we been spared profuse mention of most of these sermon, almanac, and copy-book makers, space might have been found to inform seekers for knowledge that William Cobbett wrote a work on the _History of the Reformation in England_, a book which, in admirably pure English, does some justice to the infamy of Henry VIII. and his colleagues, lay and spiritual, who aided and abetted his wholesale robberies and murders, and made of “Merrie Old England” a land of desolation, want, and beggary. It is precisely by this book that the name of Cobbett is most widely known, but Mr. Allibone does not appear to have heard of it, otherwise his knowledge of its existence might account to a great extent for the tone of depreciation in which he speaks of Cobbett.

Quite as remarkable is the author’s suppression, in his biographical notice of George Buchanan, of the fact of Buchanan’s dependence for some years upon Mary Stuart, and of her kindness and generosity to him. It was this fact that made Buchanan’s _Detection_ “unrivalled in baseness, peerless in falsehood, supreme in ingratitude.”

In sharp contrast with extended mention of the _Detection_ and its object is Mr. Allibone’s languid notice of Miss Agnes Strickland’s historical works, and of the brilliant Donald MacLeod’s writings in general, and more especially his _Life of Mary, Queen of Scots_. We are perfectly well aware that Mr. A., in season and out of season, with and without pretext, takes every opportunity of protesting to his reader that “we express no opinion on the question involved in the Mary Stuart controversy.” Mr. Allibone protests too much, and most so when seeking to convey the worst impression against her. Thus, in the article on Buchanan, he says: “If Buchanan is to be believed, there can be but little doubt of the guilt of the fair Queen of Scots; but upon this point we express no opinion.” Mr. Allibone here builds up his little argument on the authority of this convicted liar, Buchanan, and adds, “We express no opinion”--oh! certainly not--by no means! Protests and pretended apologies like this abound in the _Dictionary_, and, so far from concealing, only make more visible the marked bias of the author in religious questions. Naturally enough, Buchanan and John Foxe are both his favorites.

The author of the _Dictionary_ does not appear to be aware that Henry Kenelm Digby has written and published anything since his great work _Mores Catholici_--Ages of Faith, nor does he seem to know that this distinguished author is a convert from Protestantism to Catholicity. The notice of Aubrey de Vere is defective in many points, and totally omits mention of the fact that the brilliant poet is also a convert to Catholicity.

The article on Dr. Brownson is far from doing that distinguished philosophical writer justice. This was not to be looked for, but it is incorrect in several points. Dr. Brownson never was a Presbyterian minister, nor was he a Deist. _Charles Elwood_ is not “an account of his religious experience,” but _The Convert_ is such an account. The statement that “Dr. Brownson is a great admirer of the philosophy of M. Comté (_sic_) as developed in the _Cours de Philosophie_” is without foundation. Dr. Brownson never admired it, never accepted its philosophic position, and never read anything of Comte’s except the Introduction to his voluminous _Course of Positive Philosophy_. This error probably originated with Mr. Griswold, who confounded the doctrines of Pierre Le Roux and the St. Simoniens with the system of Auguste Comte.

We presume that the omission of the names of Archbishop Kenrick (Peter, of St. Louis), Prince Gallitzin, Frederick Lucas, a distinguished English convert, formerly a Quaker, and of many others we might point out, is the result of accident.

We have mentioned John Foxe, the great “unreliable.” Mr. Allibone’s apology--evidently a labor of love--for this unsavory personage is not only elaborate, it is labored. We have referred to Mr. Allibone’s evident bias. Foxe is a test subject, and we shall therefore say a few words concerning it. If a scholar as enlightened as our author should be can uphold Foxe as he does, then we can readily gauge the measure of his Protestant credulity and his anti-Catholic animus. Mr. Allibone spares us the necessity of any effort to demonstrate his bias, for he goes to the trouble of pointing out to us as one of the high merits of _Foxe’s Martyrs_ that “_its influence in keeping alive the Protestant feeling in Great Britain and North America is too well known to be disputed_.” Historical truth is one thing, “Protestant feeling” another. Far from us to dispute the merit claimed by Mr. Allibone for his beloved Foxe, but we beg leave to suggest to him that the proper place for such praise would be the columns of a Know-Nothing paper, not the pages of a dignified work on literature.

The account given by Mr. Allibone of Foxe’s life is to some extent fabulous, inasmuch as he accepts Mr. Townsend’s statements as to the authorship of _Foxe’s Life_ by his (Foxe’s) son. Mr. Allibone ought to know that Foxe’s son did not write the _Life_ in question. In the article _Maitland, Rev. S. R._, keeper of the Lambeth MSS. and Librarian to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Mr. Allibone enumerates as (13) of his works _Notes on the Contributions of the Rev. George Townsend to the new Edition of Foxe’s Martyrology_. We would advise Mr. Allibone--since he needs must raise an unnecessary discussion about this man Foxe--to go beyond the title of this work of Maitland’s into its contents. He will be rapidly enlightened concerning both Foxe and Townsend. This Dr. Maitland is also the author of the admirable _Dark Ages_. Mr. Allibone does mention it, “only this and nothing more.”

