New Publications.
The Formation Of Christendom.
Part II.
By T. W. Allies.
London: Longmans, Green, Reader & Dyer.
New-York: The Catholic Publication Society.
This volume is the dictation of a scholarly mind and the work of an experienced pen. It forms the second volume of a work not yet complete, the first part of which appeared in 1865. In the six chapters which composed the first volume, as the author tells us in his advertisement to the present one, he described Christianity creating anew, as it were, and purifying and introducing supernatural principles into the individual soul; showing how the new religion restored the fallen dignity of man by insisting on his individuality and personal responsibility, by consecrating the married and counselling the virginal life. The vile secrets of that viler pagan society are partly revealed, and the influence of the Gospel is shown in a graceful parallel between St. Augustine and Cicero. The author further says, that, having examined the foundations, he has now reached the building itself and comes "to consider the Christian Church in its historical development as a kingdom of truth and grace; for while the soul of man is the unit with which it works, 'Christendom' betokens a society." It is then the first epoch of such a kingdom that the author would describe in the present volume. Accordingly, we have a graphic account of the polytheism which, at the birth of Christ, reigned throughout the world, save in one of its most insignificant lands, the frightful power of this false worship, its relation to civilization, to the political constitution of the empire, to national feeling in the provinces, to despotism and slavery, and its hostile preparations for the advent of the "Second Man." Then follows the teaching of Christ and the institution of his church, a statement of the nature of the latter, its manner of teaching and propagation, its episcopacy and primacy. Then, a picture of the history of the martyr church through the first three centuries, its sublime patience under persecution, and its struggle with swarming heresies that menaced from within. After this, the author prepares for a dissertation on that strife between Christianity and heathen philosophy, which terminated on the downfall of the Alexandrian school, by sketching the history and influence of Greek philosophy until the reign of Claudius; and, reserving this dissertation for a future volume, the author closes the present number of his contemplated series. It is a serious disadvantage to any work to be published piecemeal. Nevertheless, English readers, interested in the study of the early ages, and especially those who have read with pleasure Mr. Allies's former productions, will be glad to notice the publication of this volume. But Mr. Allies's work, also, belongs to a class, small indeed, but all the more worthy of encouragement, namely, that of original Catholic histories in the English language. It is, therefore, an attempt to partially supply a want which no one book, however popular, can adequately meet. In the face of an ungrateful heathenism that to-day secretly sighs after the Augustan age, and openly asks, "What has been gained by all this religion?" daring to draw unjust parallels between the heroes of Christian tradition and contemporary pagan models, it is the duty of all who love the Christian name to encourage true historical criticism; that men may know all that they at present owe to the Catholic Church; and if they will not acknowledge her to-day as the guide to true civilization, may learn from the record of the past how her genius has presided over all that is greatest and noblest in the past history of mankind.
Thunder And Lightning.
By W. De Fonvielle.
Translated from the French, and edited by T. L. Phipson, Ph.D.
Illustrated with thirty nine engravings on wood.
1 vol. 12mo, pp. 216.
The Wonders Of Optics.
By F. Marion.
Translated from the French, and edited by Charles W. Quinn, F.C.S.
Illustrated with seventy engravings on wood.
1 vol. 12mo, pp. 248.
New York: Charles Scribner & Co. 1869.
These two volumes are the first issues of the "Illustrated Library of Wonders," to be published by Messrs. Scribner & Co. They are highly interesting to the general reader, as well as to persons of scientific attainments. The accounts given of the peculiar and novel freaks of lightning are curious and instructive. The illustrations in both volumes are well executed, and make these books specially attractive to young people. In the work on optics, the telescope, magic lantern, magic mirror, etc., are fully explained.
Why Men Do Not Believe;
Or, The Principal Causes Of Infidelity.
By N.J. Laforet, Rector of the Catholic University of Louvain.
Translated from the French.
New York: The Catholic Publication Society,
126 Nassau Street.
Pp. 252. 1869.
Whoever has had the happiness of attending the Catholic Congress of Belgium must have noticed among the distinguished gentlemen seated by the side of the president the prepossessing, intellectual countenance of Mgr. Laforet, the Rector Magnificus of the University of Louvain. Although still a young man, he holds a high place among the writers who adorn European Catholic literature. His best known and most elaborate work is an excellent History of Philosophy. In the present volume, which is quite unpretending in size, and written in such a simple and easy style as to be easily readable by any person of ordinary education, he has, perhaps, rendered even a greater service to the cause of religion and sound science than by his more elaborate works. It is an excellent little treatise on the causes of infidelity, which has already produced happy fruits among his own countrymen by bringing back a number of persons to the Christian faith, and we trust is destined to accomplish a still greater amount of good in its English as well as its French dress.
