But religion is precisely what the Internationals reject, hate, or despise—what the great body of the workmen in our towns, cities, and manufacturing villages have ceased to believe, and even with those of the so-called proletarian class generally who do not formally reject religion, it has ceased to be a power, to have any hold on the conscience, and has become a vague tradition or a lifeless form. It is pretty much the same with the burgher class, and was so with them before it was so with the proletarian class. Modern civilization itself is based on atheism, or the purely material order. Hence the evils the Internationals seek to remedy are the natural and inevitable result of the new order of civilization, not yet two centuries old. The Internationals see it, and make war on the existing civilization for that very reason. But on what principles, and in what interest? On the principles and in the interests of that very civilization itself. Their success would simply oust the burgher and put the proletary in his place. They introduce or propose not a higher and a nobler civilization, but, so far as there is any difference, a still lower and more degrading civilization.
The revolution that has been going on in society since the close of the fourteenth century has had several phases. The first phase was the union of the burghers and the sovereigns against the Pope and the feudalnobility, and resulted in the triumph of absolute monarchy in the sixteenth century and the seventeenth. The second phase was the union of the burghers, or thetiers état, and the people or a portion of them against monarchy and the church, which issued in establishing the supremacy of the burghers. The third phase is that in the midst of which we now are, and is—monarchy and the church gone or assumed to be gone—that of the proletaries against burghers. Neither of the preceding phases of the revolution effected the good hoped for, or satisfied the revolutionary appetite, but really aggravated the social evils it was sought to remedy. The friends of the revolution said it did not go far enough, and stopped short of the mark. It has now descended to the bottom, to the lowest stratum, or to the lowest deep, and proposes to wrest the power from the burgher class and rest it in the proletarian class. It is some consolation to know that we at length have reached the last phase of the revolution, and that after its failure, as fail it will, nothing worse is to be feared. “When things are at worst, they sometimes mend.”
The principal objection to the Internationals is not that they oppose what is called modern civilization, or that they seek to remedy undeniable social evils; but that they seek to do it on false principles, by inadequate means, and unlawful and even horrible methods, and can only lose even by success.
The International has absorbed all the other labor unions, and may be said to represent the whole proletarian class in Europe and America, and its leaders are avowed atheists; they reject the entire supernatural order, disdain or contemn all forms of religion, and seek to redress the material by the material. Thisalone is sufficient in itself to condemn them. They reject not only religion, but also government, or the entire political and civil order. They will have no God, no king, no aristocracy, no democracy, no law, no court, no judges, but simply—we can hardly say what. Practically, they will fall under the authority of irresponsible and despotic leaders, governing in the name of nobody, and by their own passions or interests alone. They may aim at positive results, but at present their means are only adequate to the work of destruction. Thus an organized and secret, and, when practicable, open war on all religion, on God, on all authority, all law, and especially on capital or individual property. What positive result is to follow, Mr. Phillips confesses his inability to tell.
From Mr. Phillips we learn that they aim at the destruction of the whole modern industrial system, and propose that the workmen shall take possession of the establishments created by capitalists, incorporated or not, and run them on their own account, and share the profits among themselves, without any indemnification to the owners. As to land, no individual is to own it or any portion of it—it is to be made common, and open, as to the usufruct, to any one who chooses to occupy it. Mr. Phillips says:
“I have another proposition. I think when a man has passed five years in the service of a corporation, though he may not have bought a dollar of its stock, he is in a certain sense a stockholder. He has put his labor and persistency there, and I think every man who has been employed in a corporation for a year or two should have a voice in its financial management. In Japan, when a man dies, his land is left to the state. Do you not think that is a wiser plan than ours? The land becomes more valuable through the labor of the whole country, and not by that of the man who eats off of it.Our great hope in the future is in the education of the masses, for they will yet be our rulers. New York stood aghast at the defalcation of millions of dollars, but will you submit to be robbed of hundreds of millions by monopolists? Fifth Avenue cannot afford to let the Five Points exist. You cannot get wealth enough to fortify you against discontented ignorance within your reach. The lesson taught by Chicago is that wealth cannot afford to neglect poverty.”
How the matter would be adjusted if two or more men should happen to insist on occupying the same house and lot we do not know. They would all have an equal right, or one would have as good a right to it as another, and, there being no authority, no law, and none of them having any moral or religious principle, they would most likely, all having the pride and obstinacy natural to the human heart, be obliged to settle the question by fighting it out, and leaving the house and lot as the prize to the victor. Might or craft would then settle the right. Society and mankind would fall back into a state of war, in which might is the only rule of right, and which Hobbes contends was their natural state, out of which they were happy to get by the surrender of all their natural rights or natural liberty to any one who would consent to be their king, and in return would maintain them in a state of peace.
The Paris Commune, endorsed by Mr. Phillips, and which was led on and approved by the Internationals, tells us not only the principles of the Association, but its method of carrying them out and reducing them to practice. We cite here a passage fromThe Dublin Reviewon the principles and spirit of the Commune:
“M. Auguste Desmoulins is one of those fanatical believers in the infallibility of the unknown, to whom the past is all superstition, the present all corruption, and the future the one reality oflife. He is inaccessible to conviction either in the way of holy water or the way of petroleum; and with him, as with all those of his school, the mind has become so far softened that the terminology which has hitherto served not merely among Christians and Jews, but among such heathens as the Greeks and Romans, the Turks, the Indians, the Red Indians, to distinguish between right and wrong, has ceased to convey a meaning. The world is not a mere Babel of tongues nowadays: it is, outside the church, a far worse Babel of thought. In the following passage, which really sums up the argument of his paper in a sufficiently trenchant and complete form, M. Desmoulins does not hesitate to convey his opinion that the coveting of one’s neighbor’s goods is suggested by, or at least connected with, a sentiment of justice; that the daily bread earned by labor is much more keenly enjoyed by a man who does not believe in God, or heaven, or hell; and that as neither the French workman nor his master believes in a future state, it is only natural and quite right that the workman should heal the difference between them here by robbery:
“‘The Parisian workman is often obliged to visit the handsome quarters of the town, while new buildings are ever thrusting him further away beyond the old barriers into vile habitations. In this condition, which is made for him. anything helps to irritate him. How can he find content in a home that is narrow, ill-lighted, foul, nearly without air, when he compares this wretched hole, for which he pays so dear, with the sumptuous chambers that he has either built or decorated in the rich quarters? It is easy to denounce in eloquent homilies the spirit of envy that devours the lower classes. We should recognize that a true notion of justice mixes with the feeling.