Mr. Allibone has the hardihood to assert that, “as regards conscientiousness of performance and adherence to records, _the faithfulness of the ‘Book of Martyrs’ cannot intelligently be questioned_,” and his principal witness to prove Foxe’s veracity is--Gilbert Burnet, commonly known as Bishop Burnet! Throw literature to the dogs! It is “keeping alive the Protestant feeling” we look upon as our mission. That, as we read it, appears to be Mr. Allibone’s controlling idea. But what is to become of us if the faithfulness of every suspicious and fishy chronicler is to be discovered and vindicated by every compiler of every literary dictionary? However, we need not, we believe, be alarmed, for our author’s affections are enlisted for a select few, Foxe in particular, because of “his influence in keeping alive, etc., etc., etc., etc., etc.”

Here is one of the latest of the many honest Protestant exposures of the character of Foxe’s book, from the pen of Professor Arnold, of University College, Oxford:

“It is now indeed well understood that Foxe was a rampant
bigot, and, like all of his class, utterly unscrupulous in
assertion;--the falsehoods, misrepresentations, and exaggerations
to which he gave circulation are endless. Take, for instance, his
account of the death of Wolsey, which we know, from the testimony
of George Cavendish, an eye-witness, to be a string of pure,
unmitigated falsehoods.”

As to the worthlessness of Burnet’s testimony we have abundant Protestant evidence. Mr. Allibone himself quotes Dr. Johnson to this effect:

“I do not believe that Burnet intentionally _lied_; but he was
so much prejudiced that he took no pains to find out the truth.
He was like a man who resolves to regulate his time by a certain
watch, but will not inquire whether the watch is right or not.”

Whereupon Mr. Allibone indulges in this astounding piece of withering sarcasm:

“One might imagine that the doctor had roomed with the bishop at
least, he seems to be so perfectly informed as to his habits”!

As to Burnet the man and the theologian, we are sufficiently enlightened by the use he consented to be put to by Buckingham and Lauderdale, at the time when, as royal chaplain, he preached before “the king and his harem” every Sunday. This use was the preparation of a work in which he undertook to set forth the queen’s barrenness as “a good cause for divorce.” Starting at the period of Henry VIII., England had become gradually pagan and profligate; but whatever of goodness and virtue was then left in the country joined in denouncing the author of the vile principles set forth in Burnet’s book.

Mr. Allibone neglects to record that it was because Charles II., bad as he was, despised Burnet and his advice, and when, losing his office in the Chapel Royal, Burnet suddenly awakened to a sense of the king’s wickedness, and wrote a remonstrance to him on his bad life, Charles treated him with silent contempt.

“Gilbert Burnet,” says one of his Puritan contemporaries, Jacob Lawton, “was a man who blew hot and cold for money or for rich patrons”; and in the ninth volume of Sir Walter Scott’s _Life and Works of Dryden_ will be found the narrative of the betrayal to the House of Commons by Burnet of the secrets of his patron, the Duke of Lauderdale. Finally, his bishopric from William was merely the reward of trickery and treason simply infamous.

As to Burnet the historian, Hume’s opinion that he is “sometimes _mistaken_ as to facts,” and Sir Walter Scott’s statement that “his [Burnet’s] opinions were often hastily adopted, and sometimes awkwardly retracted,” may be thought not entirely fatal to his reputation; but other authorities speak more plainly. Sir John Dalrymple “never tried Burnet’s facts by test of dates and original papers without finding them wrong.” Arbuthnot and Swift challenge his veracity, and do not hesitate to attribute to him unworthy motives. In 1693, Henry Wharton demonstrated his “suppression, coloring, and falsifying of facts,” and the _Historical and Critical Remarks_ of Bevil Higgons more than confirms Miss Strickland’s conclusion that Burnet is “a notoriously false witness.” This is Mr. Allibone’s veracious upholder of Foxe’s truth! He may now take the witness.

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ST. THOMAS OF AQUIN: HIS LIFE AND LABORS. By the Rev. Father
Roger Bede Vaughan, O.S.B. Vol. II. (New York: Sold by The
Catholic Publication Society.)

