is which is heaped on the Janus clique, whose final fiasco was made at Cologne, they deserve it richly; for never was there a more absurd as well as detestable little generation of vipers among the whole of the noxious brood of heretics who in various ages have hissed against the decrees of the Ecumenical Councils. We can assure all readers that they will be amused and instructed by this brochure.

SEUR EUGENIE: The Life and Letters of a Sister of Charity. Baltimore: J. Murphy & Co. 1873.

The subject of this memoir was a French lady of rank, brought up a Protestant, but converted in early life to the Catholic faith. It is an interesting, edifying, and well-written, as well as beautifully printed, little book, not at all commonplace, but with the freshness of unusual incidents told in the charming style which belongs to modern English literature of the best class.

There is something very attractive in the French character when unperverted by scepticism and frivolity. The energy, zeal, and enthusiasm they throw into their work for God are very captivating to colder natures. And the higher one ascends in the social scale, the more decided, apparently, do these traits become. Whereas, in other nationalities, prosperity and position frequently have a deleterious effect; they often bring a Frenchman's better qualities into higher relief. In the religious orders, many illustrious examples of this remark may be found

of men brought up in ease and affluence who have adopted the mortified life of missionaries, braved every danger, and courted death itself, if thereby they could win some souls for Christ. The French nuns and Sisters of Charity have also been pre eminent, as the unwritten history of the late war alone would demonstrate. The charitable spirit which lies at the foundation of that suavity and grace too often characterized as surface politeness, peculiarly fits them for the delicate and trying duties they assume.

In the subject of this memoir we recognize the same winning characteristics to which we have adverted. Of high birth, she left all which usually attracts youth ful ambition for a life of self-abnegation and charity. The name Eugénie, already endeared to thoughtful readers through the Letters and Journal of Mile, de Guerin

(for we learn to appreciate a character full as much through the productions of the subject as by the portrayal of others), will receive new lustre from the memoirs of another saintly wearer. Such a record, though simple, is full of beauty and edification to those who follow in the same path, as well as those whose sphere of duty, though lying in the world, is yet elevated above it.

TRUTH AND ERROR. By the Rev. H. A. Brann, D.D. New York: D. & J. Sadlier & Co. 1873.

This book is of small size, but on an important subject, viz., the nature and sources of certitude. It is clear, logical, sound, and written in a good style. As an antidote to the wretched, poisonous trash sold under the name of philosophy, which is nothing but methodical scepti cism and materialism, this little book must do good if it is read and understood by those who have need of it. The unhappy intellectual vagrants of our day are afflicted with the two great miseries which poor "Jo" complained of: "Not knowing nothink, and starwation." Jo often sadly muttered to himself, “I don't know nothink!" Mr. Bain and all that set are so many Joes, repeating for ever, "I don't know nothink, you don't know nothink, nobody don't and nobody can't know nothink." The sophist of Königsberg was a Jo of genius, nothing more. Dr. Brann will give a substantial breakfast to any one of these hungry Joes who will read his book.

AUNT Jo's SCRAP-BOOK. Vol. II. ShawlStraps. By Louisa M. Alcott, author of Little Women, An Old-fashioned Girl, Little Men, Hospital Sketches. Boston: Roberts Brothers. 1872.

sees

This book is written in a light, trifling, flippant style, which may be very pleasant and appropriate when used to describe certain things, but when applied indiscriminately to all that one abroad, it certainly is not agreeable, to say the least of it. Neither is it pleasant, in a book of travels, to find that nothing is considered true, or even worthy of respect, unless the author believes in it. A Mass at S. Mark's, Venice, is described in this way: "The patriarch was a fat old soul in red silk, even to his shoes and holy pocket-handkerchief; and the service appeared to consist in six purple priests dressing and undressing him like

an old doll, while a dozen white-gowned bors droned up in a gold cockloft, and many beggars whined on the floor below." A visit to the Carthusian Convent, Pavia, calis forth the following comment: "A nice way for lazy men to spend their lives, when there is so much work to be done for the Lord and his poor! Wanted to shake them all round," etc. In the description of the inundation of parts of the city of Rome we read: "Livy indulged the sinful hope that the pope would get his pontifical petticoats very wet, be a Little drowned and terribly scared by the food, because he spoiled the Christmas festivities," etc. Victor Emmanuel is spoken of as "the honest man," with the remark that "that is high praise for a Ling." Such expressions as "sullen old gentleman in the Vatican," "silly Madonna," and others of the same character, enliven the pages in various places.