“‘The desire to enjoy the fruits of his labor is especially likely to spring up in the mind of the French workman, who does not believe, any more than his master, in the reparations of a future life; who does not perceive for the right of the master any other sanction than the material fact of possession; and whom, besides, universal suffrage invests with a share of sovereignty equal to that of the capitalist. Whatever may be said by those who have been justly called mammonite writers, we can easily understand that the proletary who has just given his vote finds it hard to resign himself to social serfage at the very moment when he feels himself politically sovereign. This striking contrast between his rights as citizen and his condition of pariah in society, accompanies him everywhere, reproduces itself in every act of his life, and adds a perpetual gloom to exhausting labor and never-abating privations.’
“This passage contains the essence ofM. Desmoulins’ apology for the Commune; and it supplies, we submit, matter for reflection in its every line. The statesmen and the classes in society who delight in seeing the influence of religion weakened or destroyed, never seem to realize until it is too late that they are sure to be the especial victims of their own success. The great truths of life hang together and sustain each other:
‘All is contained in each:Dodona’s forest in an acorn’s cup.’
The man who scorns to love God, how shall he continue to love his neighbor? The man who has said, ‘There is no God,’ is he not on the point of also saying, ‘Lust is lawful,’ ‘Property is robbery’?”
We copy also from the sameReviewa letter from General Cluseret from this city to a member of the Society:
“New York, 17th February.
“My Dear Varlin: I have just received your welcome letter of the2d. It explains the delay in replying to my application. Need I say that I accept, and will set to work at once in endeavoring to be useful to my brethren in poverty and toil? The newspaper which I told you of is not yet established. I think it better not to renew my attempts in that direction, considering the late events in France, and the numerous letters I have received from my friends, who are unanimous in recalling me to Europe.
“In all probability, I shall be there next summer, but, in the interval, I shall have arranged international relations between the different French and American groups, and selected one person or several persons (at the discretion of the French committee) of proved zeal and capability, to replace me. As you say, we shall surely, infallibly triumph if we persist in demanding success from our organization. But we must remember that the aim of our Association is to associate (solidariser) the greatest number for action. Let us, then, be liberal; let us round off our angles; let us be really brethren, not in words, but in deeds; let not such mere terms as doctrine and individuality separate those whom common suffering, which means a commoninterest, has united: we are all and all, we must acknowledge that; if we are beaten, it is our own fault. I have not been able to picture our people to myself during the late troubles. What has been the attitude of the workmen’s societies, and what are their present dispositions? Certainly, we must not sacrifice our ideas to politics, but we must not detach ourselves from them, even momentarily. In my mind, the meaning of all that is going on is simply this, that the Orleans are slipping little by little close to power, and paring his nails for L. N., so that one fine morning they will merely have to substitute themselves for him.
“Now, we ought to be ready, physically and morally, for that day.On that day, we, or nothing. Until then I shall probably remain quiet,but on that day, I affirm—and you know my ‘Nay’ never means ‘Yea’—Paris shall be ours, or Paris shall exist no longer. This will be the decisive moment for the accession of the people.—Yours ever,Cluseret.
“You are mistaken in believing, for a moment, that I am neglecting the socialist in favor of the political movement. No; it is only from a purely socialistic point of view I am pursuing the revolutionary work; but you must thoroughly know we can do nothing in the direction of social reform if the old political system be not annihilated. Let us not forget that at this moment the Empire exists merely in name, and that government consists in party abuse. If, under these grave circumstances, the socialist party permits itself to be lulled to sleep by the abstract theory of sociological science,we may wake up one fine morning to find ourselves under new masters, more dangerous for us than those we have at present, because they would be younger, and consequently more vigorous and more powerful.”
We have personally known General (?) Cluseret, and we know him to be a man who acts from deliberation, not impulse, who means what he says, and who can be restrained from going straight to his end by no religious principle, moral scruple, or sentiment of mercy, pity, or compassion. His disposition is as stern andinexorable as a physical law of nature. When he threatened to burn Paris rather than surrender it, he meant it, and he was the man to do it or to see that it was done if within the limits of the possible. Mr. Phillips seems also to appear, at least, to threaten incendiarism as a means of accomplishing his purpose. What means this, the closing sentence of his lecture: “The lesson taught by Chicago is that wealth cannot afford to neglect poverty”? Does this mean that the Internationals burnt Chicago? or does it simply mean that other cities may be burnt as well as Chicago, and will be, if wealth continues to neglect poverty or refuses to yield to the demands of the International Association of Workingmen? This gives the question a startling aspect. Certain it is that the Association holds itself free to introduce its socialism or communism by murder, assassination, robbery, plunder, and conflagration at the pleasure or dictation of its chiefs. Take the following letter, read and endorsed by Mr. Phillips before a New York audience:
“Before proceeding to speak of it, you will allow me to read a notice which has been placed in my hand, and in the object of which I sympathize cordially, because the great foreign movement can be commemorated by it. The French Commune has always seemed to me to deserve the cordial respect of every lover of the progress of the masses throughout the world. I have no doubt that in due time its good name will be vindicated, and its leaders lifted to the unqualified respect of the civilized world. The notice I hold in my hand is as follows:
“‘To the Workingmen of New York, friends of humanity, enemies of bloodshed, and lovers of justice: Citizens! The recent barbarous executions in France, in cold blood, six months after all struggles are over, and the ferocity with which the conquerors pursue their victims, are a disgrace and shame to humanity. We must not allow the human race to be stained by the shedding of its own blood without a protest. You, workingmen, would you let your friendsthe workingmen be murdered because they have defended our rights in any part of the world? No! certainly not without raising your voice and making it heard across the ocean. To give effect to these purposes, a grand funeral procession will take place in New York on Sunday, the 10th of December, at 1 o’clock, forming opposite the Cooper Institute. All men, without distinction of party, of race, of nationality, friends of justice and freedom, are invited to join. By order of the Committee of Arrangements of the Federal Council.’
“I hope every man who loves his fellow will show himself there. There was never nobler blood shed, never more high-minded and disinterested effort made in the long history of Freedom’s struggle, than in Paris, when, in defiance of all the oligarchies of Europe, that city stood up for the individual and for liberty in the nineteenth century.”