The first volume of this goodly work has been already noticed. We are glad to welcome the second and concluding volume. Together with the events of the life of St. Thomas from the time of his contest with William of St. Amour until his death, which occupy but a small portion of its space, this volume continues the history and analysis of his works, and expatiates upon the Greek philosophers, Christian doctors, and other sources of the doctrine of St. Thomas, in their relation with him. As a biography we prefer that of the Frenchman Bareille, which we desire to see translated, and which the present work by no means supersedes. As a history of the times and the works of the saint, Father Vaughan’s volumes are rich, attractive, and valuable. The description of the Paris University in the thirteenth century, and the account of St. Thomas and St. Buonaventura taking the doctor’s cap, are very lively and graphic. The centenary of St. Thomas will recur in 1874, and will probably be celebrated with extraordinary splendor in Europe. Perhaps we may do a little something also in America.

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THE VIRTUES OF MARY, MOTHER OF GOD. From the Spanish of Father
Francis Arias, S.J. London: Burns & Oates. (New York: Sold by
The Catholic Publication Society.)

If it takes a saint to know a saint, and it is pretty generally considered that it does, it certainly takes a saint to do justice to the sublime virtues of the Queen of Saints. By all accounts F. Arias was a saint, and his little work on the virtues of the Blessed Virgin is what might be expected--a treatise full of piety, full of emotion, and full of the highest asceticism. Together with being a holy man Arias was a learned man, and in his book with the fervor of the saint is combined the accuracy of the theologian. Many of the saints have themselves been able to realize the almost ineffable holiness of the Mother of God; but few have been able to make this holiness a reality to others.

In this we think the Spanish Jesuit has surpassed most others. In his hand the virtues of our Blessed Lady become a reality, intelligible to all and imitable by all. Therefore it is that his little work, while pre-eminently suitable for the convent and the cloister, may be read with great benefit by all classes of persons in the world.

It is proper to remark that _The Virtues of Mary, Mother of God_ is a republication; the same translation having been long ago published under the title of _Imitation of the Blessed Virgin_. It would be a great blessing if we had more republications of the same sort instead of the mass of modern commonplaces, many of which are wanting in emotion and not a few in genuine piety.

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EXTRACTS FROM THE FATHERS, ETC. Dublin: W. B. Kelly, 1860. (New
York: Sold by The Catholic Publication Society.)

This book, under the general title of _Christian Classics_, is intended, as we are informed in the preface, “nearly altogether for the use of students,” and as such may be considered a very useful and desirable publication. More than a score of the most illustrious and erudite fathers and writers of the church have been put under contribution by the editor, and though we consider the arrangement and choice of the selections susceptible of some improvement, we are grateful for those presented us in so neat and portable a form. Apart from what is purely moral and theological in the _Extracts_, there is a great deal of biographical and historical information interesting to the general reader, which cannot be easily acquired except through the voluminous tomes so seldom found in ordinary libraries.

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UNA AND HER PAUPERS; or, Memorials of Agnes Elizabeth Jones. By
her Sister. New York: George Routledge & Sons.

So-called Protestant lands, which were once a part of the fair garden of the church, still put forth some shoots occasionally from the old roots left in the soil. It is pleasant to see them springing up, now and then, as if to assert the indestructibility of the divine seed; for the spirit of self-sacrifice and of charity is essentially the spirit of Catholicism. As Balmes says, public beneficence was unknown to the ancients. It is wholly due to the church. The divine words, “Inasmuch as ye have done it to one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me,” have gone on with their undulations through more than eighteen centuries of spiritual life in the church, awakening the tenderest instincts of the human heart in behalf of suffering humanity. Thank God! there are some nominally without its pale--

“With whom the melodies abide
Of th’ everlasting chime;
Who carry music in their heart
Through dusky lane and wrangling mart,
Plying their daily task with busier feet,
Because their secret souls a holy strain repeat.”

_Una and her Paupers_--happily styled Una, for such lives are unique, exceptional, in Protestant annals--is the history of a large-hearted, sympathetic, North-of-Ireland lady, who was gradually led, by her natural inclinations and by circumstances, to a partial renunciation of the comforts of a pleasant home and family affection, and submit herself to training as a nurse in the celebrated Kaiserswerth[132] institution of Protestant deaconesses. She was afterwards connected with an association of Bible-women at London; then underwent a year’s training as Nightingale nurse at St. Thomas’s Hospital in that city, and was subsequently appointed Female Superintendent of the Liverpool Workhouse, where she contracted a typhus fever, and died in 1868, at the age of thirty-five.

The book is admirably edited by her sister, and has a eulogistic introduction by Miss Nightingale, who seems to have given it its title. The American edition has, moreover, the advantage of a preface by the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. From a Protestant point of view, this must be a charming and useful book. If not equally so to a Catholic, it is because his standard of piety is infinitely higher, and instances of far greater self-denial for the sake of others are of daily occurrence in the church.

