III.
Regles pour le Choix d'un Etat de Vie, proposées a la Jeunesse Chretienne. Par Mgr. J. B. Malou, Evêque de Bruges. Bruxelles, Goemaers, 1860 (iv.—249 pp.).

Although this book is not of recent publication, we feel it a kind of duty to bring it under the notice of the clergy of this country. The prelate who wrote it expressed to us his earnest desire that it might be translated for the use of the Catholics of Ireland, for whom he ever professed warm esteem and admiration. Indeed, we have very few books in which the question of vocations to the ecclesiastical or religious life is treated with such accuracy and solidity as in the Rules of Monsignor Malou. On the other hand, vocations are, through the grace of God, so abundant in Ireland, that there is hardly any priest, having care of souls, who must not have felt, at times, the want of some help to enable him to determine with confidence the state of life to which some youthful member of his flock may have been called. Such a guide he may find in the book under notice. Chapter i. treats of the nature of a state of life, and limits the number of such states to four, viz., the priesthood, the religious state, matrimony, and celibacy in the world. The second chapter examines the nature of a vocation to a state of life, and how far it imposes an obligation. Mgr. Malou thus defines a vocation: "A disposition of Divine Providence, which prepares, invites, and sometimes morally obliges, a Christian soul to embrace one state of life in preference to another; which disposition is ordinarily manifested in the qualities, the sentiments, and the position of the person called". Chapter iii. shows the necessity of Christian deliberation before making a choice of a state of life. Chapter iv. deals with the conditions requisite for a good deliberation, paragraphs being devoted respectively to interior conditions, to exterior conditions, and to the method of proceeding in the deliberation. The vocation to the ecclesiastical state is the subject of the fifth chapter, in which is shown that this vocation comes from God in a special manner, and that it is at once a great honour and a great benefit. The signs of vocation are detailed in the seventh, and the signs of non-vocation in the ninth chapters; in the tenth, the motives and the duty of following this vocation. The religious state, its origin, its end, its nature, and its properties; the different religious orders to which a person may be called; the vocation to the religious state; its principal signs; the deliberation required before adopting it are the subjects of the next five chapters. The sixteenth and last chapter discusses the question of vocation to the foreign missions, considered with respect to its motives, the qualities it demands, and the precautions which should be taken in carrying it into effect. This is the substance of the entire treatise; and for accuracy of doctrine, clearness of style, unction of Catholic spirit, it is worthy of its important subject and of its author.

IV.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS.

  1. L'Evangile et la Critique, examen de la Vie de Jesus de M. Ernest Renan. Par T. I. Lamy, Professeur a la facultè de Theologie, et President du College Marie-Therese a l'Université Catholique de Louvain. Louvain.
  2. Bernardi Papiensis, Faventini Episcopi, Summa Decretalium ad Librorum MSS. fidem cum aliis ejusdem scriptoris anecdotis , edidit Ern. Ad. Theod. Laspeyres, etc. Ratisbon, apud Manz, 1861, lxiii.-367.
  3. Memoir of the Abbè Lacordaire. By the Count de Montalembert, one of the forty of the French Academy. Authorized translation. Bentley, 1864, xv.-312.
  4. Importanza della Storia, considerata nelle cose che le servono di materia. Par Domenico Solimani, D.C.D.G. Roma: Tipografia Forense, 1861, pp. 529.
  5. Percy Grange, or the Ocean of Life, a tale in three books. By the Rev. Thomas J. Potter, of All Hallows College. Dublin: Duffy, 1864, pp. 320.
  6. Tavole Cronologiche Critiche della Storia della Chiesa Universale, illustrate con argomenti d'Archeologia e di Geografia, Par Ignazio Mozzoni, etc. Roma: Cromolitografia Pontificia. 1861. Vols. i. to ix.
  7. Notes upon the Errors of Geology illustrated by reference to facts observed in Ireland. By John Kelly, Vice-President of the Royal Geological Society of Ireland. Dublin: John F. Fowler, 1864, pp. xvi.-300.
  8. Address Introductory to the Clinical Session 1864-65, delivered November 9, 1864, at the Mater Misericordiae Hospital, Eccles Street, Dublin. By Thomas Hayden, F.R.C.S.I., etc. Dublin: John F. Fowler, pp. 26.

Transcriber's note

The following changes have been made to the text:

Page 123: "scriptual education" changed to "[scriptural] education".

Page 136: "inde geuuflexi" changed to "inde [genuflexi]".