We can scarcely believe that this book is from the same pen as Little Women, and we think it would be far better, when one is only willing to see things through teir ignorance and prejudices, not to atempt to make others see with their

CTES.

GOD OUR FATHER. By a Father of the Society of Jesus, author of The Happiners of Haven. Baltimore: John Murphy & Co. 1873.

After reading this little book, we felt an ardent desire to tell everybody we had found a treasure. Its title, a rather unusual thing nowadays, is the true exponent of its contents. That God is our Father-our kind, indulgent, beneficent, merciful, loving Father-it proves as we have never seen proved before. We do think, if Voltaire had seen this little trease, he would not have called God a "tyrant and the father of tyrants," and he, Voltaire, would not have been a fool and the father of a generation of fools. Some Christians other than Calvinists are accustomed to regard God as a stern judge or an exacting master, ignoring altogether his parental relationship. This way of regarding God not unfrequently produces a morbid spirituality, if not worse. Under its baneful influence, the soul is parched up and rendered incapabie of any other sentiment than that of fear It is true that "fear is the beginning of wisdom"; but it is no less true that "love is the fulfilment of the law" and the sublime summary of the new

dispensation. And who can love a being whom he sees only in the light of a stern judge, an exacting master? God, as he is represented in this work, is a being whom you cannot but love. In very truth, the author himself must love much, or he could never write so eloquently of divine love.

To all Catholics who look with a filial confidence to God, and love him as their Father, we recommend this book as a means of strengthening their confidence and increasing their love. To those Catholics, happily few, who see in God only a rigid master, we prescribe the perusal of this work as the best remedy for their dangerous disease. To our separated brethren, who want to get a Christian idea of our common Father, we would respectfully suggest the careful study of this treatise; they will find it sufficiently scriptural and sufficiently simple for their tastes.

We cannot, perhaps, pay the publishers a higher compliment than by saying that the setting is in every way worthy of the gem.

LECTURES ON THE PRINCIPAL DOCTRINES AND PRACTICES OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. By Cardinal Wiseman. New York: P. O'Shea.

These two volumes belong to the uniform series of Cardinal Wiseman's works now being issued by Mr. O'Shea, and, as we understand, are printed from the same plates as the one-volume edition heretofore issued by Kelly, Piet & Co.

It is a strong evidence of the perma nent interest which attaches to Catholic doctrine-the faith ever ancient, ever new-that these lectures are read now with almost equal avidity with that which greeted their appearance almost forty years ago, while as many weeks suffice to lay on the shelf the productions of many a popular preacher of the day.

This course constituted the Lent at S. Mary's, Moorfields, in 1836, when the Oxford movement had already acquired considerable headway, and the public mind was alive to the subjects discussed. In view of the audience which he addressed, they were doubtless prepared with great care, and may therefore be considered most favorable specimens of the distinguished author's style.

One is struck, in looking over Cardinal Wiseman's works, by the fact of the singular diversity of his gifts, and his pre

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eminence in the varied fields of research and discussion-as if he had made each a specialty. His Lectures on the Connec tion of Science and Religion, delivered the preceding year, has maintained a position in the front rank of works devoted to that subject, and may be said to have become obsolete only in so far as science has presented new phenomena and discoveries for elucidation; while the present work has remained, to our thinking, the most exhaustive popular exposition of Catholic doctrine in the language. His more elaborate historical and critical essays have attracted marked attention, and been thought worthy of publication in separate volumes, while his distinctively belles-lettres works have enjoyed almost universal favor. His Fabiola confessedly stands at the head of Christian fiction. It is a little remarkable that The Hidden Gem, and one of the most acute critiques of the day upon Shakespeare, should have been the production of one who it is fair to infer scarcely everwitnessed an acted drama.