Miss Jones’ piety was decidedly of the so-called Evangelical school in the Church of England. The Bible is constantly in her hands, and all her spiritual emotions are expressed in Biblical phrases that have more a smack of Cromwell than of prelacy. A few words dropped here and there in her letters show her instinctive aversion to Catholicism, but we love to think this rather the result of ignorance than want of charity in a person of her profession. Almost her first words written from Rome were: “I never go out but as a duty, for the whole is so depressing, and it is indeed so utterly the ‘city given to idolatry’; the associations of the past are forgotten in its present.” This says volumes for her cast of mind and piety. Kind and loving as she was by nature, we cannot regret she was excluded from all missionary efforts in the Catholic ward of the Liverpool Workhouse, on which she seems to have kept a longing eye. She appears to have gained some influence over one poor girl in London, who, she says, was “on the verge of becoming a nun--to her the only conceivable way of finding the peace she longed for: now her eyes seem to be opened to a better way, though _she does not feel she has yet entered on it_.” As we are not informed of the result, we may reasonably conclude this individual found peace at last in the only true refuge.

Though trained in the best schools of Protestant benevolence, Miss Jones’ shrinking from association with the nurses even of Miss Nightingale’s school--not unreasonable when we recall the experience of the latter in the Crimea--and her observations with regard to the difficulties of such institutions, are full of significance to those familiar with the efficient charitable organizations in the church. She says: “The difficulty [of having deaconesses in England] is, the real submission of the will there must be. I believe this is _the_ valuable part of the training.” “I believe all I owe to Kaiserswerth was comprised in the lesson of unquestioning obedience.” “No one can tell what a woman exposes herself to who acts independently. I never would advise any one to do as I have done, and yet I feel I have been led on step by step, almost unwillingly, certainly not as I should have chosen, had I not seemed guided, as I believe I have been, and so kept.” “But what I feel so much is, how many there are who want some place where they can get teachings for their own hearts and souls, training for, and direction in, work for others, sympathy in that work and their difficulties in it, and a home where, in their leisure hours, they may have more or less association with others.”

And the estimable Miss Nightingale, in her introduction, says: “There is no such thing as amateur nursing.... Three-fourths of the whole mischief in women’s lives arises from excepting themselves from the rule of training considered needful for man.”

To these quotations, we will add another statement in this book by the Rev. Mr. Moody, likewise of the Evangelical school, who is told at Kaiserswerth that the Evangelicals of Great Britain furnished less useful sick-nurses than the churches tinged with ritualism. This, he says, was “humbling and instructive to hear”; and he adds this was because “the nurses that come from us [the Evangelicals] are _more anxious to take charge_ and to administer medicines, than to _obey_, _to learn_, _to serve_.”

Such statements make us turn with satisfaction to the noble army of charity in the Catholic Church who _really_ give up home and earthly pleasures and their own will, and make themselves poor with the poor, counting all this no loss that they may be spent for Christ’s poor ones. What they have achieved as a whole is partly known, but individual sacrifices and efforts are buried in the hidden life they love. Their veiled lives are only fully known to the Divine Spouse, whom they tenderly take to their hearts in the person of his suffering poor; their countless heroic souls mostly pass away leaving no _written_ record on earth.

The garments of the church are all studded over with such precious jewels of love and charity. We have no reason to envy those who seek to imitate our Sisters of Charity like the deaconesses of Kaiserswerth and Florence Nightingale. May their laudable examples and that of Miss Jones find numerous emulators! The glimpses this book gives us of the moral as well as physical degradation of some of the Liverpool paupers, are enough to set the Christian heart on fire to labor for the elevation of the human race. Those women who talk so frantically of their rights and of woman’s mission can here find their true field, where none can compete with them. Men certainly cannot.

But, as Rahel Varnhagen says: “Those who completely sacrifice themselves are praised and admired: that is the sort of character men like to find in _others_.”

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SIX WEEKS ABROAD. By the Rev. G. F. Haskins. Boston: P. Donahoe.

The genial F. Haskins is known to everybody, and this little book presents his numerous friends with a portrait of him, a short biographical sketch, and some very brief, characteristic, and sparkling notes of a recent visit to Europe. Each chapter is a little crystal of Attic salt. Whoever buys and reads this book will be pleased with it, be he young or old. There are some remarks on education, Irish and American politics, etc., which are as remarkable for point and sense as they are for terseness. Father Haskins’ coin is small but valuable, like a rouleau of gold dollars.

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VIRTUES AND DEFECTS OF A YOUNG GIRL. By a Chaplain. Translated
from the French. New York: D. & J. Sadlier & Co. 1872.

