The Christian Cemetery in the XIXth Century; or, The Last War-cry of the Communists. By Mgr. Gaume. Translated by the Rev. R. Brennan, A.M., with a preface by the Very Rev. T. S. Preston, V.G. New York: Benziger Bros. 1874.
Mgr. Gaume attacks, with his usual trenchant vigor and sarcasm, in this volume, the horrible travesty of funeral obsequies which atheists are wont to perpetrate at the burial of what they regard as mere clods of earth, the carcases of dead animals. These enemies of the human race are not content with the enjoyment of the civil right to live and die like beasts themselves, but they must needs attempt to desecrate the cemeteries of Christians, and to interfere with their right to live and die, and be buried like rational and immortal beings who expect a resurrection from the dead. It is highly important that the eyes of all men who have any glimmering of reason and religious belief left should be opened to the loathsome wickedness and brutality of the sect of atheists and communists who are everywhere conspiring for the destruction of society and the human race. This book will serve as an eye-opener to all who read it attentively. We trust it will also act as an antidote to the heathenish and revolting notions respecting the burning of the bodies of the dead which have of late been so offensively presented in many newspapers.
The book has been well translated and neatly printed. We cannot, however, admire the grave-yard view on the cover, which reminds us of the car-doors on the Camden and Amboy Railway, with a grave-stone and a weeping-willow.
Life of S. Thomas of Villanova; with an Introduction by F. Middleton, O.S.A. Philadelphia: P. F. Cunningham & Son. 1874.
This is a reprint of one of the Oratorian Series, and gives a sufficiently good biography of the great Archbishop of Valentia, which is better translated than most of its companion volumes. The introduction is quite a learned and eloquently-written paper, chiefly valuable on account of its information respecting learned and able members of the Augustinian Order who were champions of the faith against the modern heresies.
On some Popular Errors concerning Politics and Religion. By the Right Hon. Lord Robert Montagu, M.P. London: Burns & Oates. 1874. (For sale by The Catholic Publication Society.)
The popular errors attacked and refuted in this collection of essays are such as relate to political ethics, the mutual bearings of religion and law, church and state, civil marriage, education—in a word, they are the errors of the party of [pg 574] revolution, the so-called principles of 1789. Lord Robert Montagu has made a work by F. Franco, S.J., the basis of his own, which is neither, strictly speaking, original, nor yet a translation or compendium of F. Franco's work. The Protestant and secular papers are just now peculiarly inquisitive about the doctrines of sound and instructed Catholics on these mixed questions. It is not very easy to satisfy them by mere newspaper and magazine articles written in haste and under the pressure of editorial labors. Here is a book where they may find the information they are in quest of, and where Catholics also may gain much instruction. We have no reason to wish to withhold the full, clear, and unreserved statement of our Catholic doctrines on any subject from our non-Catholic fellow-citizens. The great difficulty lies in the universal confusion of ideas on these subjects, and the general want of willingness to inquire and discuss thoroughly and fairly. The European Catholic press is fairly teeming with books and articles of the most consummate ability on these burning questions of the day, and we welcome every effort made by those who write in English to place these products of sound learning and thought before our own reading public. This book is an effort of that kind, and we hope it will be read by a great number of both Catholics and non-Catholics who wish to inform themselves about the true issues between the church on one side, Cæsarism and revolution on the other.
This is the first volume of “S. Joseph's Theological Library” Series, edited by the Fathers of the Society of Jesus, and is to be followed by several others.
The Sacred Anthology. A Book of Ethnical Scriptures Collected and Edited by Moncure Daniel Conway. New York: Henry Holt & Co. 1874.
As a specimen of the typographical art, this book is superb. The literary taste and skill exhibited in its preparation are also of a high order. Its contents are, moreover, specimens of the productions of genius and wisdom gathered from all time and all cultivated nations, including many passages from the inspired writings. So far, the book is one which may be valuable to one who knows how to use it, and is competent to discriminate between the truth and the error which it contains. Nevertheless, the intention of the author and the real scope of the volume are radically anti-Christian and anti-theistic. The very idea of presenting a conglomeration of the Divine Scriptures and of the sacred writings, legends, and philosophical works of heathens, is to place all religions on a common level. In the index the author, with the pert assumption of a neological sciolist, takes care to assert as a fact the want of genuineness and authenticity of a great part of the books of the Bible. As a mere opinion, this is in defiance of sound criticism, and has been often exploded. To put forward such an opinion, in defiance of the learning of the whole Christian world, as something certain and unquestionable, is simple impudence, and is as unscientific as it is irreligious. In the extracts on theism the author has adroitly given the whole a pantheistic issue.