even of emotion. They are merely part of the dramatic setting, like the .ocal color of a magazine story. Some situations in French fiction do, indeed, make the plentiful use of tears seem not too unnatural. In Daniel le Sueur's last novel, for example, the reader can but sympathize with the group of weeping men who gather at the Morgue in search of a friend who had been stabbed in the back. But even this masculine emotion is often self-conscious and hysterical; as when the afflicted person calls attention to himself by exclaiming, je pleure; or when, like the distressed villian in one love story, he begs the heroine to notice that he is shedding tears.

The thousands who have read Octave Feuillet's Romance of a Poor Young Man will recall the scene when the hero's hard-hearted father, at the death-bed of the hero's mother, relented, ran to her, and, with heart-rending sobs, pressed the poor, martyred body to his breast. The poor young man himself underwent hardships without a tear, but cried at trifles. He wept when he ate a crust of bread which his sister gave him. When the rich heroine was about to be married to the wrong man, the hero retired to his room and mopped his eyes with a handkerchief which had once belonged to her. He did not shed tears when he fell into the lake and was nearly drowned, nor when he broke his arm; but when his incognito was discovered, and he was forsaken by the young woman, he declared: "I fell on my knees before the place where she had stood, and then, striking my forehead on the marble, I wept, I sobbed like a child.”

Gaboriau, who professed to admire Spartan virtues, was nevertheless compelled to turn on the water-works frequently. In one stirring story, when the disguised detective discovered the heroine trying to poison herself with charcoal fumes, great tears rolled down the good man's cheeks, as he murmured in a choking voice- The heavy father in the same novel, who was also a count, was surprised by his daughter when his eyes were filled with tears. Her surprise must have been greater than his, however, for she saw tears, great tears, which, flowing along his dyed beard, became tinted, and fell like drops of ink upon his shirt-front.

There are, of course, French novelists who do not appreciate the beauty of emotional display. Their characters show restraint; the authors do not feel the pulse of the people. But there is one author, little known to most Americans, Jules Mary, whose tales of murder, love, and madness are very affecting, not to say harrowing. After reading one of them, we instinctively wipe our eyes, or brush imaginary tears from our shoulder or coat-sleeve. A trap is laid by the author. His characters, when they first appear, are not such as should be moved easily; yet before the dénouement is reached they are, to a man, weeping. No one escapes. There is the wicked nobleman in Un Mariage de Confiance. We are lulled into security as we read about him in the opening chapter: He burst into a sonorous laugh which uncovered his gums and a row of teeth white as milk, pointed as those of a cat. But in the second chapter we find him weeping because the heroine is pretty. The matter-of-fact Dutch husband, who is the successful rival of the wicked nobleman, finding that the latter has made love to his wife, rolls on the carpet at the feet of his father-in-law, his strength exhausted, needing to weep but not being able, sobbing without tears, until at length, moisture appearing in

his eyes, he cries like a child. There also is the hero in Un Coup de Revol ver who had one of those robust natures peculiar to mountainous regions. The reader had hoped that his low voice might not be one which trembled with emotion; but it was not to be. Indeed, in his case, weeping seemed to be a very upheaving process-probably because of his robustness. Fre quently, a contraction compressed his throat and prevented him from speak. ing. He saw the woman he loved subjected to severe cruelty, but he did not whimper. When, however, she afterwards called to him and said: "Weep not, you shall have these flowers," he felt a stifling sensation mount from his heart to his throat. His clenched hands beat the air, and he rolled on the floor, crying with a hoarse voice.

The juge d'instruction, who in real life is a prosaic, unfeeling person, is the very Niobe of French fiction. In one story such a magistrate, while engaged in uncovering a crime, discovers that his fiancée's relatives are impli cated. First, his emotion was so strong that he was forced to sit down; second, he was oppressed by the tears of joy which mounted to his eyes; and, third, his voice trembled so that he could not speak; and at length a sob interrupted him; he bit his lips till the blood came, clenched his fists until the nails pierced the palms of his hands.

In English novels a wan smile expresses grief; a supercilious curl of the lip, showing his even teeth, denotes anger; a sardonic laugh is the sign ef villany. But in French romances, when hero or heroine, detective or crimenal, Polish count or Irish governess, begins to speak in a broken voice, or! there is a sign of tears, let the reader go to a safe spot and prepare for the

worst.