This little manual of moral science was intended by the author as a text-book for schools. It will, at least, be useful to parents and teachers in forming the character of those confided to them. A more complete elementary treatise on moral philosophy is a desideratum for our Catholic institutions for girls. Of course it is taught, in the highest sense of the word, in connection with the Christian doctrine, but a practical work, not religious, strictly speaking, is needed. It would serve, as our author says, as a help to divine grace. The firmest basis of piety is moral principle. The moral condition of the next generation depends on those destined to be their mothers having definite, practical notions of moral science. This science was once associated with the very rudiments of learning. _The Christian’s Alphabet_, a compendium of the essential points of moral philosophy, has come down to us from the middle ages.

In the practical little work before us, the social virtues are not overlooked. Politeness is one of them, for it is a virtue, at least in France: we wish we could say everywhere. That “life must be a perpetual sacrifice of self for the sake of others,” is here laid down as the basis of politeness and the social virtues generally. Like coin of precious metal, politeness is current in every land and among all classes. It is the oil that lubricates the wheel-works of society; it is the garland of flowers that binds society together; it extends to the very tone of the voice, the carriage of the body, and appropriateness of dress; it is especially important to women, on whom depends refinement or degeneracy of manners.

Respect for others is here inculcated in recognition of the divine radiance that proceeds from the soul of every human being. One section of this chapter is devoted to “Respect for the Aged and the Poor.” Veneration for age is by no means prevalent in these times. “It is regarded as an impertinence to be alive after sixty on this side of the globe,” says an American. And as for the poor, who respects them? And yet Bossuet saw an inexpressible sublimity in the condition of the unfortunate.

Industry is likewise dwelt upon, and the evils of an aimless life. The reason why so many women are nervous, morose, and melancholy is because they are the victims of an aimless life. Their very hearts are wasting away--corroded by rust.

Order and cleanliness have also their place. And how significant they are of one’s moral condition! We read in F. Faber’s life, when the orderly appearance of his room was noticed one Easter morning, he replied that the napkin in the sepulchre was found _folded_ after the Resurrection, showing that our Lord hated untidiness.

This book is generally well translated, but there are some verbal inaccuracies. Madame de Maintenon’s observations, on page 117, were probably to the young ladies of St. Cyr--an institution of which she was the patroness--rather than “the Misses Saint Cyr.”

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WOMEN HELPERS IN THE CHURCH--THEIR SAYINGS AND DOINGS. Edited by
William Welsh. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1872.

_Women Helpers in the Church_--that is, in the Protestant Episcopal Church--is a compilation of articles previously published in _The Spirit of Missions_ from the memoranda of ladies engaged in parochial labors, such as Sunday-schools, mothers’ meetings, district visiting, etc.

This is another book calling attention to the efficiency of woman’s co-operation in the regeneration of the human race. It dwells on the necessity of trained lay-helpers in the work, and says the church should be a training-school for aggressive warfare against evil. And “as but few male communicants seem willing to give out the socializing power which God has entrusted to them for the benefit of those less favored, it is well to employ the agency of godly women.” It finds less difficulty in training workers in this country than in England, where “few persons of good social position attend Sunday-school or Bible-class.” This statement rather excites a wonder who _do_ attend, for the poor seem to hold themselves equally aloof. The Protestant Archbishop of York, quoted in this work, says that in one district in London not one person in a hundred attends church. These people are in a state of heathenish darkness, though “the Church of England has emitted a pure Gospel light for centuries,” and are in the lowest state of degradation. “Who are these people?” asks the archbishop, and, as if conscious of the great gulf that separates them from those he addresses, he adds, “They are of the same flesh and blood as we.” The Catholic is unconscious of any such gulf. In the great republic of the church, the poor are the most tenderly cared for. The church has ennobled poverty by making it one of the evangelical counsels. Bossuet says: “Let no one any longer scorn poverty or treat it as a base thing: the King of Glory having espoused it, he has ennobled it by this alliance, and henceforth he grants the poor all the privileges of his empire.” “The poor of Christ have lineal rights,” says Faber, and it is because the Catholic Church recognizes these rights that it is emphatically the church of the poor.

We are glad to see any attempts made to elevate and socialize the poorer classes by visiting them, disseminating good books, and bringing them together for social and religious purposes. One association of ladies engaged in this work is stated to have made over six thousand visits the past year, and a committee of twelve ladies made seventeen thousand visits in the course of six years. The publication of their labors does not seem exactly on the principle of not letting the left hand know what the right hand doeth, though, if it excites emulation, it may not be unjustifiable. Any good resulting from such labors is a more enduring record, and will “survive all paper.” “For,” as Carlyle says, “the working of the good and brave, seen or unseen, endures literally for ever and cannot die. Is a thing nothing because the morning papers have not mentioned it? Or can a nothing be made a something by ever so much babbling of it there? Far better, probably, that no morning or evening paper mentioned it, that the right hand knew not what the left was doing.”