The impudence of the writers of this letter is sublime, and only surpassed by that of the lecturer in endorsing it. Why, these fellows would persuade us that they are “enemies of bloodshed and lovers of justice,” meek as lambs, timid as sheep, and harmless as doves—they who, without a shadow of justice or excuse, made the streets of Paris run with the blood of the innocent, the noble, and the saintly. “Enemies of bloodshed”!—they whose hands are reeking with blood! Yes, to having their own blood shed, but not to the shedding of the blood of others. “Enemies of bloodshed and lovers of justice”! Good God! can hypocrisy or self-delusion go so far? Let the assassination of Generals Le Comte and Clement Thomas, the horrible murders, when it was known that the cause of the Commune was lost, of the holy and unoffending Archbishop of Paris, of Jesuit fathers, and a dozen Dominican friars and lay brothers, to say nothing of other murders hardly less horrible, reply to that false pretence. It would seem that these miscreants count for nothing the blood they shed without authority, in violation of law, religion, morality, and every principle of justice, and every sentiment of humanity; itis only when justice overtakes them, and, after trial and conviction by legitimate authority, orders them and their fellow-criminals to be shot or sends them to the guillotine in punishment for their crimes, that they have a horror of bloodshed! Then, and only then, they ring out their dastard cry against injustice and for the sympathy of that humanity they have so greatly outraged! The men who have been executed by the government at Versailles deserved their fate—men without a single virtue or noble quality except personal bravery in face of death. Deluded were they? Yes, as every great criminal, murderer, or assassin is deluded.
What most excites our indignation is to find an educated and refined American gentleman, of no mean ability and rare eloquence, and past middle age, coming forward before an American audience to express in a written lecture deep and unreserved sympathy with, and approval of, these horrors and abominations, equal to those of ‘93, and applauded by his auditors for such an outrage on common morality and decency. Yet it is no more than we might have been prepared for, since Mr. Phillips only gave a logical expression to the principles he had always defended as an abolitionist; and while there are fools enough among us who imagine that the issues of the war have endorsed them and they have been sanctioned by the God of battles. We love our country, and have been proud of our countrymen; but, if they have fallen so low as to applaud the Paris Commune and its horrid butcheries and profanations, we can only say, Alas for them!
It may have become unsafe to oppose the Internationals, since the police has taken them under its protection, and granted them their impudent demands. We are surroundedby Internationals—our city is at the mercy of men who are restrained by no law, by no religion, by no morality, by no sentiment of humanity, from using any means or methods they judge likely to serve their ends, and New York is hardly less wealthy and more combustible than Paris. Herein is there a grave danger. At its head are men who are in dead earnest, desperate men, who shrink from nothing likely to further their ends. We are not surprised that Prussia and Austria have taken the alarm—consulted together as to the means of protecting themselves and society against their machinations. France keeps them in check only by her army, and knows not how soon even the army may fraternize with them—and fraternize with them it certainly will if it loses all hope of restoring the Empire or the monarchy. Great Britain is now using them, but will soon find herself obliged to suppress them, as she did or as she attempted to suppress the Thugs in India, if she means to preserve her institutions. Here they will make trouble, for each party will bid for their votes, and fear to offend them for fear of losing an election; but they can acquire less power out of our cities here than elsewhere, unless they enroll in their ranks the recently emancipated negroes, and rouse their savage instincts to dispossess the planters and to take possession of their plantations; for the passion for individual property is too strong in our agricultural laborers, and the facilities for individuals to rise from proletaries to capitalists, or to the ownership of land, are too great to afford them, when it comes to the test, any appropriate support. Yet they will confuse our politics, corrupt still more the morals of our community, and defeat any wise and salutary action of the government. Theywill strengthen the burgher class and corporations in towns by compelling many who are not favorable to these classes and interests to support them, as the only means left of saving society from lapsing into complete barbarism.
We shall probably return at an early day to this subject, for it is really the great question of the hour.
[144]1.The Dublin Review.ArticleIX.: The International Society. London. October, 1871.
2.The Labor Movement.Lecture of Wendell Phillips. Steinway Hall.New York Tribune, Dec. 7, 1871.
It must be confessed that the Catholics of this country, in proportion to their numerical strength and untiring zeal for the interests of religion, do not present that proportionately large class of readers which we find among the Protestant sects. Their exertions in building churches, schools, and charitable institutions have been beyond all praise, and have constantly elicited the admiration and astonishment of their opponents; but as yet very little organized effort has been made by the influential portion of the laity to place within easy reach of their humbler co-religionists the means of cheap and instructive reading. The more intelligent and wealthy are too often content to purchase a few standard Catholic works, and after perusing them with more or less attention place them with their other books on the shelves of their libraries, there to remain secluded from public view, and of comparatively little value to any person but their owners. The less favored class, who for obvious reasons are unable to indulge in this luxury, are still practically cut off from one of the chief sources of knowledge and amusement—good books—and are necessarily compelled from uncontrollable circumstances to go through life with their minds and tastes undeveloped, and their time dissipated in idleness, or wasted over the trashy and deleterious contents of the manycheap story newspapers and novels which the American press is constantly scattering broadcast over the land.
This melancholy fact is most observable in the ranks of our adult immigrant population, who, coming from countries where education was almost unattainable, money scarce, and books dear, have not generally acquired either ability or taste for reading, though it has been remarked that even among them, when an opportunity is at all presented, the desire for information is excited in a remarkable degree, and only requires a reasonable impetus to develop it still more. Still, from the fact of their usually limited means and comparatively unsettled modes of life, they are as yet unable to purchase or retain any appreciable collection of desirable publications.
The remedy for this defect in our growing Catholic society lies, in our opinion, in the formation of local libraries, suitable in variety and extent to the wants and capacity of particular localities. There are at least twenty-five hundred centres of Catholic population in America where very respectable collections of books could be purchased and placed in some safe and accessible place, say in the school-rooms or church basements, and half as many more, particularly in our Western settlements, where at least a few goodbooks would be of great advantage to the hardy tillers of the soil, and where, even if there be no public place to deposit them, there is always some prominent settler who would willingly assume the honorary office of librarian. Experiments of both plans have been tried in many of our large city parishes, and in a few isolated instances in the country, with marked success.
The advantages of libraries conducted on this system are numerous, and ought to be apparent to every one, not the least of which would becheapness. Let us suppose, for instance, that, in any given locality, fifty persons would each subscribe two dollars. This would create a capital of one hundred dollars, or sufficient to purchase, on an average, one hundred and fifty volumes, great and small, of readable books, from any of our large publishing-houses in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, or Baltimore. Thus, for two dollars, a subscriber would have, for reading or reference, the practical ownership of works at least fifty times the value of his contribution, and, by charging new members a small fee for the use of each volume, a fund might be created to purchase new books as they appeared from time to time. In this manner, and with proper attention, a library of dimension commensurate with the growing wants of the neighborhood would be brought into existence without much expense to any particular class of the community.