Mgr. Laforet assigns as the causes of the infidelity which prevails, unhappily, to such a considerable extent in our days, ignorance of the real grounds and nature of the Christian religion, materialism, and the consequent moral degradation which it has produced. He denies in a peremptory manner that it has been caused by progress in science or the more perfect development of the reasoning faculty, and supports this denial by abundant and conclusive proofs. The origin of modern infidelity he traces historically and logically to Protestantism, showing that it has been transplanted into France and other Catholic countries from England and Germany. Anti-Catholic writers are fond of retorting upon us the charge that Protestantism breeds infidelity by the countercharge that Catholicity breeds infidelity. They say that it lays too great a burden on reason by teaching, as Christian doctrine, dogmas that intelligent, educated men cannot receive without doing violence to their reason. They point to the infidelity that prevails to a certain extent among educated men in Catholic countries as a proof of this assumption. The writer of an article in a late number of Putnam's Monthly, entitled, "The Coming Controversy," has reiterated this charge, and alleges the fact that some of the educated laymen belonging to the Catholic Church in the United States do not approach the sacraments, as an evidence that they have lost their faith, which is a corroboration of the alleged charge against the Catholic religion of breeding infidelity in intelligent, thinking minds. The whole of this specious argument is a fabric of sand. In the first place, it is no proof that men have lost their faith because they do not act in accordance with it. The entire body of negligent Catholics are not to be classed among infidels, any more than negligent Jews or Protestants. Nevertheless, we would call the attention of those Catholic gentlemen of high standing who neglect the practice of their religious duties, and fail to take that active part on the side of the church and of God which they ought to take, to the scandal they thus give and to the occasion which the enemies of the church take from their criminal apathy to revile that faith for which their ancestors have suffered and contended so nobly. Neither is it true that anywhere in the world the apostates from the faith are superior in intelligence and culture to its loyal adherents. We hear too much of this boasting from free-thinkers and infidels of their intellectual superiority. On the field of philosophy and positive religion they have been completely discomfited by the champions of religion. Some of their ablest men have passed over to our camp convinced by the pure force of argument, as, for instance, Thierry, Maine de Biran, Droz, and to a certain extent Cousin. Many others, and recently one most notorious individual, Jules Havin, the chief editor of the infamous Siècle, of Paris, have repented at the hour of death. D'Holbach, one of the chiefs of the infidel party in France, thus writes: "We must allow that corruption of manners, debauchery, license, and even frivolity of mind, may often lead to irreligion or infidelity. … Many people give up prejudices they had adopted through vanity and on hearsay; these pretended free-thinkers have examined nothing for themselves; they rely on others whom they suppose to have weighed matters more carefully. How can men, given up to voluptuousness and debauchery, plunged in excess, ambitious, intriguing, frivolous, and dissipated—or depraved women of wit and fashion—how can such as these be capable of forming an opinion of a religion they have never examined?" [Footnote 62] La Bruyère says, "Do our esprits forts know that they are called thus in irony?" [Footnote 63] It is no argument against either Catholicity or Protestantism that infidelity exists in Catholic or Protestant countries. Before this fact can be made to tell in any way against either religion it must be proved that it contains principles which lead logically to infidelity, or proposes dogmas which are rationally incredible, and thus produces a reaction against all divine revelation. This has never been done, and never can be done in respect to the Catholic religion. So far as Protestantism is concerned, it has been done repeatedly and can be done easily. We do not rejoice in this; on the contrary, we grieve over it, and our sympathies are with those Protestants, such as Guizot, Dr. McCosh, President Hopkins, and others who defend the great truths of spiritual philosophy, of Theism, the divine mission of Moses and Christ, and other Christian doctrines against modern infidelity. Nevertheless, we cannot help pointing out the fact that they are illogical as Protestants in doing this, and are unable, after giving the evidences of the credibility of Christianity, to state what Christianity is in such a manner as completely to satisfy the just demands of human reason, or to justify their own position as seceders from the genuine Christendom.
[Footnote 62: Système de la Nature, tom. ii. c. 13. Cited on page 106. ]
[Footnote 63: Les Caractères, ch. xvi. Cited on page 188.]