We are unwilling to criticise any sincere efforts to do good, and will forbear commenting on the memoranda of the ladies which compose the greater part of this work, however unattractive much of their piety may be to a Catholic; but we need not be equally forbearing to the editor, who detracts from the effect of incidents sometimes touching by his frequent interlardings and would-be wit about “portable fire-extinguishers” (meaning the fire of sin) “anti-incrustators,” etc. His bitterness against the Catholic Church makes him look with an envious eye at her success among her cherished poor ones. He speaks of her as “a corrupt church, whose spirit is hostile to republican institutions, now actively drilling the lay force in sodalities and other associations, and using their power to the utmost in educational, political, and proselyting schemes!” But such insinuations cannot harm us. He himself observes: “The Church of Rome, with all her obvious errors, suffers but little from the violent opposition to which she is constantly subjected. It will be well for all religious bodies closely to scrutinize her educational success, her tender care for the sick, and all the other modes by which she generates and uses spiritual power. Surely no well-organized church with a pure Scriptural faith, claiming to have divine authority, can in _this Protestant nation_ be content any longer to yield ground to a _foreign church_ with a foreign ministry.”

We can afford to be forbearing, and heartily forgive such language, in view of the tribute he pays to our superiority. The best thing in the book is his extract from the Abbé Mullois’ work entitled _The Clergy and the Pulpit in their Relations to the People_, which he rightly calls invaluable, and says “should be carefully and prayerfully studied by the clergy and laity of our church, as it is eminently spiritual and practical”--a recommendation not quite in harmony with the preceding complimentary allusions. The Abbé Mullois’ work (issued by “The Catholic Publication Society”), though only a fourth of the size of _Women Helpers_, is worth a thousand such. It is full of charity, zeal, and genuine piety, and sparkling with vivacity. No cant or lackadaisical piety _there_. It is a book that should be in every priest’s hands at least. The Abbé Mullois is fully sensible of woman’s adaptation to self-denying labors in the cause of religion and charity. “Woman is called the feeble sex,” says he. “True, when she does not love; but when love takes possession of her soul, she becomes the strong, the able, the devoted sex. She then looks difficulties in the face which would make men tremble.”

The co-operation of woman in evangelizing the world is nothing new in the church. Woman was instrumental in the fall of man; the second Eve had a large share in his redemption. The ministrations of women date from apostolic times, and the church has always availed herself of them. France was said to have been won back to Christianity by the Sisters of Charity. The utility of lay co-workers, both men and women, is evident from the good done by the Conferences of St. Vincent of Paul among men, and the various female associations among women. Wherever there is a priest, there should be some such organization for the religious and social elevation of the poor. _Women Helpers_ shows how the masses hunger for spiritual aliment. Let us hasten to give them bread instead of a stone!

* * * * *

THE OFFERTORIUM. A complete Collection of Music for the Sunday
and Holyday Services of the Catholic Church, containing
Masses, Vespers, Anthems, Hymns for Offertory, Benediction,
and all Special Occasions, a Requiem Mass, Holy Week
Services, Responses, etc. By William O. Fiske. Boston: Ditson
& Co.

Why this collection of music is called “The Offertorium” we cannot understand. There is only one Offertory in the whole book. It might with equal fitness be styled “The Introit” or “The Kyrie Eleison.” Claiming, as it does, to be a collection of music for the services of the Catholic Church, we looked at once for the imprimatur of the proper ecclesiastical authority, but, after examining its contents, we were not surprised at its absence. It is, in fact, a poor rehash of books already well known to our country choirs. A number of pieces are called “Gregorian.” If this be Gregorian chant, we want none of it. It would lead us in charity to believe the compiler never saw a volume of Gregorian chant in his life. Again, we think no one capable of writing or compiling music for the church who does not know how to read, or at least pronounce, Latin. We have the following pronunciations given in this work: luci_fé_rum, spiri_tú_i, us_qué_, glo_ría_, filio_rúm_, confi_dúnt_, descen_dúnt_, etc., etc. In a _Gloria in Excelsis_ abridged from Concone, the name of our Lord, “Jesu Christe,” is left out after “altissimus.” The author likely got up his musical phrase first, and, finding it too short, sacrificed the integrity of the sacred text to either his musical poverty or professional vanity. This and a few other cuttings of the text are, however, amply made up for by the frequent repetition of words and parts of sentences to be found on every page of the musical masses. The clergy are on all sides lamenting the degradation of church music, but let them not complain so long as they permit their choirs to furnish a market for productions like this.

* * * * *

THE CHATEAU MORVILLE; or, Life in Touraine. From the French. By
E. R. Philadelphia: Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger. 1872. 1
vol. 12mo, pp. 366.