But the moral effect of the establishment of such small centres of intelligence would be incomparably greater. For the adults, it would at once be an attraction and a source of occupation, tending powerfully to withdraw them from those pursuits, not always edifying, in which unoccupied minds too often indulge, tothe detriment of their health and morals. It would be the means of generating a taste for mental improvement, and of making them more confident among their companions, and more proficient and reflective in their various pursuits; for it is a well-recognized truth, that as a man, be he artisan, trader, or farmer, acquires those habits of thought which can only be derived from study, he becomes more skilful and methodical in his peculiar calling. The youth of both sexes, however, would reap the greatest advantages. There are hundreds of thousands of children of Catholic parents among us who can read, and, what is more,willread. The young American mind, no matter of what parentage, is a hungry and an investigating mind, and must have some sort of food, do or say what we will. If it cannot have good literary food, it will have what is poisonous, and in this lies the secret of the success of the sensational story papers, and the no less deleterious tales that, in a few years, have made fortunes for their publishers. It is well known that one of the former class, published in this city, boasts of a weekly circulation of three hundred thousand copies, and another of nearly as great a number. If we go into the large workshops of the principal cities, or the factories of New England, where so many young persons are engaged, at the hour allotted for dinner we will see every second boy and girl devouring with more eagerness than their food the contents of some flashy journal or specimen of what is generally known as “yellow-covered literature,” in which vice is hidden under a thin veil of romance only to make it the more seductive. Now, the way to check this insidious and widespread evil is not by complaining of or railing at it, but by placingwithin easy reach, and in accessible places sound and attractive Catholic works. The impetuous mind of youth may be compared to a rapid stream, which, dammed up or checked in its career, is sure sooner or later to overflow its boundaries to the destruction of its surroundings, but which, if its course is directed by skilful and experienced hands, not only ceases to be dangerous, but becomes a source of usefulness and power. To give this direction to the expanding intellect of the rising generation, and to turn to good use what might by neglect or repression become an evil and a curse, is one of the first and plainest duties of parents, for the proper performance of which they will be held to a strict accountability. It is not enough for them to see that their offspring attend church on Sundays and holy-days, that they go to Sunday-school regularly, and say their prayers night and morning, if they allow them afterwards to ponder from hour to hour over sickly romances; nor will it serve to send their children to school to learn to spell and read, if the knowledge thus gained be turned to the enervation of their minds and the corruption of their morals. Education is not in itself an end, it is only the means to an end, and that end is the knowledge of God’s law, and the best way of conforming one’s conduct to its requirements so as to secure our eternal salvation. There is no excuse for a Catholic parent for not putting into the hands of his children entertaining and moral books, nor is there any palliation for any one professing our holy faith, and who has arrived at the years of discretion, for encouraging or reading the thousand-and-one works of fiction which we see every day exposed on news-stands and in cheap book-stores, and which arenot only immoral in tone and spirit, but in effect positively anti-Christian. Besides books of a serious and practical character, we have numerous works of fiction, published in this country and easily obtained, of the highest order of talent united to rare dramatic force and interest, which are detrimental neither to morals nor religion. The writings of Griffin, Banim, Huntington, Julia Kavanagh, Mrs. Sadlier, Mrs. Anna Dorsey, Lady Fullerton, Lady Herbert, and many others that we could name, are of this character, and are worthy to be read by the highest as well as the lowest in society. Of works treating on history, science in its various departments, biography, travels, etc., Catholic in tone, and elaborate or elementary in arrangement, we have a large and varied supply; and new productions under these heads are constantly appearing, more fascinating to the cultivated taste than even the productions of our best novelists. But it has been objected that these publications are too dear; that poor people cannot afford to spend ten or fifteen dollars on a few books. Granted; but, if they can have the use of four or five score for a couple of dollars by subscribing to a parochial library, is not the objection removed? This is what local libraries, and they alone, can do.
Now, what would be the effect of this system of libraries on the general tone of public opinion? Decidedly most salutary. In addition to driving from circulation many of the demoralizing newspapers, periodicals, and books which even non-Catholics denounce as immoral, and for the suppression of some of which the aid of legislative action has been invoked, it would create and foster a pure literary taste among no inconsiderable portion of our diverse population, and, apart from its directmoral effect, would render it more valuable and more reproductive in a material point of view. Many of the most important political, social, and commercial problems of the day, on the true solution of which depends the future welfare of our republic, can only be properly comprehended by reference to the history of the past, and to the biographies of the great statesmen who succeeded or failed in founding or destroying nations and empires. And even in the discussion of minor questions affecting our interests or liberties, some acquaintance with the antecedents of our country is absolutely necessary to enable us to form proper opinions of their merits. In individual cases, one of the compensations for declining years and one of the highest claims to respect is experience; but to the reader of history, no matter what his age, the accumulated experience of at least thirty centuries is accessible, and not only controls his judgment and enlarges his knowledge, but vastly enhances his social and political status. But this experience, to be of any value, must be based on truth and undoubted facts. It must arise from the just appreciation of unbiassed statements and philosophical deductions, stripped of all that false assertion and unlimited prejudice which have characterized so many European and American writers for the last three centuries. Hence the need of Catholic books and Catholic readers—for, in this as in commercial matters, the demand regulates the supply—and the creation of new facilities for the spread of reliable information.
Take the case of theHistory of Englandby Lingard. Before the appearance of that excellent work, we venture to say that seven-eighths of the reading population in every part of the world believed more or less inthe falsehoods and forgeries with which the pages of the English historians of the post-Reformation period were crowded. Many more such instances of recent successful vindication of the truth of history might be cited, not the least valuable and complete being the production of our own countrymen, such as that very able and learned refutation of D’Aubigné’sHistory of the Reformation145]and theLife of Mary, Queen of Scots,[146]which has lately appeared, and in which the slanders and aspersions so repeatedly heaped on the memory and character of that beautiful but ill-starred sovereign are condemned, exposed, and, it is to be hoped, finally disposed of. The first of these works is the most elaborate and reliable book we have on that important epoch, when every throne in Europe was shaken to its base, and when men’s passions, let loose by the preaching of the heresiarchs of England and the Continent, threatened to destroy every vestige of temporal and spiritual authority. There is no period in the history of Christendom about which so many falsehoods and such mendacious calumnies have been invented and circulated by prejudiced writers; and it was only on the appearance of the book in question that we have had, at least in English, any comprehensive and truthful account of the origin and progress of that rebellion against God’s church and laws. This country, from its settlement to the present, the origin and growth of its institutions from their inception in the early part of the seventeenth century till their fruition in our present constitution, though full of incident and fraught with lessons of the highest political wisdom, is yet imperfectly known andbut little understood. Is it not, then, worth a little sacrifice on the part of parents to place before their children, who ere long are to become the rulers of the state, a correct and impartial account of the birth of religious liberty on this continent, of the dangers, trials, and struggles our forefathers endured in order to build up and transmit to posterity the blessings of a free government? Yet such knowledge can only be obtained through books, and books, so far as the majority of Catholics are concerned, are almost unattainable, except through co-operation. Then, again, we are often taunted by such hackneyed phrases as the darkness of the middle ages, the ignorance of the monks, the corruption of the Papacy, the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition, and such other fabrications of Protestant authors. Are we to allow our children to go forth in the midst of a reading and, in a religious sense at least, a hostile people, unprepared to intelligently refute such calumnies, and unable to account for the various agencies by which the Catholic Church at all times sought to eliminate civilization from barbarism, light from darkness, and Christianity from paganism at first, and from heresy and infidelity subsequently? They must have great—too great, perhaps—confidence in the faith of their children thus to submit them to so severe a test; and yet how few reliable books dealing with those subjects do we find provided for young Catholics by those whose duty it is to direct their conduct and shield them from the temptations and snares of the world! How many parents, intent on rewarding their children by presents, ever think of presenting them with good books, which would not only gratify their tastes and improve their minds, but would be, at least to them, a perpetual source of consolation?