M. C. M.

Some little while ago, at a meeting of the Philothea Society, held at the home of Mrs. Schuyler Neilson Warren, New York City, Miss Agnes Repplier read one of her essays, "The Choice of Books," first published in THE CATHOLIC WORLD of October, 1906. Miss Repplier explained that not only had the pressure of work made it difficult for her to prepare something new, but also, as a friend assured her, "because a thing is published it does not follow that it is read." The latter remark may be, in a measure, humorous, but it is also, unfortunately, a luminous commentary on the lack of appreciation and study by Catholics of good Catholic literature.

If the Philothea Society, which is doing praiseworthy work in this direc tion, succeeds in arousing Catholics to a practical appreciation and support of representative Catholic writers, among whom Miss Repplier is a worthy type, it will have achieved a glorious and fruitful work for God, for the Church, and for souls.

Reading the essays of Agnes Repplier, with their wide range of subjects -literary, æsthetic, dramatic, social, political-one is led to realize what is so often forgotten in a non-Catholic country, i. e., that the Catholic Church is Catholic, universal in the most comprehensive sense of the term; that she is the Mother and Protector not only in the theological domain of faith and morals, but of truth and beauty wherever found. This is brought home to one in the essays of Agnes Repplier. She is essentially Catholic in every

thing that she writes. An inspiring example, both in heart and intellect, of Catholic culture, with its notes of beauty, distinction, and universality, she is ever fortiter in re, suaviter in modo, possessing a critical faculty keenly refined, and a saving grace of humor.

Perhaps the most apt appreciation we may make of Miss Repplier's work is to turn one of her own literary criticisms upon herself:

We realize at once the charm of a Catholic atmosphere, unfretted by dispute. To what but Catholicism do these stories owe their inspiration? What else gives them their grace and sweetness? Yet they are guiltless of argument, and wholly unconcerned with the theological convictions of their Protestant readers. Rather do they seem to take for granted that the reading world is as Catholic as themselves; and it is this intimate directness of speech, this smiling disavowal of complications, which makes them so perfect of their kind. It is the attitude of the old chroniclers, Froissart and Philip de Commines, who are never hostile and argumentative like modern historians, because they take no count of opposition. It is with a perfect sureness of touch, a serene certainty that admits no shadow of disaffection.

Thus in her essay, "The Choice of Books," she writes of the delightful stories of Mr. Henry Harland. To make such a criticism of another is to merit it, in an eminent degree, for oneself.

BOOKS RECEIVED.

LONGMANS, GREEN & Co., New York:

The Economics of the Household. By Louise Creighton. Price 50 cents. Dilecta Biblica. By a Sister of Notre Dame. Price 30 cents. Christ in the Old Testament. By B. W. Randolph, D.D. Tales of Troy and Greece. By Andrew Lang. Price $1.50 net. Cradle Tales of Hinduism. By Margaret E. Noble. Price $1.60 net. The Golden Porch. A Book of Greek Fairy Tales. By W. M. L. Hutchinson. Price $1.50 Mankind and the Church. Being an Attempt to Estimate the Contribution of Great Races to the Fullness of the Church of God. By Seven Bishops. Edited by Bishop Montgomery. G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, New York:

Princess Nadine. By Christian Reid. Pp. v.-340.

FUNK & WAGNALLS, New York:

The Magnet. By Alfred O. Crosier. Pp. 497. Price $1.50.

BENZIGER BROTHERS, New York:

The Cure's Brother. A Laumont Story. By David Bearne, S. J. Ancient Catholic Homes of Scotland. By Dom Odo Blundell, O.S.B. With Introduction by Hon. Mrs. Maxwell Scott. The Story of Ellen. By Rosa Mulholland (Lady Gilbert). Many Mansions. Being Studies in Ancient Religions and Modern Thought. By William S. Lilly. The Fathers of the Desert. Translated from the German of the Countess Hahn-Hahn. By Emily F. Bowden. In two volumes. Told Round the Nursery Fire. Written and illustrated by Mrs. Innes-Browne. The Churches Separated from Rome. By Mgr. L. Duschense. Authorized Translation.

THE KNICKERBOCKER PRESS, New York:

The King of Rome. A Biography. By Victor von Kubinyi. Pp. xii.-114.

HENRY HOLT & Co., New York:

A Turnpike Lady. By Sarah N. Cleghorn. Pp. vi.-257.