This book, the translator says in his preface, “is the first of a contemplated series of entertaining foreign fiction, to consist of a selection of some of the best works of the most popular continental authors, and is intended for that class of readers who are desirous of enjoying all the instruction to be derived from a first-class novel.” We do not deny that the book is sprightly, witty, and entertaining, and that it may please those who read simply for amusement. All the characters are supposed to be Catholic, yet that word is not once used in the work; nor is religion in any of its practices, public or private, alluded to, except on the last page. The story is a moral one, but of the negative kind, and is to Catholic literature what the public schools are to Catholic schools--Godless.

* * * * *

EXCERPTA EX RITUALI ROMANO PRO ADMINISTRATIONE SACRAMENTORUM, AD
COMMODIOREM USUM MISSIONARIORUM, IN SEPTENTRIONALIS AMERICÆ
FŒDERATÆ PROVINCIIS. Nova et Auctior Editio. Baltimori: Apud
Kelly, Piet et Socios. MDCCCLXXII.

This new edition of the abridged ritual is quite an improvement on preceding ones. The following matter has been added: “De Visitatione Infirmorum,” “Modus Juvandi Morientes,” “Benedictio ad Omnia,” “Benedictio Infantis,” “Benedictio Puerorum Ægrotantium,” and exhortations, in German, before and after marriage. The “Profession of Faith at the Reception of a Convert” is also given in German. The translation of the baptismal interrogations into the vernacular, which has hitherto been customary, seems to be superfluous and even objectionable, after the decree of the S. Congregation of Rites, August 31, 1867, forbidding the use of such translations. The title is put as “Rituali Romano” on the back in the copy before us, the most prominent words on the title-page having been transferred to the cover. The rubrics are in red, the type large and clear, and the binding good.

* * * * *

ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. Translated from the Italian of
Silvio Pellico, by R. A. Vain. New York: D. & J. Sadlier &
Co. 1872.

This little book, of less than two hundred pages, contains much that is new, apposite, and instructive. The style is calm, affectionate, and altogether devoid of that harsh dogmatism which sometimes makes even the best advice unpalatable. The varied duties of young men claiming to be Christians and aiming at the highest possible refinement, both in the family and society, are described in a number of short chapters, every one of which is a well-conceived sermon epitomized. The appearance of the volume is in keeping with the excellence of its contents, and we congratulate the publishers on having succeeded in producing one of the handsomest of the minor works of the season in any department of literature. We hope the public will appreciate this effort of the Messrs. Sadlier to keep pace with the enterprise of other publishers, and that their contemporaries outside of New York may show equal energy and skill in the preparation of their books.

* * * * *

LATIN SCHOOL SERIES.--PHÆDRUS, JUSTIN, NEPOS. By Francis Gardner,
Head Master, A. M. Gay and A. H. Buck, Masters in the Boston
Latin School. Boston: Lee & Shepard. New York: Lee, Shepard &
Dillingham. 1872.

The Boston Latin School is one of our few classical glories. A series of Latin text-books, edited by its masters, will be an acquisition to be hailed by every teacher and pupil. This volume of the series is a gem in every respect--text, notes, glossary, and typographical form. What makes it very nice for a boy is its small size, and the placing of the notes at the bottom of the page. We trust that the other volumes of the series will follow in rapid succession, and that they will contain nothing which can be dangerous to the morals of the youthful scholars in whose hands they will be placed. It is important to promote the thorough study of the Greek and Latin languages, but still more necessary to guard the minds of the young from the contaminating influence of that portion of the classical literature which is defiled with the impurities of heathenism. The introduction of the excellent series of Christian classics published in France into the course of an American college would be a good thing.

* * * * *

THE LIVES OF THE SAINTS. By Rev. S. Baring-Gould, M.A. January.
London: John Hodges. (New York: Sold by The Catholic
Publication Society.) 1872.

Mr. Gould is a remarkable man. Three years ago we reviewed with considerable severity a work of his, and treated him as a rationalist, which we supposed him to be at that time, not knowing anything whatever of his opinions, except as they were indicated in the book reviewed. We were somewhat puzzled by discovering that he is really a clergyman of the Ritualist school, but it appears in reality that he is a Hegelian in philosophy, and at the same time a _soi-disant_ eclectic Catholic in theology. How he reconciles these opposites is his affair, not ours. The present volume, at any rate, is worthy of the highest praise. It is a collection of short lives from the Bollandists, published in a beautiful style, and perfectly suitable for circulation among Catholics. We trust he will complete his useful and attractive work in the same admirable manner as he has begun it.