verted upon this erroneous statement, and for others at a distance who are not in a position to know personally the utter impossibility of any statement bordering on "Gallicanism" being admitted into THE CATHOLIC WORLD with the knowledge of the editor. The passage in question is as follows, and is found on p. 784: "Who can wonder if the Church, in this dire emergency, delegates to one man the power she can no longer collectively exercise in peace ?" The mistake of the writer, who is a lay Catholic and not a theologian, is very excusable. The responsibility for the doctrine of the articles published rests exclusively with me, as the editor in the absence of the Very Rev. F. Hecker. If any statement which is contrary to Catholic doctrine or sound theology is allowed to pass in any article, it is by accident, and any reverend gentleman or layman who notices anything of the kind will oblige me by sending a communication to me directly, pointing out the error. Any such communication will receive due attention from myself or from the editor-in-chief, when he is in town and able to attend personally to the duties of his office. In this connec tion, I take occasion to remark that another worthy clergyman, entirely unknown to me, who has recently expressed himself as aggrieved by the remarks of THE CATHOLIC WORLD upon Italy, has wholly misapprehended their intention. The articles on this subject which have appeared haye been generally written by myself, or prepared under my direction. I have no hostility except against the Catholic people of Italy, and would with wicked party which tyrannizes over the pleasure have admitted the letter of the Italian missionary, pleading the cause of his country, to the columns of THE CATHOLIC WORLD. It is the aim of the editors of THE CATHOLIC WORLD to make it Catholic in its spirit and tone of charity and courtesy, as well as orthodox in doctrine, and to remember that it becemes those who profess a special loyalty to the Holy Father to pay attention to all his admonitions, especially to that one in which he gave such an emphatic warning against the violation of charity by those who are very zealous for his authority.

The same house has brought out in similar style the Four Lectures on the Offices and Ceremonies of Holy Week by the same author, which we hope will prove a valuable aid to the intelligent participation in the devotions of the present season. The interest in the Lectures is enhanced by the fact that they were deivered at Rome, and relate to the cere monies in the Papal chapels.

AUGUSTINE F. HEWIT, C.S.P.

tinctly the grain of truth or of certainty contained in the speculations of Darwin.

The question is an interesting one, and has accordingly called forth a large literature in England, Germany, France, and Italy. Mr. Chapman's book is, we believe, the only one written in this country, and professedly devoted to the advocacy of the theory that, to use the author's own words, "the development of the higher forms of life from the lower has been brought about by natural selection, and that man has descended from a lower extinct form of which the gorilla and chimpanzee are the nearest living representatives "— which is Darwinism pure and simple, and which ought to be distinguished from the more general theory of "evolution." That Mr. Chapman's book has been published in America, and that we wish to say a few words on the question which it treats, and especially on the bearings of that question on revealed religion, constitute its only claims on our attention; for neither the style of the writer nor the lucidity of his argument, much less its originality, entitles it to any particular notice. The work is a mere compilation, which, however, may be of service to those who desire to possess in a convenient shape the facts, and to examine the nature of the reasoning, by which the Darwinian hypothesis is supported.

When we have said this, and that Mr. Chapman devotes a chapter of his book to the argument from zoology, geology, embryology, etc., respectively, in favor of Darwinism; that these arguments are neither as elegant, scholarly, or cogent as they might be made; that he has followed the materialists of Germany in their version of the theory, and further than there is even the shadow of a warrant to follow it, we have said all

that we wish to say about his book, and bestowed upon it the highest praise it is in our power to bestow consistently with truth.

What our views on the Darwinian theory are will appear in the sequel. Here we wish simply to say a few words on certain doctrines drawn from it by Mr. Chapman, or, if not drawn from it, associated with it both by him and others—doctrines which, in our view, are not part and parcel of it because mere assumptions in no way countenanced by facts. Thus, Mr. Chapman desires us expressly to understand that "natural selection," the meaning of which we will explain in a moment, does not imply the existence of a "natural selector"; and this, without any forced interpretation, may be construed into a profession of atheism. Now, as we will see a little further on, the admission of the Darwinian theory does not necessarily lead to any such conclusion. Again, he informs us, p. 14, that life is only a "physical phenomenon," and that the nervous system produces ideas and all the acts of intelligence "which is rank materialism. That Mr. Chapman advocates fatalism is no less plain, for he assures us that morality is necessarily progressive. On the last page of his book, he defines morals to be "duty to one's self." We confess that we do not understand how he reconciles his assertion that morality is necessarily progressive with his definition of morals. It seems to us that, if necessarily moral, men will necessarily do their duty; or rather, they will have no duty to do, since necessity and duty exclude each other. According to this theory, there can be no distinction between good and evil, and all the crimes that are committed are the necessary consequences of man's origin. Indeed, the author tells us, p. 180: "Crimes and out