Far different are the tactics of our opponents, who are never tired of devising measures to instil into the minds of the youth of their own faith all the errors of Protestantism under the most attractive guise possible, and at the same time to weaken the faith and pervert the judgment of our children. It is perhaps not generally known that every school district in this state, outside the large cities, is supplied with a library of select works, under the charge of the school trustees, and every child in the district is allowed free access to it, with the privilege of borrowing one volume at a time. These libraries were originally supplied at the expense of the public, and are annually increased by new purchases, the funds being derived from the state library fund. When we state that those libraries were furnished by a publishing-house in this city the first success of which in business was due to the production of Maria Monk, the works of Eugene Sue, and others of a kindred character, and that the compilers and abridgers, who claim the authorship of them, have been remarkable for bigotry even in this age of Protestant intolerance, it is scarcely necessary to point out the danger to our young Catholics of the free circulation of such books among them. In country places, the absence of the noise, excitement, and attractions of city life naturally leads to a desire for reading and a remarkable tendency to discussion, and it is there that good Catholic books are most required. Our children must mix with those of the sects, and will be compelled to listen to a repetition of the fabrications and falsehoods against their religion which are weekly dealt out in the Protestant churches, daily commented on in the household, and which fill the pages of the books of the district libraries and local newspapers.This is the poison that is carrying off so many of our juvenile co-religionists, more dangerous to their souls than the deadly upas would be to their bodies, and against which we must provide some antidote. If one of our boys is confronted with quotations from Hume or Macaulay, he must be prepared to answer them on the undoubted authority of Lingard; if he be taunted with the poverty or ignorance of the Catholics of Ireland, he can show whence came this penury and destitution by reference to McGee’s, Cusack’s, or any of the numerous histories of that country; he ought to be prepared to oppose Archbishop Spalding to D’Aubigné, Meline to Froude, the history of the Maryland settlers (the founders of religious liberty on this continent) to the eulogiums on the intolerant Puritans, the “Irish Settlers” to the Know-Nothing organs—in fact, truth and light wherever falsehood and darkness are to be found. The truth has nothing to lose, but everything to gain, by full and free discussion. It is only error that shrinks from thorough investigation. But we must take care that our sons and daughters are well supplied with plain and useful facts regarding their faith and religion before they are subjected to the ordeal through which all young Catholics must pass who mingle freely in Protestant society, lest through their ignorance the cause they espouse should be weakened by their imperfect advocacy.
Neither ought we to hesitate in learning lessons from our adversaries when it is possible to do so. If the children of darkness are wiser than the children of light in their generation, it is no reason why we should be guilty of folly. Apart from the falsity of their teachings, we have often had occasion to admire the systematic perseverance with which theProtestant sects have endeavored to disseminate their peculiar views throught the medium of cheap and attractive publications. All that art and skill can do has been done to render them pleasing to the eye and agreeable to the mind. The highest literary talent is employed and well rewarded, because the result of their labors is extensively circulated, and, even when persons are unable or unwilling to purchase, the purse of the wealthy is always open to enable them to obtain books free of cost, while our children are too often allowed to begin life but half-instructed, and to continue in it illiterate and untaught. Were our schools as efficient and as numerous as we wish and as we hope one day to see them, we might assure ourselves that all this might be taught in them; but they are not, nor can they be for some years, and we cannot ignore the fact or wait for the slow operation of time to perfect and extend their influence. We must endeavor by some means or other to supply the deficiency, so far, at least, as this generation is concerned. Besides, there will always be a large number of children of the working-classes who cannot remain long at any school, but must go into the world to earn their bread. With these the most critical period of their lives is from the time they pass from the control of the teacher till they reach manhood or womanhood, for then their characters for good or evil are formed. For this class of toilers, good books are not only a recreation and a solace, but an absolute necessity; but, being limited in means, we hold that it is only through the means of local libraries that they can gratify their wishes and find opportunities for mental improvement.
Literature itself would also gain much by the establishment of these libraries. How often has it been remarkedthat, out of the large number of Catholic young men of brains and education which our colleges and academies turn out annually, there are so few writers. The explanation is that for them authorship is neither a remunerative nor an appreciated employment. The professions of law and medicine and the attractions of commerce and trade are constantly drawing into their vortices the best energies and talent of our young graduates, many of whom with proper encouragement and patronage might, as authors, render incalculable service to the cause of truth and morality. What is required to utilize this large amount of natural gifts and acquired knowledge is simply the more extensive circulation of works already published; the increase in the number of new books on subjects of general interest, in style and treatment more in accordance with modern forms than those published years ago; but, above all, the cultivation of a correct standard of literary excellence among the people, and the creation of a widespread class of readers and thinkers.
The objection to the dearness of Catholic publications would also be removed by this means. It is well known to those conversant with the publishing business that, in proportion to the increase of the circulation of a given book, the expense of its production per copy is diminished in an inverse ratio. A book of which three thousand copies are sold at two dollars each would be more remunerative to both publisher and author at even one dollar if twenty thousand copies were disposed of. The publisher, also, in his contract with the author and in view of the uncertainty of his sales, naturally adds to the cost of production and to his fair percentage of profit a certain amount for probable losses by having a portionof his edition left on his shelves unsold. The establishment of local libraries would obviate the necessity of this additional cost. With, say, twenty-five hundred of these institutions, each ready and willing to subscribe for one or more copies of any really meritorious book that might appear, its success would be assured beyond doubt, the outlay of the publisher would be nearly reimbursed, and his risk, for which all book-buyers have now to pay, would be sensibly and materially diminished if not altogether done away with. Thus even individual purchasers as well as subscribers to libraries would be benefited in the reduction of price; and, while the bookseller would not suffer in the profits of his sales, the general public as well as the author would be sensibly the gainers.
As to what ought to constitute the necleus of a small library, some difficulty may be experienced in diverse tastes and opinions. In view of the multiplicity of good books constantly being imported or published in this country, it is nearly impossible to make a list of such as would be most desirable and useful without leaving out others perhaps as equally deserving of attention. Of works of fiction we have enough and more than enough in the productions of the authors above named and others of a less pretentious order, but, as this sort of reading is simply a matter of choice, each one must judge for himself in the selection.