THE CATHOLIC PUBLICATION SOCIETY has in press and in preparation the following works, in addition to those already announced, which will be published during the fall: _Pictures of Youthful Holiness_, by Rev. R. Cooke; _A Saint’s Children_, by Emily Bowles; _Life and Writings of St. Catherine of Genoa_; _All Hallow-Eve, and Unconvicted_; _Tales from the Spanish of Fernan Caballero_; _The Heart of Myrrha Lake, or Into the Light of Catholicity_; _The Nesbits, or a Mother’s Last Request_; _Oakley, on Catholic Worship_; _The Illustrated Catholic Family Almanac for 1873_; and _The Book of the Holy Rosary_, illustrated with thirty-six full-page engravings, by Rev. H. Formby. The publication of F. Finotti’s _Bibliographia Catholica Americana_ has been unavoidably delayed, by circumstances beyond the control of either author or publisher. It is now about two-thirds printed, and will be ready as soon as possible. This explanation is given as an answer to several letters received by the publisher.

FOOTNOTE:

[132] An old monastic site (alas!), so named from the donor, the Kaiser Charlemagne.

THE REVIEW OF MR. BRYANT’S ILIAD.

The following paragraph appeared in the _Independent_, from which it was copied by the New York _Times_:

“We were slightly surprised, after reading in the June number of
THE CATHOLIC WORLD that ‘the New York _Times_ has long rivalled
_Harper’s Weekly_ in bigotry and anti-Catholic malice,’ to find
in the same number a long article on Bryant’s _Iliad_, which is
stolen bodily from two reviews of the same work in the _Times_ of
March 14 and June 20, 1870. The arrangement of the paragraphs is
slightly changed, but their contents are absolutely identical.
In the same number of THE CATHOLIC WORLD the editor pathetically
inquires: ‘What is the Catholic press doing to correct these
literary influences? What is it doing to cultivate the art of
criticism?’ Stealing, evidently. We are informed, however, that
often ‘the force of a Catholic organ consists of nobody but the
editor, who writes all the fourth page, and the assistant, who
makes up the rest of the forms with a paste-pot and a pair of
shears.’ If Catholic monthlies are edited in the same way as
Catholic weeklies, it manifestly becomes necessary to search for
articles among the files of the daily papers; but we must remind
the editor, to quote his own words again, that ‘newspapers go
everywhere. Their readers are not confined to any one sect or any
one party.’”

The simple fact of the matter is, that the author of the articles in the _Times_ presented the review of the _Iliad_, which appeared in our last number, to the editor of this magazine in manuscript, and received payment for it as an original article. The proper explanation has been already made to the editor of the _Times_. To the _Independent_ our only rejoinder may be found in the last four lines of the Ninth Fable of Phædrus.[133]

“Tunc ille insolens:
‘Qualis videtur opera tibi vocis meæ?’
‘Insignis,’ inquit, ‘sic, ut nisi nôssem tuum
Animum genusque, simili fugissem metu.’”

FOOTNOTE:

[133] _Phædri Fabulæ_, Fab. IX., Asinus et Leo Venantes.

THE CATHOLIC WORLD.

VOL. XV., No. 89.--AUGUST, 1872.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by Rev.
I. T. HECKER, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at
Washington, D. C.

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES.

A RETROSPECT.

The astonishing growth of our hierarchy, with the multiplied divisions which such growth calls for--overrunning, as they do, and intersecting the boundaries of ancient mission-fields--seems to make the renowned past of missionary labor on this continent recede more and more into indistinctness. We propose to make some brief mention of prominent incidents in the history of those missions, and to do so not only that we may awaken in a generation of superficial readers an interest in the achievements of the great pioneers of our faith on this soil of America, but that we may base thereupon some suggestions we wish to make to the future historian of those times and those men. We trust that the day will come when a taste for studies of this kind will have spread from the few to the many, and create a necessity for some work more extended than a sketch or a compend. Meanwhile, of such historical materials as we have, which are accessible to the ordinary reader, we propose to make mention, for the benefit of those who may now desire to know what materials we possess; nay, more, that they may be encouraged to appreciate these materials at their value, we shall reproduce from them alone all the statements we have to present to the reader.

The period of time embraced by these early missionary enterprises comprehends no less than eight and a half centuries, dating from the first mention in history of the Norse missions, in the tenth century, to the establishment of the last of the missions of California in 1823. In the chronological order of their inception, they range as follows:

I. The missions to the adventurous Norsemen, whose settlements in the middle ages extended from Labrador to the southern coast of New England. Although the light of faith gleamed but for a time on our shores, leaving us only the memory of the Bishop of Garda--so happily embalmed in the pages of Mr. R. H. Clarke’s _Deceased Bishops_--the Norse missions did not entirely die out on the eastern coast of Greenland until 1540. At this date, the intrepid missionaries of Spain had already advanced from Mexico into the borders of our present Southern territory. The extinction of the Catholic settlements at the north was due to the physical revolution caused by a change in the course of the Gulf Stream. Thereupon, that once smiling and fertile shore became the bleak and inhospitable region that it has ever since continued to be, and no race of Europeans now disputes with the rugged Esquimaux a foothold on the land.