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is the wealth of striking and well-chosen quotations from great spiritual writers, chiefly from the eminent mysticist mentioned above, whom he takes as his chief guide. The ordinary devout Christian who does not aspire to the higher flights of prayer will find in the book much helpful spiritual reading-matter.

9. The latest number of The American Catholic Quarterly to reach us has an has an article which will appeal widely to the interest of Irishmen, An Irish Soldier of Fortune,' by R. F. O'Connor. It tells the story of Daniel Charles O'Connell, uncle to the Liberator, who rose by sheer ability and force of character to be lieutenant-general, peer of France and Commander of the exclusive Order of St. Louis. Incidentally the remark is quoted that seven Irish Catholics attained the rank of field-marshal in Austria. Who will write their records for us? Other lengthy articles deal with the Beautiful in Art, the philosophy in Father Tabb's poems, Cardinal Lavigerie as a missionary, and the German mystics of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries known as the Friends of God.' We must confess we were hardly prepared to meet in this friendly review the broken sentence which concludes the notice of Canon Sheehan's Graves of Kilmorna. "A horrible picture! Yes, but if The Ireland of recent decades has had episodes and aspects which must sadden and depress any sensitive Irishman; but the picture it presents is certainly not a horrible one. It is much less horrible than the picture of most other nations.

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10. Life and Times of Charles J. Kickham. By James J. Healy. Dublin: J. Duffy and Co., Ltd.

Mr. Healy's account of Kickham will do a good work if it directs an increased attention to the patriot whom John O'Leary described as "the best, meekest, gentlest, and most thorough-going man I ever met"; to the novelist whose Knocknagow and Sally Cavanagh are among the most touching, vivid, and beautiful pictures of our Irish people. that have ever been drawn. The book is pleasantly and popularly written, and is evidently the work of an enthusiastic admirer of his subject. A brief sketch of Kickham's life is followed by some chapters devoted mainly

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to his writings. The last chapter contains the letters which Kickham wrote to Father M. Russell, S.J., and which were eventually published in the fifteenth volume of the Irish Monthly. In the first of these letters he says, "I'd look upon the appearance of anything of mine in an Irish magazine edited by an Irish Jesuit, as a little glimmer of that bright and good time which is so very, very long coming, but which will come as sure as God is in heaven." There was question at the time of his "Notes on Young Ireland" being published in the Irish Monthly, but the only piece he actually contributed was, it seems, the poem "A Lost Picture" in the number for May, 1881.

11. A recent and timely shilling publication of the Catholic Truth Society of England is Thoughts in War Time, a series of nine conferences delivered to the theological students at St. Edmund's College in the spring of this year by the Right Rev. Mgr. Ward, President of the College, to which is added a sermon by the Vice-President, the Rev. Edwin Burton, D.D. The conferences deal with the theology of war, duties in time of war, the evils and the providence of war, and prayer in time of war. In two of them with the heading Prayer for our Enemies' Mgr. Ward explains clearly and wisely the charity which Christians must practice towards those whom war turns for the time into enemies. The book deserves to be read widely. The same Society has published also the following booklets at a penny each War, Sin and Suffering by the Rev. Hyacinth Koos, O.P., Some Stories of the War (now in its 15th thousand), Fasting and Abstinence by Fr. Allan Ross of the London Oratory, Antonio Rosmini by the Rev. Daniel Hickey, Inst. Ch., Lacordaire and Montalembert by M. M. C. Calthorp, Some Children of St. Dominic by Marie St. S. Ellerker, The University of Louvain by the Rev. J. G. Vance, M.A., Ph.D., A Simple Mass and Communion Book, How to Follow the Mass (for Non-Catholics) by the Rev. F. E. Pritchard, A Little Book of Prayers and Hymns (specially intended for soldiers); and lastly, at twopence, A Simple Prayer Book for Soldiers which has many useful prayers and instructions, though we think the space taken by the Latin prayers of the Mass and Benediction might

have been filled more profitably by further prayers in English.