Devotional and controversial works are numerous, and a few at least, such as the writings ofSt.Liguori, Father Faber, Dr. Manning, and Cardinal Wiseman, theGuide for Catholic Young Women,Following of Christ,Catholic Christian Instructed,Lenten Monitor, as well as several others, should be always found in Catholic libraries. In history, as far as the English languageis concerned, we are not so rich. We have, it is true, four or five histories of Ireland, possessing peculiar merits, and exhibiting more or less defects, but all full of useful information. Lingard’sEngland, entire or abridged, is decidedly the best of that country. Shea’sHistory of the Catholic Missions in the United States, McSherry’sMaryland, Bishop Bayley’sChurch in New York, McGee’sIrish LettersandCatholic History, De Courcey’s and Shea’sCatholic Church in America, go far to supply the defect, at least in part. Then there are theWorks of Archbishop Hughes, one of the great prelates of the church in America, and the writings of Dr. O. A. Brownson, particularly hisEssaysandAmerican Republic, than whom no man of our day, it is safe to say, writes with more vigor or with a clearer understanding of his subject. The works of Bishop England are, we regret to say, too little known, and, being for some time out of print, are now almost unattainable. Darras’sChurch History, the only complete history of the church yet published in our language, should, if possible, be read by every Catholic, and find a conspicuous place in all our libraries.The Lives of Deceased Prelates of the United States, by Clarke, which has just been published, is a very valuable book, containing a great deal of remote and contemporary history; and if Mr. Shea could be induced by proper encouragement to further develop the subjects he has selected for his books, as we feel certain of his ability to do so, a great deal of additional matter connected with the struggles and sufferings of the early pioneers of religion, now almost forgotten or unknown, would be placed before the public. In biography, which maybe called history in detail, our resources are abundant. We have, besides numerouslives of Christ, a completeLives of the Popes, Butler’sLives of the Saints, several ofSt.Patrick,St.Vincent de Paul, Curé of Ars, and some two hundred separate lives of the holy men and women who in every age of the church were conspicuous for their sanctity, wisdom, and devotion to the faith, a list of which may be chosen from the catalogue of any of our principal publishers; and last, though not least, is Montalembert’s great work,The Monks of the West, an American edition of which is just published.
So far as materials are concerned, we have a plenitude of them of every variety and in all departments of literature, and we have endeavored to show that very little money is required to purchase them. What is wanted is organization and action. For these we must depend to a great extent on the local pastors, and on the half a dozen leading laymen who are most generally to be found in every congregation. There is a homely proverb, but nevertheless true, that “what is everybody’s business is nobody’s business.” Let one or two influential men in each parish think seriously over the matter, call their associates together, and explain to them the advantages to be derived by themselves and their children from cheap and good reading, collect the subscriptions, put themselves in communication with any of our Catholic booksellers, and the work is done. The first and most important step thus taken, the future welfare of the library is assured. It is unnecessary to say that such a movement ought to and would receive the warmest encouragement from their spiritual superiors. Apart from the benefits arising from the reading of moral books to the cause of religion, the spirit of mutual intercourse, interchange of thought, andfriendly co-operation engendered by reading the same book, and meeting at stated times for a common object, would lead insensibly to the formation of a compact and efficient organization, exceedingly useful when the interests of charity, education, or the church are to be subserved. Not only this, but, knowing how overtaxed are the attention and time of so many of our missionary priests in providing the means of building churches and schools, as well as attending to the spiritual wants of their scattered flocks, we consider that an intelligent body of young people, such as we would naturally expect to see connected with a library society, would form a valuable lay staff of workers whose pleasure it would be to aid their pastor in all his material transactions. The more intelligent Catholics become, the less trouble, in two ways, they entail on their spiritual guide. They become aware easily of his wants, or rather the wants of the church of which he is to them the representative, and need little inducement to contribute their means freely for the benefit of charity or religion, while, at the same time, they make the most efficient agents in influencing the actions of others with whom they are daily brought in contact.
Firmly believing that the spread of these societies throughout this country would have a most marked and beneficent effect, morally and mentally, on our rapidly growing Catholic population, we submit these remarks to the serious consideration of the reverend clergy, and of those laymen who have been favored with more wealth and a better education than the majority of their fellow-Catholics. We must not forget that we live in an age of great mental activity and progress, so-called. Let us keep pace with our neighbors in everything that leads to the acquisition of true knowledge, but let our progress be in the right direction, and worthy of the name we bear, and of the religion we profess.
[145]History of the Protestant Reformation.By the MostRev.M. J. Spalding, D.D. Baltimore.
[146]Mary, Queen of Scots.By James F. Meline. New York. 1871.
The Life of Philip Thomas Howard, O.P., Cardinal of Norfolk, etc.By Father C. F. Raymond Palmer, O.P. London: Thomas Richardson & Son. New York: The Catholic Publication Society.
It affords us sincere pleasure to be able to speak of this book in terms of unqualified praise, without in the least being subjected to the charge of flattery. The subject chosen by Father Palmer is the career of an ecclesiastic who not only filled a prominent part in the history of his times in his native country, England, but of the church throughout Europe; and whose private virtues were even more edifying than his mental capacity was remarkable. The scion of one of the noblest houses in Great Britain, and living at a time when every lure was held out to genius and rank to join the so-called Reformers, he not only remained true to the Catholic traditions of his family, but, forsaking the world altogether, he became, in spite of all opposition, an humble friar and a follower of the illustriousSt.Dominic. His labors for the good of his order on the Continent as well as in England were incessant,and so successful that in a few years he was raised to the dignity of a prince of the church. Several times he was entrusted with important diplomatic missions by his sovereign, CharlesII., and for many years occupied the position of grand almoner to Catharine of Braganza, the queen-consort. In addition to the biography of Cardinal Howard, we have a very full and interesting sketch of the history of the Dominican order, that glorious corporation of friar-preachers, whose labors extended to every part of the known world, and whose blood may be said to have been shed in the cause of Christ wherever the foot of man has trod. Father Palmer’s treatment of the subject is in every way worthy of so great a theme. He does not, as too many biographers are apt to do, fall in love with his hero, and lose himself in senseless rhapsody and panegyric, but lets deeds and their results speak for themselves. Neither does he assume for the order, of which he himself is a worthy member, too much credit for its long-continued and extensive propagandism of the faith; but, keeping his praise within just bounds, makes the amplest acknowledgment to other missionaries when an opportunity offers. The author’s style, also, is admirable. It is plain, bold, and exceedingly clear, and reminds us a good deal of the old days of classic English, which, we are sometimes tempted to fear, have departed for ever.
