The Lives of the Saints. By Rev. S. Baring-Gould, M.A. January. London: John Hodges. (New York: Sold by The Catholic Publication Society.) 1872.
Mr. Gould is a remarkable man. Three years ago we reviewed with considerable severity a work of his, and treated him as a rationalist, which we supposed him to be at that time, not knowing anything whatever of his opinions, except as they were indicated in the book reviewed. We were somewhat puzzled by discovering that he is really a clergyman of the Ritualist school, but it appears in reality that he is a Hegelian in philosophy, and at the same time a soi-disant eclectic Catholic in theology. How he reconciles these opposites is his affair, not ours. The present volume, at any rate, is worthy of the highest praise. It is a collection of short lives from the Bollandists, published in a beautiful style, and perfectly suitable for circulation among Catholics. We trust he will complete his useful and attractive work in the same admirable manner as he has begun it.
The Catholic Publication Society has in press and in preparation the following works, in addition to those already announced, which will be published during the fall: Pictures of Youthful Holiness, by Rev. R. Cooke; A Saint’s Children, by Emily Bowles; Life and Writings of St. Catherine of Genoa; All Hallow-Eve, and Unconvicted; Tales from the Spanish of Fernan Caballero; The Heart of Myrrha Lake, or Into the Light of Catholicity; The Nesbits, or a Mother’s Last Request; Oakley, on Catholic Worship; The Illustrated Catholic Family Almanac for 1873; and The Book of the Holy Rosary, illustrated with thirty-six full-page engravings, by Rev. H. Formby. The publication of F. Finotti’s Bibliographia Catholica Americana has been unavoidably delayed, by circumstances beyond the control of either author or publisher. It is now about two-thirds printed, and will be ready as soon as possible. This explanation is given as an answer to several letters received by the publisher.
THE REVIEW OF MR. BRYANT’S ILIAD.
The following paragraph appeared in the Independent, from which it was copied by the New York Times:
“We were slightly surprised, after reading in the June number of The Catholic World that ‘the New York Times has long rivalled Harper’s Weekly in bigotry and anti-Catholic malice,’ to find in the same number a long article on Bryant’s Iliad, which is stolen bodily from two reviews of the same work in the Times of March 14 and June 20, 1870. The arrangement of the paragraphs is slightly changed, but their contents are absolutely identical. In the same number of The Catholic World the editor pathetically inquires: ‘What is the Catholic press doing to correct these literary influences? What is it doing to cultivate the art of criticism?’ Stealing, evidently. We are informed, however, that often ‘the force of a Catholic organ consists of nobody but the editor, who writes all the fourth page, and the assistant, who makes up the rest of the forms with a paste-pot and a pair of shears.’ If Catholic monthlies are edited in the same way as Catholic weeklies, it manifestly becomes necessary to search for articles among the files of the daily papers; but we must remind the editor, to quote his own words again, that ‘newspapers go everywhere. Their readers are not confined to any one sect or any one party.’”
The simple fact of the matter is, that the author of the articles in the Times presented the review of the Iliad, which appeared in our last number, to the editor of this magazine in manuscript, and received payment for it as an original article. The proper explanation has been already made to the editor of the Times. To the Independent our only rejoinder may be found in the last four lines of the Ninth Fable of Phædrus.[133]