We perceive that an alteration must take place in the once conventional theological standards of measurement for the preternatural. Again, we are led to hope that scepticism and materialism will appeal less and less to intelligent men, in proportion as they become better acquainted with the amazingly limited range of our knowledge as compared with all that there is to be known; men should grow less ready with offensive scoffs at the existence of mysteries as they come to appreciate what Father Tyrrell calls "the confinement of the human race to what is relatively a momentary existence on a whirling particle of dust in a sandstorm."

We recommend the present brochure to our readers very earnestly; they will find in it what is not at all usual-a statement of some most amazing but well-authenticated facts and a strictly scientific discussion of them in the light of recently discovered physical laws, and all from the pen of a man whose signature stands for uncompromising faith in whatever pertains to Catholic belief. Very recently, new writers writers have added their names to the list of those who defend the view proposed by P. Franco, S.J.-the hypothesis that one of his confrères called the "devil- everywhere-theory." P. de Barenton's pamphlet will serve to more than offset these misfortunes.

Perhaps some of our readers may be curious to know the precise phenomena considered by our author. They are chiefly these: 1st. A young Syrian girl of Beyrout, fifteen years old and a pious Catholic, sees through earth or stone with perfect ease, and has been of great service in revealing the location of subterranean water-courses. 2d. Frère Arconce, of the PetitsFrères de Marie, has discovered more than 1,300 sources of water by means of an iron rod, and recently, having been summoned to Rome by Mgr. Gracci, repeated the phenomenon there, and was made the subject of a report to the Pontifical Scientific Academy. 3d. A universally accepted fact is the ability of the Spanish Zaboris to see through opaque substances -e.g., into the interior of the human body, or to a depth of thirty feet underground.

In discussing these curious physical phenomena the author presents us with a well compressed treatise on the Röentgen and allied rays of light ordinarily imperceptible to the normal eye. He shows by a table that no substances are absolutely

now known to science. Normal insensibility to these rays must be ascribed not to the retina-which seems really to detect them when in contact-but to the defective transparency of the crystalline lens. The brochure discusses the possibility of our sometime coming at a means of rendering all these rays perceptible by means of instruments.

18. It is with a feeling of pleasure that we take occasion to recommend to our readers the work of Professor Ramsay on the credibility of St. Luke's account of the Nativity.* Professor Ramsay's name is known to every living student of Christian origins. His works on the relation of the early church to the Roman State, and on the life of St. Paul, have placed his reputation so high that few scholars in his department of research are equal to him. But it is on on the little book we are now reviewing that rest his fairest fame, and his unquestioned right to the veneration of the Christian world. Every one is aware that it has been the fashion from long past in critical circles to despise the historical value of St. Luke's writings. Both in the third Gospel and in the Acts-so we have been and still are eruditely informed-Luke is guilty of an entire lack of the historical sense, and passes before us under the guise of authentic fact what modern scholarship has demonstrated to be empty report, downright contradiction, and patent impossibility. And his blunder of blunders, so runs on the impeachment, is his account of the Saviour's nativity. He tells us of an enrollment made under Augustus, when as Gardthausen, the great authority on Augustus, assures us, such an enrollment never existed, and would have been futile if it had. Secondly, even on the supposition of an imperial census, Palestine, being an independent though tributary state, would have been excluded from it. And finally, even granting a Palestinian census, the alleged journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem would have been entirely against Roman usage, which numbered people, as we do, in their own homes.

The case against St. Luke seemed apparently to have strength. Professor Ramsay takes issue with this prevalent criticism, utterly demolishes it, and demonstrates the thesis he has upheld for years, that St. Luke is one of the most reliable

Was Christ Born at Bethlehem? A Study on the Credibility of St. Luke. By W. M.

historians and careful chroniclers we can read. Recent discoveries of enrollment lists in Egypt show the periodical census-taking of the Roman emperors; an investigation of the official states of tributary countries like Palestine proves that they were bound to observe these enrollments; and, finally, the whole history of Herod's reign assures us that he would almost certainly order his subjects to be numbered in the Hebraic manner of tribal connection, so that the hated Roman law might give them less offence. This tribal enumeration would require precisely such a journey to the native city as we see Joseph and Mary making from Nazareth to Bethlehem These three counter-positions to the critical arguments are established by Professor Ramsay with a vast store of learning handled with consummate ease. The book is already a classic the world over. It has profoundly modified the critical thought of recent years, and for many years to come it will be the unrivalled treatise in its own sphere. To our readers who engage in such studies we highly recommend it.