ISAAC PITMAN'S SONS, New York:

Isaac Pitman's Short Course in Shorthand. An Exposition of the Author's System of Phonography Arranged in Forty Lessons. Price $1.25.

EUGENE CHRISTIAN, New York:

The Crime of the Medical Legislation. By Eugene Christian. Pp. 64.

LITTLE, BROWN & Co., Boston, Mass.:

The Great Secret. By E. Phillips Oppenheim. Illustrated. Pp. 293. Price $1.50. RICHARD G. BADGER, Boston, Mass.:

Quivira. Poems. By Harrison Conrad. Illustrated. Pp. 117.

JOHN MURPHY COMPANY, Baltimore, Md.:

Price $1.50.

A Synthetical Manual of Liturgy. By the Rev. Adrian Vigourel, S.S. Translated by the Rev. John le Nainfa, S.S. Pp. xix.-251.

J. H. FURST COMPANY, Baltimore, Md.:

Maryland; the Land of Sanctuary. A History of the Religious Toleration in Maryland from the First Settlement Until the American Revolution. By William T. Russell. Pp. Xxxviii.-621.

KYLER & SON, Ashland, Pa.:

Short Poems. By Grant Tyler.

NOTRE DAME PRESS, Notre Dame, Ind.:

Character Treatment in the Mediaval Drama. By Timothy J. Crowley, C.S.C. Pp.

xiv.-181.

B. HERDER, St. Louis:

Man and the Ape. Are They Cousins? By Frank McGloin. Price 10 cents. Indiference; or, What is Most Worth Caring About. By L. J. Walker, S. J. Price 30 cents. The Life of St. Jerome, the Great Doctor of the Church. From the Original Spanish of Fray José de Sigüenza (1595). By Mariana Monteiro. Price $3.50. History of the German People at the Close of the Middle Ages. By Johannes Janssen. Vols. XI., XII. Art and Literature to the Beginning of the Thirty Years' War. Translated by A. M. Christie. Price $6.25. Society, Sin, and the Savior. Addresses on the Passion of our Lord. By Father B. Vaughan, S.J. Price $1.35. Distinguished Converts to Rome in America. By D. J. Scannell-O'Neill. Price $1. The Return of Mary McMorrough. By Rosa Mulholland. Price $1.50.

THE BURROW BROTHERS COMPANY, Cleveland:

History of the Society of Jesus in North America. Colonial and Federal. By Thomas Hughes, of the same Society. Documents Volume I. Part I. Nos. 1-140 (1605-1838). Pp. 600.

BROWNE & NOLAN, Dublin, Ireland:

A Commentary on the Present Index Legislation. By Rev. Timothy Hurley, D.D. With a Preface by the Most Rev. Dr. Clancy, Bishop of Elphin. Pp. xx.-252. 6d net.

BLOUD ET CIE, Paris, France:

Price 35.

Apologie elementaire: Dieu et la Religion. Par J. L. de la Paquerie. Pp. 580. Price 4 frs.

GABRIEL BEAUCHESS ET CIE., Paris, France:

Christologie. Commentaire des Propositions xxvii.-xxxviii, de Décret de Saint-Office "Lamentabili." Par M. Lepin. Pp. 116. Price 1 fr. 2. La Théologie de Saint Paul. Par F. Part, S.J. Premiere Partie. Pp. ii.-589. Jésus-Christ: Sa Vie, son Temps. Par le Père Hippolyte Leroy, S.J. Pp. 360. Price 3 frs.

VEN those who are by no means disposed to adopt the pessimism of certain French writers, who talk of "two Catholicisms," must fain confess that we are apparently passing through a period of crisis in which two very different schools of theological thought are contending for the mastery. The stress of this strife has been specially felt in France, and in the field of biblical criticism. But unmistakable traces of its presence may be found in many other lands, and the controversy covers a wide field of apologetics, philosophy, and historical study.

In the current discussions on these subjects there is, as findeed there has ever been, room for almost endless varieties of opinion. And the divisions among our theological writers generally bear more resemblance to the multitudinous groups and parties in the French Chamber than to the simpler English system. Yet in most of these domestic controversies it is possible to distinguish two main schools of thought, though their characteristic principles admit of divers degrees and shades and variations, thus giving rise to the various subordinate groups and parties.

And, without attempting to press the analogy too far, the two parties may be sufficiently described by the nomenclature Copyright. 1908. THE MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF ST. PAUL THE APOSTLE IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

VOL. LXXXVI.-46