Sermons by the Fathers of the Congregation ofSt.Paul the Apostle.New York: The Catholic Publication Society. 1872.12mo, pp.331.
This, the sixth volume of sermons, twenty-two in number, delivered by the Paulist Fathers of this city, has just been published, and in point of variety, ability, and adaptability to the everyday wants of Catholic congregations, may fairly be said to be equal, at least, to any of the preceding volumes from the same source.On first reading this valuable collection of sermons, the impression most likely to be produced on a layman is surprise at the remarkable simplicity of style, earnestness of argument, and, above all, the practical application to the present condition of society, of the inspired texts upon which the sermons are based. Men of the most ordinary comprehension can understand them, and we can imagine few minds so contracted or hearts so callous as to be proof against their unadorned logic and impressive appeals. It has sometimes been our good fortune to have heard, as we have often read, exhortations of more brilliancy, pathos, and even intellectual power, but we are not aware that, compressed within the limits of an ordinary-sized book, there is to be found in the English language a greater amount of wholesome truths, well and clearly stated, or better calculated to go directly to the heart and conscience of the reader. Of this character pre-eminently are the sermons on “How to Pass a Good Lent,” “Humility in Prayer,” and “The Sins and Miseries of the Dram-Seller.” In some respects the latter differs from all others in the collection—in its forcibleness of rhetoric, and vividness, almost painful, of description. Reading it in the silence of our library, we almost shudder at the, alas! too truthful picture drawn therein of the drunkard’s fate in this world, and the not less certain retribution which awaits his mercenary tempter, here or hereafter. It is one of the most powerful arguments against the use and sale of intoxicating liquors we have read since the days of Father Mathew, and ought to be in the hands of every advocate of temperance, clerical and lay, in the land. The three sermons treating of the temporal and spiritual authority of the Sovereign Pontiff are clear, distinct, and well-timed, and, besides being historically accurate, are replete with logical deductions, one following and hinging on theother so harmoniously that conviction, even to a biassed mind, seems to follow as a matter of course.
But on a second and more critical perusal of this book, we are certain to discover new and equally commendable features. We feel as if we were in the presence of Catholic priests speaking to their spiritual children. There is an absence of all harshness or terrorism, and of that bitterness which too often accompanies the discussion of controversial subjects. While our errors are reproved and our sins denounced, hope and mercy are not denied us; the path of duty is plainly pointed out, but we are encouraged to tread its thorny ways, and we rise from the study of theSermonsconscious of our faults and weaknesses, without despairing, and with a renewed purpose of amendment. No one can read attentively the first and last of this series, on “Remembrance of Mercies” and “Fraternal Charity,” without feeling softened and chastened in spirit. It is not, however, the mere contents of the sermons that we most admire. It is their suggestiveness. To a reflective mind there is matter enough in them to form the groundwork of a hundred discourses, and still the subjects would not be exhausted. This feature alone will extend their good influence far beyond the limits of one book or one pulpit. As we have come to a grand truth boldly stated, or a deduction logically and lucidly drawn, we have frequently found ourselves closing the book, and, following the drift of the reverend preacher’s argument, preaching sermons to ourselves. If such be its effects on ordinary minds, how much more valuable will be the uses of this book to the younger members of the priesthood in the performance of the duties of their holy calling? And it is for them especially, we presume, it is intended.
Besides, as we are all aware, there are many persons with the best dispositions who, from family or otherreasons, are frequently unable to hear a sermon on every Sunday and holyday of obligation, not only in country parishes, but even in our crowded cities. To this class the present volume ought to be of great value, affording them, as it does, an opportunity of reading in the seclusion of their homes, what they are debarred from hearing delivered orally. It is one of the rules of the faithful to consecrate a portion of each Sunday to hearing sermons, but, when this cannot be done, the reading of pious books is substituted, and we know of none recently published better calculated to edify and instruct a devout Catholic, or one so practical in its application to the wants and necessities of the present generation, as this collection of sermons; and it is for this reason that we heartily commend it to the laity of the United States.
Macaronic Poetry.Collected, with an Introduction, by James Appleton Morgan, A.M. New York: Hurd & Houghton. 1872.
Of the many excellent specimens of the typography of the Riverside Press, the above-named work is one of the handsomest; and this merit is enhanced by the fact that the great variety of languages and characters, ancient and modern, used in its pages called for the best efforts of typographical skill and resources.
The title of the work gives but a modest idea of the wealth and diversity of its contents, which are creditable to the taste and industry of the author. We find in it not only all the most celebrated macaronic masterpieces, from the “Pugna Porcorum,” of about three hundred lines, every word of which begins with the letter P, thus:
“Plaudite, Porcelli, Porcorum pigra propagoProgreditur, plures Porci pinguedine pleni.Pugnantes pergunt, pecudum pars prodigiosa,” etc., etc.,
down to Dr. Maginn’s “Second Ode to Horace,” commencing,
“Blest man, who far from busy hum,Ut prisca gens mortalium.”
Then there are the literary trifles of the dipogrammatists and the pangrammatists, and curiosities in acrostics, telestics, anagrams, palindromes, sidonians, rhymed bagatelles, cento verses, chain verses, alliterative verses, and epitaphs. There are also some specimens of queer prescriptions, the whole family of which are but imitations of the celebrated recipe pasted on the door of the pharmacy in the Convent of the Capuchin Friars at Messina:
“Pro presenti corporis et æterna animæ salute.
RECIPE.
“Radicum fideiFlorum speiRosarum charitatisLiliorum puritatisAbsynthé contritionisViolarum humilitatisAgarici satisfactionisAno quantum potes:Misceatur omnia cum syrupe confessionis;Terentur in mortario conscientiæ;Solvantur in aqua lacrymarum;Coquantur in igne tribulationis, et fiat potus.Recipe de hoc mane et sera.”
Any one may find much literary amusement in the volume, and to the Latin scholar in particular it affords material for many an hour of pleasant relaxation.
The Taking of Rome by the Italian Army, considered in its Causes and Effects. By C. M. Curci, S.J. Translated from the Italian by the Duke Della Torre. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1871.
It is a matter of congratulation that we have among us at least one Italian gentleman of high rank, character, and education, who is a thoroughly loyal and devoted adherent of the Holy See. We are greatly indebted to the Duke Della Torre for translating F. Curci’sbrochure, prefixing to it a most sensible and excellent preface, and getting it published by our most eminent New York firm. The pamphlet itself is an able production of an able and celebrated writer. The only great fault in it is the discouraging tone ittakes regarding the prospects of the temporal sovereignty of the Pope in the future—a point which has been strongly animadverted upon already in Europe. In so far as past facts are concerned, it is a thorough and unanswerable exposure of the fraud, violence, and perfidy of the Sub-Alpine government, and of the treachery and timidity of the policy of other European cabinets in their relations with the Pontifical States.
