A May Flower.
A look and a word, my sweet lady;
A thought of your kind heart, I pray,
For a flower that blooms by the roadside,
This beautiful morning in May.
I know that engagements await you;
I know you have many to meet;
Yet, pray, linger here for a moment,
And look at this flower of the street.
'Tis but May, my sweet lady, and hardly
Has spring had the time to look bright;
Yet this flower it called into being
Already is smitten with blight.
Already upon its fair leaflets
Lie heavy the grime and the dust;
Its shrivelled and lack-lustre petals,
Tell a story—stop, lady!—you must.
For a soul is in danger, my lady,
The soul of this drooping street flower;
And you by a look can recall it
To life, or 'twill die in an hour.
Ah me! if you knew but the power
Of one word of kindness from you;
Could you see what a tempest of passion
A glance of your eye would subdue!
What hope once again would awaken
To arm this poor soul for the right!
Thanks, my lady! Go happily onward,
The tempted is strengthened with might.
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.