the high noon time of the movement; and the Great Masters of the Venetian School as leading to the decline. The literary work was kept on the lines of the writers who have dealt with this great movement, attention being frequently called to the contemporary notable productions; one book note at least is presented at each meeting. The musical evenings occur four or five times in the session. These afford an opportunity to study the characteristics of some one of the great early masters with a comparative study of a recent one. There are selected readings on these occasions bearing on the subjects under study. Such as Browning's wonderful poem: "Andrea Del Sarto," and his "Fra Lippo Lippi"; some of Walter Pater's glowing notes on the Renaissance types. Two plays of Shakespeare are assigned to be read by the members. Some notes on these plays are made at these entertainment meetings. The government of the Circle may be called automatic, two or three secretaries are named for each session, two librarians. The Circle enjoys corporate membership in the International Catholic Truth Society, and finds Catholic reading matter to be mailed to 160 addresses. At each meeting one-half this number is attended to and packages are made ready for mailing. His Grace the Archbishop of Ottawa, presides at each yearly opening on the Feast of St. Teresa, October 15. The manager of the Columbian Reading Union would like to get a report, similar to the one given from Ottawa, from every Catholic Reading Circle now in existence. A helpful pamphlet in Reading Circles will be mailed on receipt of ten cents postage. Address letters to the Columbian Reading Union, No. 415 Fifty-Ninth Street West, New York City. Mrs. Mary St. Leger Harrison, better known by her pen name Lucas Malet, has given the critics much material for discussion in her recent book, The Far Horizon (Dodd, Mead & Co.) It is perhaps the most widely discussed book of the year, though the opinions of the reviewers are not harmonious. One high authority praises the style of the book, while another declares that the style is diffuse, artificial, often pretentious; a style which would be considered distinctively literary by unliterary persons." In'a recent article by Arthur C. Benson, on "The Ethics of Reviewing," he recommends authors to read what the critics say about their work, rather than to live secluded in a fool's paradise. We hope that Lucas Malet will see the following notice of her book, written by E. M. M., of the D'Youville Catholic Reading Circle: In The Far Horizon we get something more than the brilliant novel we have every reason to expect from the pen of Lucas Malet. It is undoubtedly her best work, in point of style, theme, and entire, almost startling, unusualness of plot and development. That it is convincingly Catholic in tone, is not its least merit. The plot is bold, and will, perhaps, be thought daring by some, and is drawn and elaborated with a man's strength rather than a woman's gracefulness. It is a story of very few characters, with one towering above the others. Dominic Iglesias is thoroughly idealistic-a man, as the heroine puts it, "born five or six centuries too late into a pushing, modern world, which knows not chivalry." He is introduced to us at the age of fifty-five, a superannuated bank clerk, a Londoner by education and business associa tion, but inheriting from his Spanish ancestors their grandee manner, and possessing a noble and ascetic soul. Every detail in the drawing of this character is perfect; the haughty note in the Spanish character is struck in his aloofness, his inability and disinclination to make friends, its self-sufficiency in his wholly unconscious preservation of that spirit of isolation, the result of the temperament and ideals produced by the difference of race. Its warmth is exemplified in his passionate adoration of his mother, his tender care of her, the memory of her serving to keep him a more than ordinarily good man till well on in middle life; its artistic tendency, in his appreciation of only the best in art and literature. He is presented to us as "a man who had lived long outside the creeds, and that not ungodlily, still less bestially," driven by his loneliness, and the coming of old age, to ask the question of the wherefore and the whither of this mortal pilgrimage, "desiring earnestly to be given grace to find the road-however archaic in the eyes of the modern world that road might be-which leads to the light on the far horizon, and beyond to the presence of God." Then at the age of fifty-five, assisted by boyish memories of his mother, whom he had revered, after much visiting of lecture halls and chapels, after much argument in books and with his own soul, he chose Holy Church, the communion in which he had been born and baptized. The twenty-second chapter is wonderful in its clear, calm exposition of the claims of the Catholic Church to be considered "an