NEW PUBLICATIONS.
Historical Sketches. Third Series. By John Henry Newman, D.D.
The Idea of a University, defined and illustrated. By the same. London: Basil Montagu Pickering. (New York: Sold by The Catholic Publication Society.)
It would perhaps be proper to say that the revised edition of Dr. Newman's writings bears the same relation to their original publication that fulfilment and prophecy sustain to each other. In the one we see the germ, the promise, and in the other the matured and mellowed fruit. In the former, we foresee the inevitable result of the principles set forth, on a mind so single and intent on the truth. And it is because they do not reflect the perfect image of the truth he now holds that he would blot some of the lines therein written. In the latter, readers will again meet the same wise simplicity and transparency of style which charmed them before, and which mark all the products of his pen.
As a study of diction, Dr. Newman's works are richly worth whatever they cost. We doubt if any author of the time has done more to bring both writers and speakers down from the stilts formerly thought essential in the expression of thought. Almost unconsciously, the leaven of his pure idiomatic English has worked, until its influence is shown in a large number of written and spoken productions, both at home and abroad. As a reflex of a truthful, honest soul, deeply solicitous for the spiritual welfare of his kind, they have a pathos and unction which will have an ever-increasing influence as time goes on.
The first of the above-mentioned volumes embraces the matter which bore the title, The Church of the Fathers, on its first appearance in the British Magazine; and the latter was published as The Scope and Nature of University Education.
Sacred Eloquence; or, The Theory and Practice of Preaching. By Rev. Thomas J. Potter. Troy: P. J. Dooley. 1873.
This work is too well known to require any notice at our hands, having received the warmest commendation of the hierarchy and press on its first appearance in England. While this edition will hardly please those who are fastidious in the matter of print and paper, it presents an argument to the pockets of purchasers which many of our seminarians will highly appreciate. Our clerical readers are already aware that the Sacred Eloquence was prepared for the author's own class in the Missionary College of All Hallows, and resulted from the necessity felt for a work adapted to English-speaking students in that department.
BOOKS RECEIVED.
From Burns, Oates & Co., London (New York: Sold by The Catholic Publication Society): Sermons for all Sundays and Festivals of the Year. By J. N. Sweeney, D.D. Vol. II. 12mo, pp. vi. 498.—Spain and Charles VII. By Gen Kirkpatrick. 8vo, pp. 87.—A Theory of the Fine Arts. By S. M. Lanigan, A.B., T.C.D. 12mo, pp. xiii. 194.
From D. & J. Sadlier & Co., New York: Bible History. By Rev. James O'Leary, D.D. 12mo, pp. 480.
From Henry Holt & Co.: Dimitri Roudine. By Ivan Turgénieff. 18mo, pp. 271.
From Benziger Bros., New York: Neue Fibel, oder: Erstes Lesebuch, für die Deutschen Katholischen Schulen in den Vereinigten Staaten von Nord-America. Bearbeitet von mehreren Priestern und Lehrern.—Zweites Lesebuch, und Drittes Lesebuch, of the same series 12mo, pp. 58, 120, and 276.
From Kelly, Piet & Co., Baltimore: A Course of Philosophy, embracing Logic, Metaphysics, and Ethics. By Rev. A. Louage, C.S.C. 12mo, pp.