Our own youth are exposed to the temptation of infidelity on account of their imperfect religious education, and the influence of the Protestant world in which they live, saturated as it is with the most pestilent and poisonous influences of heresy, infidelity, and immorality. Good Protestants they will never become. They can only be good Catholics, bad Catholics, or infidels. Our friends of the Protestant clergy have no reason, therefore, to count up and exult over those who are lost from the Catholic fold, for Satan is the only gainer. Let us have a sufficient number of clergy of the right sort, an ample supply of churches, colleges, schools, and Catholic literature, and we will engage that the desire for a purer and more spiritual religion will never lead our Catholic youth to become Protestants, or the desire for a more elevated and solid science make them infidels. Such books as the one we are noticing are of just the kind we want, and we recommend it warmly to all thinking young men and women, to all parents and teachers, and to all readers generally.
The Montarges Legacy.
By Florence McCoomb.
Philadelphia: P. F. Cunningham. 1869.
We thank the gentle author of this charming story for the satisfaction derived from its perusal. Not wishing, by entering into detail of plot or incident, to diminish the pleasure in store for its readers, we will merely say that, while sufficiently exciting, it is by no means morbidly sensational; that the characters are well portrayed; the incidents varied; the dialogue not strained, yet not monotonous; the descriptive portion easy and natural; and that, pervading all, is a true Catholic spirit.
Anne Severin.
By Mrs. Augustus Craven.
New York: The Catholic Publication Society.
1 vol. 12mo, pp. 411. 1869.
We do not like the controversially religious novel. There is generally too much pedantry; too great an admixture of theology, politics, and love, to suit our taste. But the story of Anne Severin, by the gifted author of A Sister's Story, is not of this kind, it is permeated throughout with a purely religious feeling; just enough, however, to make it interesting, and to give the reader to understand that the writer is truly Catholic in all she writes. The scene of the story opens in England, about the beginning of this century, when there were "troublous times in France," and changes to the latter country, where the thread of the narrative is spun out. The heroine, Anne Severin, is not an ideal character. It is one that is not rare in Catholic countries, or in Catholic society. She is a true woman, in the truest sense of the word, a model for our daughters. The contrast between her and the English-reared girl, Eveleen Devereux, is clearly drawn. The one truthful, religious, conscientious in all her actions, kind, amiable, and loveable; the other, fickle-minded, constantly wavering, and a flirt, courting admiration for admiration's sake, yet intending to do right in her own way, but failing because she did not have the true religious teaching that Anne Severin had. No better book of the kind could be put in the hands of Catholics as well as non-Catholics of both sexes. No one can help for a moment to see in what consists the difference between these two women. Anne Severin had a positive, soul-sustaining faith to fall back upon in her troubles. Eveleen Devereux had nothing but the emptiness of a religion of the world which failed her in the hour of tribulation.
Eudoxia: A Picture Of The Fifth Century.
Freely translated from the German of Ida, Countess Hahn Hahn.
Baltimore: Kelly, Piet & Co. Pp. 287. 1869.
This historical tale, which has already appeared as a serial in an English periodical, and also in an American newspaper, has been very favorably received on both sides of the Atlantic. It is now issued in handsome book form, and will, no doubt, have, as it deserves, an extensive circulation.
The Illustrated Catholic Sunday School Library.
Third Series. 12 vols. pp. 144 each.
New York: The Catholic Publication Society,
126 Nassau Street. 1869.
The titles of the volumes contained in this series are:
Bad Example;
May-Day, and other Tales;
The Young Astronomer, and other Tales;
James Chapman;
Angel Dreams;
Ellerton Priory;
Idleness and Industry;
The Hope of the Katzekopfs;
St. Maurice;
The Young Emigrants;
Angels' Visits;
and The Scrivener's Daughter, and other Tales.
That in the variety of its contents this series is fully equal to its predecessors is evident from the above list; and the careful supervision to which each issue is subjected renders it unnecessary to say another word in its praise. We can safely promise a rare treat to our young friends when, either well-deserving at school, or an indulgent parent, will have made them happy in its possession.
The Sunday-school Class-book.
New York: The Catholic Publication Society. 1869.
This last work of The Catholic Publication Society will be appreciated by every Sunday-school teacher who has experienced the torments of an ill-arranged and poorly-made classbook. The chief characteristics of this small but important work are clearness and completeness. Its new feature is the plain, brief, but very decided rules to be found on the inside of each cover. In size it allows a goodly space for marks in detail. In binding and quality of paper, it is far in advance of anything yet offered to the Catholic Sunday-school teacher. It provides a "register" for eighteen or twenty scholars, in which should be plainly and neatly written the names, etc., of each member of the class. Then comes a monthly record, extending across two pages, in which allowance is made for "the fifth" Sunday, and a space for a "Monthly Report." And in this we have the grand improvement on all other classbooks in use.