organism, not an organization; a living being, perfectly proportioned, with inherent powers of development and growth; ever existent in the Divine Mind before time was; recipient and guardian of the deepest secrets, the most sacred mysteries of existence, endlessly adaptable to changing conditions, yet immutably the same." The heroine, however, is not constructed of such fine clay; she is a very unconventional type. Far from blameless as to her past, she greatly errs in many ways as to her present. That a woman should be able to picture so well and so delicately a character such as Poppy St. John, is a striking illustation of Lucas Malet's ability. The creation of these two characters-Iglesias in all the strength and beauty of his lonely soul, Poppy in the witchery of her personality, her irresponsibility, masking the tragedy of her woman's experience, made deeper through her yearning for the unattainable—is sufficient to lift the book above the level of the ordinary work of fiction. The mind that could effectively combine these unusual elements- a hero in middle life, true to his ideals and undistinguished as to wealth or achievement, and a heroine not recognized by Mrs. Grundy, whose only outward bond of sympathy with the hero is her loneliness-that could develop their mutual attraction into the pathetically beautiful relationship described in The Far Horizon, and picture so dramatically the spiritual quest and triumph of Iglesias and the redemption of Poppy St. John gives proof of rare ability. M. C. M. THE CENTURY COMPANY, New York: Brunhilde's Paying Guest. By Caroline Fuller. Pp. iii.-339. Price $1.50. CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, New York: The Natural History of the Ten Commandments. By Ernest Thompson Seton. Pp. 78. Canon and Text of the New Testament. By Caspar René Gregory. Pp. 539. Price $2.50 net. The Congo and the Coasts of Africa. By Richard Harding Davis. Illustrated. Pp. xi.-220. Price $1.50 net. Days Off: And Other Digressions. By Henry Van Dyke. Pp. 322. Price $1.50. LONGMANS, GREEN & Co., New York: An Inquiry into Socialism. By Thomas Kirrup. Price $1.40. Political Economy. By Charles E. Devas. Third Edition. Price $2. The One Christ. An Enquiry into the Manner of the Incarnation. By Frank Weston, D.D._ Price $1.60. The American Revolution. Part III. By the Right Hon. George Otto Trevelyan, Bart. Price $2.50. Lisheen: An Irish Story. By Rev. P. A. Sheehan, D.D. Price $1.50. Essays Out of Hours. By Charles Sears Baldwin. Price $1. The Golden Porch: A Book of Fairy Tales. By W. M. L. Hutchinson. Price $1.40. The Life of Ed. Henry Beckerstith, Bishop and Poet. By Francis Keyes Aglionby, M.A. Price $2.50. Tales of Troy and Greece. By Andrew Lang. Price $1 50. BRENTANO's, New York: School Days. A Memory Book. Arranged and Pictured by Josephine Bruce. Pp. 165. BENZIGER BROTHERS, New York: The Great Schism of the West. By L. Salembier. Authorized translation. Price $2. The Bond of Perfection. By P. M. Northcote, O.S.M. Price 60 cents. Devotion of St. Bede. Arranged by Abbot Gasquet. Price 50 cents. Letters on Christian Doctrine. Second Series. Part I. By F. M. de Zuluetta, S. J. Price $1 net. A Homily of St. Gregory the Great on the Pastoral Office. Translated by C. M. Boyle, C.M. Price 15 cents. Method of Conversing With God. From the French. By Wat Phillipson. Price 30 cents. Nick Roby: The Story of His Childhood. By David Bearne, S. J. Price 90 cents. The School of Death. Meditations. From the Italian. Translated by Rev. G. Elson, I.C. Price 70 cents. Penance in the Early Church. By Rev. M. J. O'Donnell. Price $1. C. WILDERMAN COMPANY, New York: The New Testament of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Translated from the Latin Vulgate. With Annotations and Reference by Dr. Challoner and an Historical and Chronological Index. Pp. 654. Price, retail, cloth, 25 cents to $3. F. FISCHER & BROTHERS, New York: Chant Requiem and Libera (Vatican Version.) With Antiphons, Canticle, and Psalm for the Final Absolution. Pp. 23. Paper. FATHERS OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT, New York: The Priest's Communion League. A Sacerdotal Eucharistic League for the Propagation of Daily Communion. Pp. 35. Paper. Pierre-Julien Eymard. Sketch of his Life and Works. Pp. 38. Paper. LITTLE, BROWN & Co., Boston: The Cruise of the Make-Believes. By Tom Gallon. Illustrated. Pp. 322. Price $1.50. What Can a Young Man Do? By Frank West Rollins. Pp. viii.-339. Price $1.50. The Welding. By Lafayette McLaws. Pp. viii.-360. Price $1.50. In the Harbour of Hope. By Mary Elizabeth Blake. Pp. xviii.-120. Price $1.25 net. THOMAS B. MOSHER, Portland, Me.: Stars of Thought. From the Writings of Emerson. Selected by Thomas Coke Watkins. Pp. xvi.-79. The Children's Crusade. Translated from the French of Marcel Schwob, by Henry Copley Greene. Pp. xxv.-87. The Legend of St. Julian Hospitaler. Translated from the French of Flaubert, by Agnes Lee. Pp. xiii.