The very signal failure of Protestant missions as a whole is also proved, by Mr. Marshall, in such a way that their advocates cannot rebut his evidence. Nevertheless, we think there is an unnecessary amount of satire levelled at the missionaries themselves, and too dark a shade given to the picture of their labors. Many of them are [{431}] certainly men who, if they were Catholic missionaries, would honor their calling, and who undertook their hopeless task from high and worthy motives. They have accomplished but little, yet their labors have not been altogether without results. The same may be said of the Russian missions. The particular facts stated by Mr. Marshall concerning the low state of a large part of the Russian clergy, the violent means used for enforcing conformity to the Russian Church, and the imperfect instruction given to the ostensible converts, are indubitable. Yet we believe there are other facts also to be taken into the account, which tell on the other side, and are necessary to a perfectly correct view of the true state of the case. A perfectly just balancing of all the accounts would prove most conclusively that the Catholic Church alone is adequate to the task of successfully propagating Christianity. Mr. Marshall has gone very far toward success in his effort to make this balance, and has written with the most perfect honesty of purpose. Some of his deductions may be open to criticism, and his array of facts and testimonies may admit of further completion; but the general result which he has reached cannot be substantially set aside or altered. One particular portion of his work is just now especially valuable, to wit, the estimate he has furnished from Protestant writers of the vast superiority of Oriental Catholics over Oriental Schismatics in the Levant.
We recommend this learned and excellent work to all intelligent readers as the best and most complete of its kind which has yet appeared.
THE STORY OF KENNETT.
By Bayard Taylor. 12mo., pp. 418. New York: Hurd & Houghton. 1866.
This is an American story as truly as the Waverley novels are Scotch. It has done for Pennsylvania and the Quaker traditions what Hawthorne has for Massachusetts and Puritan life and tradition, and Cooper for Western New York and the fading reminiscences of Indian and frontier life. The book is redolent with the sweet aroma of pastoral life, and that healthy temper and character which are the certain fruit of honest, independent, and successful frugality and toil.
We are grateful to the masters of poetry and romance who will seize and perpetuate the fleeting memories of our beautiful and noble past, and save for our children those traditions of danger, daring, labor, love, and self-sacrifice which colored with mystery and beauty the dreams and aspirations of our childhood. Mr. Taylor is a man of whom we are proud. His experience as a traveller renders his writings more distinctively American, while they are entirely free from any narrowness or provincialism. He deserves the success which follows his literary labors. The book is handsomely got up, as such a book ought to be.
AGNES.
A Novel. By Mrs. Oliphant. New York: Harper & Brothers.
This is an artistic, highly-finished story, intensely truthful to nature, yet sufficiently idealized to give the mind the enjoyment of appreciating a work of art. The authoress makes some very fine points. The contemplation of the "Visitation" in the Pitti gallery by the lonely young wife is a beautiful touch of nature, such as only a woman could have made.
INSTRUCTION AND CATECHISM FOR CONFESSION.
To be used by children preparing to receive the Sacrament of Penance. 32mo., pp. 24. New York. D. & J. Sadlier & Co. 1866.
We are sure that this little book will prove as useful in every respect as the rev. author could desire. There has been an undoubted want of some such aid to the ordinary catechism, and every pastor under whose notice it may come will not fail to welcome it and avail himself of it. We like it because it is short, to the point, and written in good plain English.
GOOD THOUGHTS FOR PRIEST AND PEOPLE.
Translated from the German. By Rev. Theodore Noethen. 12mo. Albany. Nos. 1 and 2.