12. Two works dealing with the Apocalypse have reached us about the same time. One is a new Part of the Westminster Version of the Sacred Scriptures, The Apocalypse of St. John, by the Rev. Francis E. Gigot, S.T.D., Professor of Sacred Scripture, Yonkers, New York (Longmans, 1s. paper). Father Gigot's excellent Scripture manuals have made his name a familiar one to all Catholic students of Scripture. His introduction of twenty-four pages has a footnote which will serve to introduce the other and much larger work. The footnote states that, "much useful matter will also be found in Col. Ratton's commentary." The commentary is a volume of over five hundred pages, also entitled The Apocalypse of St. John, by James J. L. Ratton, M.D., published by Messrs. Washbourne (price 12 shillings net). The first edition was published in 1912, and it is noteworthy that a second edition is called for so soon in the case of so substantial and learned a work. The author, whom we are glad to number among our tributors, is a retired lieut.-colonel of the Indian Medical Service and late Fellow and Examiner of Madras University. He has written a number of other works, chiefly on the Apocalypse and on Freemasonry.

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13. The Giant Tells. By Jehanne de la Villèsbrunne. London: Burns and Oates, Ltd. (Price 2s. 6d.)

The Giant of this batch of stories is a big Breton fisherman, gentle of heart and simple of mind, and devoted to the two children of Monsieur le Comte who are often entrusted to his care and whom he entertains with Breton legends, stories of the Wild Man of Brittany, of Were-Wolves and Korrigans (husbands and sons of the fairies), as well as more religious tales such as the legend of St. Christopher. The authoress seems to us to have gauged to a nicety the kind of stories and the manner of telling them that will interest children. But would really well brought up children (as these two evidently are) be so ready to tell one another to shut up?' We piously hope not. There are several quite pleasant illustrations to the volume, which is in every way well brought out.

GOOD THINGS WELL SAID

1. If an author thinks too much of his genius, a little talk with a bookseller will soon set him right.-Rev. T. A. Finlay, S.J.

2. Knowledge would often lead us to let alone God's prerogative judgment, and hold by man's privilege-pity. -R. D. Blackmore.

3. Earth is a bridge by which we go from one bank of eternity to the other. It only serves to give standing: ground for our feet.-The Curé of Ars.

4. A genial man is both an apostle and an evangelist; an apostle because he brings men to Christ, an evangelist because he portrays Christ to men.-Father Faber.

5. To be an honest man is, in the last resort, the highest of social positions.-Henry Perreyre.

6. There is no good in arguing with the inevitable. The only argument available with an east wind, is to put on your overcoat.-Lowell.

7. Every failure is a step advanced

To him who will consider how it chanced.

-George Meredith.

8. He who cannot command his countenance may e'en as well tell his thoughts as show them.-Chesterfield.

9. A fool and his words are soon parted.-Shenstone. 10. To understand one thing well is better than understanding many thing by halves.-Goethe.

11. A man who never makes mistakes, never makes anything else, either.-H. C. Merriman.

12. If it strikes you that anyone is a fool, don't proclaim the discovery, for it's no great matter-a fool is easily discerned. John Ayscough.

THE IRISH MONTHLY

AUGUST, 1915

MRS

A FARMERESS

RS. COGAN was called by the country-people Mrs. Cogan of the holla' beyant' to distinguish her from her kinswoman Mrs. Cogan of Finner, or sometimes she was called the Big Lady. Although she was not really an aunt, she was known to her kinswoman's children as Big Aunt Anne. Largeness of soul and body was her outstanding characteristic. Because of her good nature one forgot that she was not handsome, her features, although well proportioned, being too rugged, her forehead too high and square, and her eyebrows too heavy to please those who admire a more conventional beauty. But there was a certain graciousness and nobility in all her ways that fitted in well with her large proportions. Had she been born in other times or into a different station in life she would have

been a true Great Lady. As it was, being a farmer's widow, her opportunities for following her natural bent were limited. Fortunately, however, she was well off and to those who came within her reach her kindness was manifested in a thousand ways. In addition to more palatable fare, she used to supply the invalids of half the countryside with physic and strengthenin' bottles, as they called them, and every new baby round the place got its first outfit of clothes at her expense.

Fate had kindly ordained that this big woman should have a large space to live and move about in. It would have been cruel to confine her to a thatched cottage and still more

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