In France school of the work of instruction and apologetic for the faith; we are everlastingly crying for something, if it be only a readable and popular adaptation of the standard works of doctrine. this need is always quickly supplied. A new apologetic makes its way among the scholars, and behold the ideas it gives rise to are scarcely matured when the results, at least those that are preliminary, are set forth for the people in good, substantial, yet wonderfully readable expositions. Such a welcome work is the present volume from the pen of the Abbé Klein. He has thrown into popular shape the gist of the historical argument for religion and for Catholicity. Though aiming expressly to deliver his doctrine simply and familiarly for the people, he takes care to lose none of the trustworthiness of solider volumes, and does in reality build up a logical and consistent, a straightforward and reasonable defence of the true religion; or perhaps it would be better to say that he gives the fundamental and preliminary instruction that would lead to an entire apologetic along the line of argument that starts with things as it finds them, with facts that are patent to every student of human nature or of history, and leads to a conclusion that the end and the explanation of these facts is nothing else but the truth of Catholic dogma. There is nothing old-fashioned in the method, and we may say too that the author fits his thought, his style, his whole work, as well as its methods, to the bent of the modern mind. In the last chapter Abbé Klein summarizes briefly the main points of the teaching of Christian revelation, aiming to show their harmony with one another and with the essential facts of the religious consciousness which he constantly insists upon as his starting point, the undeniable, visible, tangible fact of the history of Religion. We would wish that some able writer would do a similar work for us in the United States. It would be an apostolic task. 3. We welcome and heartily recommend this new editionthe ninth-of Père Gratry's Connaissance de Dieu.† The book, it will be remembered, places the foundation of the argument for the existence of God in the aspirations of the soul for the ideals of Truth, Righteousness, and Love; in the *Le Fait Religieux et la Manière de l'observer. Par l'Abbé Félix Klein. Deuxième edition. Paris P. Lethielleux. élan of humanity for the Infinite. It is an extremely powerful argument when well developed, and seldom has it been treated so well as by Gratry, that beautiful spirit, so lovable in his tenderness, so lofty in his mysticism, so ardent in his enthusiasms, so mournful in his misfortunes. Père Gratry's great heart, as well as his acute mind, is in these pages, so that they are at once a study and a prayer. The historical sketch of theodicy is a very valuable contribution to theism, and the concluding chapters on the relations of reason and faith contain some of the finest passages and profoundest thoughts of the entire work. We hope our readers who care at all for philosophical literature will do themselves the good of studying these two volumes. They contain, it seems to us, that presentation of the theistic argument which will ultimately be regarded as not only the most practicable for persuasion, but also the most powerful philosophically. 4. Dr. Alois Wurm has given us a fine critical study of the alleged Gnostic and Ebionitic errors in the first Epistle of St. John. The monograph is highly technical, and appeals consequently to professed Scripture-students rather than to the uninitiated in such branches. It is exclusively an historical and exegetical study, and does not deal with the celebrated problems in textual criticism contained in this epistle. Very finely done is the account of the mental attitude of the early Jewish converts, when confronted by that greatest of scandals in their eyes, a Messias not exalted upon the throne of David, but shamefully put to death upon the cross; and by that other scandal scarcely easier for them to accept, that their old Mosaic law was in many points to be set aside, and the ancient revelation given by God to the fathers of Israel was to be complemented and perfected by the new dispensation of the Gospel. Dr. Wurm is one of that group of loyal Catholic German scholars who are laboring so heroically to bring modern Catholic scholarship into a place of distinguished honor, if not of pre-eminence. 5. The usual defects in the text-books of scholastic philosophy are so patent, that it is not to be wondered at if most professors yield to the desire or rise to the ambition, if this be better-to produce a better manual than what our 'present author admits to be the "innumera alia." His special * Die Irrlehrer im Ersten Johannesbrief. Von Dr. Alois Wurm. Freiburg und St. Louis: claim to excellence-he makes it modestly enough-is that he has accommodated his work to "tironibus facili methodo instituendis," and that he has consequently aimed at "brevity and clearness." But five hundred pages for Logic and Theology is scarcely brief, and we imagine, from a rather cursory glance at this volume, that the beginners for whom it was written can scarce agree that it permits one to say that any "facilis methodus" is possible. 6. Mr. Felix Adler is the recognized head of what is called the Ethical movement in the United States. The Ethical cult is a substitute for religion. Those who pursue it profess, as their first principle, the nobility of following the moral law and of doing good to mankind. The deductions from this principle which nearly all of mankind have drawn, namely, that if there is within us a seat of moral obligation, there must be above us a supreme moral Governor, whom it is our chief duty and privilege to know, serve, and love. These deductions the new Ethical school refuses to formulate. Morality with an unknowable sanction, a soul with an unknowable destiny, a Deity with an unknowable nature-this summarizes a position which many a noble spirit has been misled into adopting. From this word of description our readers may readily estimate the nature of the meditations, thoughts, and excerpts recently published by Mr. Adler.