Twelve such double pages are furnished, thus covering the space of one year; and on the last half-page there are columns provided for a yearly report, in which plain figures must be placed by every teacher to the satisfaction of superintendents, who have so often experienced the mortifying necessity of declaring teachers' methods of marking more mysterious than hieroglyphics.
What has long been needed is not a class-book fitted for the educated few who devote their spare hours to Sunday-school teaching, nor a mere record book for large and continually changing classes of beginners, but a plain, comprehensive book which any teacher can understand at a glance, and which will enable him to influence the conduct, if not the studious habits, of those committed to his charge, instead of calling for an extra waste of time, in order to mark with precision in perhaps a badly lighted school-house. Let every teacher send for a copy, examine it for himself, and see how simple this often neglected duty can be made. If the rules which are contained therein be attended to, there will be no necessity of carrying the book away from the school, which arrangement insures the double object of marking while the impression of each recitation is fresh and of having the book in readiness to mark at the next recitation. And, until every teacher attends to both these duties, in spite of qualifications in other respects, he will still have much to learn before he becomes a perfect Sunday-school teacher.
This little book is substantially bound in cloth, and is sold for twenty cents a copy, or, to Sunday-schools, at two dollars per dozen.
Studious Women.
From the French of Monseigneur Dupanloup, Bishop of Orleans.
Translated by R. M. Phillimore.
Boston: P. Donahoe. Pp. 105. 1869.
This able essay of the Bishop of Orleans was translated for and appeared in The Catholic World very soon after its appearance in France, nearly two years ago. We see Mr. Donahoe has used the London translation.
Poems.
By James McClure.
New York: P. O'Shea. Pp. 148. 1869.
We cannot praise the "poems" contained in this volume, and the modesty of the author's preface disarms adverse criticism.
A Manual Of General History:
being an outline history of the world from the creation to the present time.
Fully illustrated with maps.
For the use of academies, high-schools, and families.
By John J. Anderson, A.M.
New York: Clark & Maynard. Pp. 401. 1869.
This compendium is in some respects inaccurate; much that is comparatively trivial is admitted, while really important events are entirely ignored; and on certain points there is, if not an actual anti-Catholic bias, an absence, at least, of that strict impartiality to be demanded, as of right, in all compilations intended for use as text-books in our public schools.
The Catholic Publication Society has now in press the Chevalier Rossi's famous work on the Roman Catacombs—Roma Sotterranea. It is being compiled, translated, and prepared for the English reading public by the Very Rev. J. Spencer Northcote, D.D., president of Oscott College, Birmingham, and author of a small treatise on the catacombs. The present work will make a large octavo volume of over five hundred pages, and will be copiously illustrated by wood-cuts and chromo-lithographs—the latter printed under De Rossi's personal supervision. This will be an important addition to our literature, and will, we doubt not, attract considerable attention in this country. The same Society will have ready about May 1st, Why People do not Believe—a library edition as well as a cheap edition; Glimpses of Pleasant Homes, by the author of Mother McCauley, with four full-page illustrations; Impressions of Spain, by Lady Herbert, with fifteen full-page illustrations. The two last-mentioned books will be very appropriate for college and school premiums. In Heaven we know Our Own will be ready in June. The Fourth Series of the Illustrated Catholic Sunday-School Library is also in preparation. The Life of Mother Margaret Mary Hallahan, O.S.D., founder of the Dominican Conventual Tertiaries in England, is announced, and will be ready in June or July.
Messrs. John Murphy & Co., Baltimore, announce as in press The Life And Letters Of The Rev. Frederick William Faber, D.D., Priest of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri. By Rev. John E. Bowden, priest of the same oratory.
P. F. Cunningham, Philadelphia, has in press, and will soon publish, Ferncliffe.
Books Received.
From Joseph Shannon, Clerk of the Common Council, New York. Manual of the Corporation of the City of New York for 1868.
From P. Donahoe, Boston: America in its Relation to Irish Emigration.
By John Francis Maguire, Member of Parliament for the City of Cork. Swd. Pp. 24.
From Fields, Osgood & Co., Boston:
The Danish Islands: Are we bound in honor to pay for them?
By James Parton. Swd. Pp. 76. 1869.