Florence O’Neil; or, The Siege of Limerick. By Agnes M. Stewart. Baltimore: Kelly, Piet & Co.
The eventful life and troublous times of JamesII.of England must always be a period of history mournfully interesting to every Catholic heart—those days of persecution, when throughout England a price was set upon the head of any priest who dared labor for the salvation of souls, all the penal laws against Catholics (some of them but lately repealed) being in full force.
The touching story of Florence O’Neil, who is represented as living in very constant intimacy with the royal exiles, carries us through those dark days, and gives us pictures of the court of the reprobate, hard-hearted daughter of James, where Florence was kept an unwilling captive for many months. Her journal during that time is written with charming simplicity, and the whole story has sufficient mingling of truth with the narrative to fill us with pity even for those crowned heads who lived harassed with anxious fears lest the sceptre so hastily and unjustly assumed should be as hastily snatched from their grasp; trusting nobody, never at rest from plottings and replottings even in their own household. In contrast with this, we have the devoted domestic life at the ChâteauSt.Germaine, sketched with a delicate and refined touch, giving us a lovely picture of wedded bliss in the union of James with his beautiful and tenderly attached wife—moreperfect than usually falls to the lot of common mortals, not to speak of royalty. It is cheering to know that these good hearts, to whom life brought so much disappointment and trouble, found rest and peace and hope in the bosom of the church, which offers to her faithful children the kingdom of heaven and an imperishable crown.Florence O’Neilappears in a beautiful dress, and is well worthy of careful perusal.
The Rise and Fall of the Irish Franciscan Monasteries, and Memoirs of the Irish Hierarchy in the Seventeenth Century.By theRev.C. P. Meehan, M.R.I.A.
A Memoir of Ireland, Native and Saxon.By Daniel O’Connell, M.P. Dublin: James Duffy. New York: The Catholic Publication Society.
The second edition of these two small works, which have attained a well-deserved popularity in Ireland and England, will doubtless be equally appreciated in this country, particularly by our adopted citizens, who, claiming the former nation as their birthplace, love to look back on her past glories and her continuous struggles for civil and religious freedom. Father Meehan’s book, though ostensibly confined to the history of the Franciscan establishments and the Irish hierarchy, contains also a brief but lucid and well-arranged account of the principal events of the seventeenth century in Ireland, embracing the wars of the Parliamentarians and Cromwell against the Nationalists, and the inception of the contest between the partisans of William and James. On such subjects Mr. Meehan is a reliable and judicious authority, for he has made them the study of a life-time. We remember him fully a quarter of a century ago, when curate of SS. Michael and John’s Church, Dublin, and when every moment that he could spare legitimately from the duties of his calling was devoted to his loved studies—the history and archæology of his native land; and we are happy tofind that time has neither quenched the fire of his patriotism nor weakened that mental activity which characterized his earlier works.
O’Connell’s memoir, like everything that fell from the pen or lips of that great agitator, is full of vigor and sound logic. A portion of the book is devoted to a general summary of the wrongs and struggles of the Irish race from the invasion in 1172 down to our day, but the greater part is occupied by historical quotations and running commentaries, illustrating that long, dreary period of war, desolation, and persecution. Though in fact contained in a comparatively small compass, it is a masterly indictment against England, prepared with all the system and acumen of an able jurist, and is invaluable as a historical document from the number of references it contains. It was only issued towards the close of the great author’s career, and may be supposed to be an epitome of his varied readings and long personal experience.
The Pearl of Antioch: A Picture of the East at the End of the Fourth Century. By the Abbé Bayle. Baltimore: Kelly, Piet & Co. 1871.
In the preface to this interesting story of the early times, we have a bright and truthful comment on the different claims of works of fiction that have been written to make religion attractive: giving to Cardinal Wiseman (what rightfully belongs to him) the glory of having been the author of the truly Christian romance in the fascinating narrative ofFabiola. The writer ofThe Pearl of Antiochprofesses to follow at a modest distance that illustrious dignitary of the church. He gives us in the story of Pelagia a graphic description of life in Antioch, Alexandria, and Constantinople at the close of the fourth century, when the church, resting from the fierce persecutions that had marked her earlier years, was surrounded with master-minds who committed themselves to no religion, condemningnone formally, endeavoring to possess at the same time the esteem of both Christians and pagans. The delineation of the vacillating spirit of many of the finest intellects among the Greeks, their proud, patronizing ways towards God’s church, cannot but remind the careful reader of the position of many of the so-calledintellectual giantsof to-day.
The multiplicity of characters introduced, and the demand for mythological research which is necessary to make the story clear in all its parts, are rather detrimental to the unity of the tale; nevertheless, the story of Pelagia herself, and Nicephorus her lover, with their remarkable conversion and subsequent abandonment of the world, is very touching, and wrought out with simplicity and earnestness—the wonderful faith of Pelagia contrasting with the criticisms and doubts, and the ingenious hypotheses of Hypatia, whose strange life and fearful death have been the comment of historian and novelist.
The book contains many pages full of interest concerning Simon Stylites and the wonders of his life, besides several chapters devoted to charming descriptions of the monks who flocked in those times to monasteries in the deserts of Nitria and Tabenna, along the borders of the Nile, and even to Mount Sinai. One of the most attractive features of the volume will be found in the delightful conversations of these monks, enlivened with legends of those olden times, and pervaded throughout with a lovely, Christ-like spirit, which makes their religion an object of admiration even to the wise pagans around them.
Japan in Our Day.Compiled and arranged by Bayard Taylor. New York: Charles Scribner & Co. 1872. 1 vol.12mo.
This is the first volume of theIllustrated Library of Travel, Exploration, and Adventure, now in course of publication by Messrs. Scribner,& Co. and edited by Bayard Taylor. To those who take an interest in Japanese affairs the volume will prove interesting, as containing the latest information with regard to that country so long almost unknown.
Sadliers’ Catholic Directory, Almanac, and Ordo for the Year of our Lord 1872.With full Report of the various Dioceses in the United States and British North America, and a List of the Archbishops, Bishops, and Priests in Ireland. New York: D. & J. Sadlier & Co., 31 Barclay Street.
TheAlmanacfor this year has appeared. The sewing, type, and paper are much better than in former years. There are not so many mistakes in this as we noticed in the previous volume. We are aware there are many difficulties connected with the publication of a statistical work which nothing but the utmost patience and perseverance will overcome, and are therefore pleased to notice even slight improvements.
The American Home Book of In-door Games, Amusements, and Occupations.By Mrs. Caroline L. Smith (Aunt Carrie). Illustrated. Boston: Lee & Shepard. New York: Lee, Shepard & Dillingham. 1872.