-68. Father Damien. An Open Letter to the Rev. Dr. Hyde, of Honolulu, from Robert Louis Stevenson. Pp. 31. The Sweet Miracle. By Eça de Queiroz. Done into English by Edgar Prestage. Pp. 33. A Little Garland of Celtic Verse. Pp. 43. A Little Book of Twenty-four Carvis. By Katharine Tynan. Pp. 40. J. R. WELDIN & Co., Pittsburg: Songs and Sonnets. By Lawrence McDonald. Pp. 105. B. HERDER, St. Louis, Mo.: The Sacramental Life of the Church. By Rev. Bernard J. Otten, S.J. Price 30 cents. Per dozen, $2.70. WILLIAM BRIGGS, Toronto, Canada: "The Toiler": And Other Poems. By William J. Fisher. Illustrated. Pp. 167. BLOUD ET CIE, Paris, France: Lecons de Théologie Dogmatique. Par L. Labauche. Pp. xii.-422. Price 5 frs. LIBRAIRIE AUBANEL FRERES, Avignon, France: Les Quatre Livres de la Femme. II. Le Livre de la Maitresse de Maison. Pp. xix.-168. VICTOR LECOFFRE, Paris, France : La Crédibilité et L'Apologétique. Par Le R. P. Gardeil. I. Vol. 12mo. Price 3 fr. 50. N our day and land it is not easy to exaggerate the importance of the Sunday-school. It is still true that a majority, or at least a very large proportion, of our Catholic children depend chiefly upon it for their knowledge of religious truth; at the same time, it is admitted that the religious education it imparts is, in many cases, below the desired standard. The great desideratum is a body of competent teachers; and this can hardly come as the result of natural growth, but is to be obtained by the careful selection and training of teachers. This aim is being pursued in various places, conspicuously in New York, under the auspices of the Training School for Catechists; and his Grace, the present Archbishop, has recently issued a letter strongly urging the importance of this work upon the priests and laity of his diocese. The object of the following pages is to trace the history and sketch the organization of a successful Sunday-school; to indicate something of the good accomplished by it; and thereby, we trust, to show what we may hope for from a Sunday-school that is the product of true zeal, organization, method, and hard work. I. Visitors to the great churches of Paris readily find their way to St. Sulpice, the principal church of the old Latin Quarter, See THE CATHOLIC WORLD, August, 1905, "The Teaching of Christian Doctrine," by Rev. John F. Brady, M.D. Copyright. 1907. THE MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF ST. PAUL THE APOSTLE VOL. LXXXVI.-28 for it ranks in interest and importance, if not in beauty, with the celebrated churches of Notre Dame and the Madeleine. It is noted as a remarkable centre of religious life and activity; in fact, as a model, in this respect, for the churches of the whole country. The visitor entering the spacious edifice at any hour of the day cannot fail to remark the constant stream of people coming to assist at one of the many impressive services, or else to pay their tribute of silent prayer before the altar of the Blessed Sacrament. And if the visitor be a Catholic he cannot but be convinced that he is in a church where the faith is properly understood and practised. But religion was not always in so prosperous a state at St. Sulpice. When, in the middle of the seventeenth century, Father Olier entered the parish as its pastor, and began the erection of his celebrated seminary, the place was considered the rendezvous for the irreligious, immoral, and criminal of all Paris. At that time the parish limits were much more extensive than they are now, embracing the whole Faubourg St. Germain, a territory which to-day is divided among nine parishes. To change the face of this, the most wicked part of Paris, and that too in an age of general moral laxity and religious indifference, might seem indeed a hopeless task. But Father Olier, animated with the spirit of our divine Savior, the Shepherd of souls, and encouraged by confidence in the assistance of the Mother of God, boldly began the work. The sure instinct of the true pastor led him to the root of the evil-the appalling ignorance of saving truth in which the majority of his people were living. The duty of religious instruction had been so sadly neglected that the great majority of the children -yes, and of the parents as well-were quite ignorant of even the elements of Christian doctrine. Here then lay the pastor's first appointed work; and so well and firmly did he establish it, that it has endured through all the vicissitudes of more than two centuries and a half, and has been perhaps the most powerful support of that religious life which has ever since characterized the parish of St. Sulpice. Father Olier began the work of evangelizing and instructing his parish by putting into effect a carefully thought-out plan of organization. The district was altogether too populous and extensive for one school of catechism to satisfy its needs; so, in order to reach all under his care, he established a central |