Amelia; or, The Triumph of Piety.Translated from the French. Philadelphia: P. F. Cunningham & Son. 1874.
This is a story quite romantic and sensational in its character, but withal very pious, and showing very dramatically high virtue in contrast with great wickedness, and triumphing over it. In one part of it Amelia makes a promise which a Catholic could not make without grievous sin. She promises, namely, her supposed parents, who were Protestants, that [pg 859] if they will listen to a discussion between a priest and a minister, she will embrace their religion, provided they declare their conviction that the minister has the best of it. The use of the word “Catholicism” to express the Catholic religion, though sometimes allowable, is awkward and unsuitable as it occurs in the story. Critically speaking, this story is not much, but it may amuse children, who are generally not very critical if there are plenty of remarkable incidents to excite their emotions. There are hosts of stories like this in the French language, many of which are much better. It is a pity that more care and taste are not sometimes shown in selecting among them for translation.
The Church and the Empires, Historical Periods. By Henry William Wilberforce. Preceded by a Memoir of the Author by J. H. Newman, D.D. With a portrait. London: Henry S. King & Co. 1874. (New York: Sold by The Catholic Publication Society.)
The essays contained in this volume are reprints of articles from the Dublin Review. The memoir, by the dear friend of the author, Dr. Newman, though brief, is a complete little biography of a justly distinguished and most estimable man, who honored the illustrious name of Wilberforce by his sacrifices, his virtues, and his valuable literary labors.
Alexander the Great. A Dramatic Poem. By Aubrey de Vere, Author of “Legends of S. Patrick.” London: Henry S. King & Co. 1874. (New York: For sale by The Catholic Publication Society.).
A dramatic poem by Aubrey de Vere could not be other than noble in theme and thoughtful and delicate in execution. Almost alone among the poets of the day, not many of whom equal, and not one of whom surpasses, him in the higher qualities of insight and subtle imagination, he seems never to have felt the debasing touch of that materialism which in one department of letters seeks to elevate science at the expense of faith, and in another to degrade poetry to be the beautiful but shameless minister to all that is lowest in man's nature. Religion, which he has served so faithfully, has rewarded his devotion by lifting him into a clearer atmosphere than can be breathed by men devoid of faith, and has made him worthy to be ranked with those true poets who sing not alone for the busy, itching ears of their contemporaries, but for a wider, because a more enduring, audience.
Nevertheless, Mr. de Vere's lyric poetry, subtle and delicate as it is, could hardly, we should say, have prepared his readers for the power shown in his conception and delineation of the hero of his drama, Alexander, the greatest of the great conquerors whom the world has seen. His poem is absolutely simple in aim and in detail, and gains interest, if not solely, yet almost solely, from the manner in which he has strongly though briefly expressed his idea of what a great conqueror, a man with aims truly imperial, swayed by no mean passion, and filled with the idea of welding into one all peoples, and informing them by the highest purely human intelligence, should be. What literal truth there is in the picture—how nearly the Alexander of the play resembles him who died at thirty-three, the master of half the world—is not a question of any special interest. It is enough that Mr. de Vere's hero is a noble and intrinsically true conception, and a fit measure by which to estimate the true proportions of those lesser men whom the world once in an age sees filled with the lust of empire, but void of the skill and quick insight which should make them avoid its perils. In his play, indeed, Mr. de Vere, who follows the tradition of Josephus, and makes Alexander visit once the temple at Jerusalem, and pay to its high-priest such reverence as he had never shown to mortal man, makes him listen there to the warning that his power must have its “term and limit,” and that he who would indeed wear the world's crown “should be the Prince of Peace.” And yet the errors and mistakes by which great men seem blindly to throw away at last the fruits of their long toil seem to the on-looker as if they might have been so easily avoided that it is always necessary to remind one's self how little is truly in the power of man, and how surely God controls even the crimes and follies of those who seem to rule the world.
Aside, however, from the fine scenes in which Mr. de Vere brings out his idea of his hero, the play has many subsidiary beauties of a different kind.
What poet but himself could have written the two lovely scenes between Hephestion and Arsinoë, and made his [pg 860] readers see so well the love which either felt, but of whose return neither was aware? The minor characters, indeed, are drawn throughout with the hand of a master who never wastes a stroke, and who has the art of showing his readers what he wills by lifting them and not by lowering himself. Who has painted in our day a lovelier picture than that in which Hephestion shows us Arsinoë's mother?
“Who knew your mother