*

19. A new volume in the Oxford Library of Practical Theology, by the Rev. Leighton Pullan, and entitled The Christian Tradition, is in many respects a noteworthy book. It is first of all remarkable in the variety of its contents. Its nine chapters deal with The New Testament, The Creed, Apostolical Succession, Episcopacy, Western Liturgies, Festivals, National Churches, Penitence in the Early Church, and Monasticism. Some of these topics are treated in a masterly manner. The chapter on the New Testament is a fine summary of the main positions and of the vital weaknesses in rationalistic criticism. The discussion of Episcopacy and Penance presents the classical arguments for the Catholic position on these doctrines. Indeed, it is not difficult to perceive that the author has gone more than once to the researches of Roman Catholic scholars; he gratefully acknowledges his indebtedness to Mgr. Batiffol, the rector of the Catholic University of Toulouse, whose essay on Penance he has largely used. We rejoice to see so much of the book uncompromisingly Catholic. The author is an advanced Anglican who loves to describe his belief as that of the first six or seven ecumenical councils, and consequently that of the undivided

* The Christian Tradition. By the Rev. Leighton Pullan. New York: Longmans, Green

primitive church. Naturally, however, he comes into conflict at times with positions dear to Catholics. For instance, speaking of the Quartodeciman controversy in the second century, he refers to St. Irenæus as rebuking the Roman Bishop, and thus proving how in primitive times the successor of St. Peter was on a perfect level with his colleagues in the episcopate. The action of St. Irenæus in that dispute was, on the contrary, more like that of a suppliant than an indignant remonstrant, and his appeal to Pope St. Victor not to excommunicate the Quartodecimans is one of the strongest witnesses to the undisputed primacy of Rome even in that very dawning of Christianity. The author contends, too, that Roman Catholicism stands today for undue interference with the privileges and liberties of national churches. The precise limits of autonomous action within these churches have from the beginning until now formed a vexing problem, and rash would he be who would presume to give a final and irrevocable solution of it. But it is a problem after all of accidentals. Rome as the centre of infallible Christian teaching is the main point to be settled, and that clear issue should not be clouded with considerations and controversies about disciplinary regulations, for these will soon adjust themselves peaceably when once unity in Christ's doctrine has been reached. And indeed, on reflection, our author himself, we think, would admit that the inconveniences, as he deems them, of Papal rule are far preferable to the misfortunes that multiply over the head of a Christian communion when it becomes too national. Stagnation in the Greek Church and appalling Erastianism in his own Anglican body, have a more disastrous history than can be found in the external government of any national church that looks to Rome for guidance.

We take leave of this book with sincere respect for the author's wide learning, tolerant spirit, and love for many things which we are one with him in venerating. To meet men like him fills the heart with hunger for the Saviour's heavenly ideal, "that they may be one as Thou in Me and I in Thee."

20. We had already at hand a rather full knowledge of the life of Max Müller, from the reminiscences published in his lifetime. But most decidedly was there need for the two volumes of his letters just brought out under the editorship of *The Life and Letters of the Right Honorable Max Müller. Edited by his Wife. 2 vols.

historians and careful chroniclers we can read. Recent discoveries of enrollment lists in Egypt show the periodical census-taking of the Roman emperors; an investigation of the official states of tributary countries like Palestine proves that they were bound to observe these enrollments; and, finally, the whole history of Herod's reign assures us that he would almost certainly order his subjects to be numbered in the Hebraic manner of tribal connection, so that the hated Roman law might give them less offence. This tribal enumeration would require precisely such a journey to the native city as we see Joseph and Mary making from Nazareth to Bethlehem These three counter-positions to the critical arguments are established by Professor Ramsay with a vast store of learning handled with consummate ease. The book is already a classic the world over. It has profoundly modified the critical thought of recent years, and for many years to come it will be the unrivalled treatise in its own sphere. To our readers who engage in such studies we highly recommend it.

19.-A new volume in the Oxford Library of Practical Theology, by the Rev. Leighton Pullan, and entitled The Christian Tradition,* is in many respects a noteworthy book. It is first of all remarkable in the variety of its contents. Its nine chapters deal with The New Testament, The Creed, Apostolical Succession, Episcopacy, Western Liturgies, Festivals, National Churches, Penitence in the Early Church, and Monasticism. Some of these topics are treated in a masterly manner. The chapter on the New Testament is a fine summary of the main positions and of the vital weaknesses in rationalistic criticism. The discussion of Episcopacy and Penance presents the classical arguments for the Catholic position on these doctrines. Indeed, it is not difficult to perceive that the author has gone more than once to the researches of Roman Catholic scholars; he gratefully acknowledges his indebtedness to Mgr. Batiffol, the rector of the Catholic University of Toulouse, whose essay on Penance he has largely used. We rejoice to see so much of the book uncompromisingly Catholic. The author is an advanced Anglican who loves to describe his belief as that of the first six or seven ecumenical councils, and consequently that of the undivided *The Christian Tradition. By the Rev. Leighton Pullan, New York: Longmans, Green