† They consist of exhortations to a strict, pure, and helpful life, which are inspiring indeed, and enough to make us feel a veneration for their author; they consist, secondly, of reflections upon social institutions and moral ideals which are as admirable as pure naturalism can ever be, but faint away into hollow fragments when judged by the perfect whole of Christianity; and they consist finally in speculations upon natural theology which labor under the limitations noticed in the last paragraph. Frequently the extract is too brief for the full expression of the idea it would present; sometimes the idea seems too commonplace to find entrance into a book like this; and now and then neither idea nor expression is as striking or graceful as Mr. Adler's reputation would lead us to expect. * Prælectiones Philosophia Scholastica. Tironibus facili methodo instituendis accomodatæ. Auctore P. Germano a Soto-Stanislao, C.P. Vol. I. Complectens Logicum et Ideologiam. New York: Fr. Pustet. + Life and Destiny; or, Thoughts from the Ethical Lectures of Felix Adler. New York: 7. These two booklets of M. Ermoni are a very admirable summary of the present position of Oriental learning as affecting the Old Testament. The question is a very delicate and momentous one. It calls for the judgment of cautious scholars and for sure expressions of view which we shall not have to change to-morrow or the day after. There are striking resemblances between the Hebrew Scriptures and the ancient literature, especially the religious literature of Assyria, Babylonia, and Egypt. But therefore we are not to go headlong into the extravagant claim of a science as precipitate with conclusions as it is hostile to faith, and declare that Genesis and Exodus are only transcripts of Oriental legend. Three processes a cautious mind will call for: first, find all the resemblances in question; secondly, determine the importance of the alleged importations from pagan sources; thirdly, examine our theory of inspiration, and if necessary modify it so that it will exclude no certain result of science. M. Ermoni in a brief space helps towards this threefold method. He gives us the similarities between the Hebrew and the older literatures, and shows that their importance, so far as discrediting the Bible goes, is very slight indeed. For, as a manifest and constant and humanly inexplicable testimony to the providential guidance of the chosen people, it stands out in clearer day with every progressive step of modern discovery, that though surrounded with polytheism and a gross and monstrous mythology, the children. of Abraham clung fast to the purest monotheistic belief, and conceived it to be their destiny to pass on that faith incorrupted to posterity. Once the significance of this fact is grasped, it need give us no disturbance to admit that the Bible, like every other literary production, shows traces of of the age in which it appeared. M. Ermoni very seasonably and sensibly warns us not to deny that these traces exist, but advises carrying the war into the enemy's country by insisting upon the moral and doctrinal supremacy of the Bible-a supremacy of such a nature as to drive us to the divine and supernatural to account for it. Naturally in a summary so short as that contained in these pamphlets, there can be no full exposition of so vast and recondite a problem. But so far as they go they are of considerable value, and every educated Catholic will profit by reading them. La Bible et l'Égyptologie. Par V. Ermoni. La Bible et l'Assyriologie. Par V. Ermoni. 8-In 1861 William Edward Hartpole Lecky, then in his twenty-third year, published a series of studies on the great recent leaders of public opinion in Ireland. The book, as he says himself, "fell absolutely dead." Ten years later he carefully revised the production and once more presented it to the public. This time it had a very respectable measure of success; in fact the entire edition was sold within a reasonable period. And now for the third time, forty years from the original publication, the aged historian puts his youthful venture into print.* The book now is very different from the anonymous production in which the young university graduate made his first bid for fame. It consists of two volumes, and contains nearly all of the new biographical matter that has come to light respecting the characters dealt with, and contains besides the mature reflections of the author on some of the deepest problems and most momentous epochs in the political history of Ireland. Mr. Lecky's views are known to every one. He is a Tory, and represents Trinity College in the House of Commons. And as to religion, he is a rationalist with pretty strong notions on the influence in history of the Catholic Church. This influence he thinks has been in a large degree helpful, and has always aimed at moral growth, but in the long run has proved inimical to human liberty and enlightenment. Consequently it is easy to perceive that Mr. Lecky judges the Irish people from a very remote point of view. He is not one of them. He has but a feeble sympathy for the tragedies of their mournful history; he has only a lordly pity for their intense and simple Catholicity; he has nothing but intolerance for their constantly defeated but tenaciously persistent national aspirations. And so we can almost tell beforehand what he will have to say concerning the great men of whose lives and deeds he writes. These men are Flood, Grattan, and O'Connell. Why Mr. Lecky did not choose more than these three in treating of great modern leaders of Irish public opinion, it is not easy to understand. Not to mention others, Parnell was a man whose influence on his countrymen was so great as to be historic; yet Mr. Lecky does not give him the honor of a chapter. Still, our author so fully expresses himself upon the national interests of Ireland. in the monographs contained in these volumes, that even if he had discussed the character and influence of Parnell, he would * Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland. By W. E. H. Lecky. New York: Longmans, |