the moral enthusiasm of those who depend on bright and hopeful thoughts for their inspiration; though it falls essentially short of being a substitute for the tried and efficient influences upon which the Christian world has lied in the course of its struggles toward spiritual greatness. This consideration apart, much that is good may be claimed for the book. The author has pretty well covered the literature of popular pedagogy, and, to his credit be it said, he gives careful references and a most satisfactory bibliography. He writes with beauty and almost invariably with marked clearness; he develops very instructively and applies to the work of ethical formation the leading results of modern educational investigation. Sometimes, it is true, he pushes an idea a little too hard and displays a tendency to forget counter considerations; and to one who has pondered the big problems of philosophy long and earnestly, the readiness of Mr. Griggs' answers will suggest a fluency which is akin to lightness; but on the whole it must be said that the book before us is really a good one to read and that it should do much to assist the thoughtful mother or the earnest teacher in the accomplishment of their sacred duties. It will hardly exercise a harmful influence on any one's faith, and it may serve to remind many believers that they do wrong in letting slip those opportunities of using the laws of nature, which the real educator reckons among his most precious resources.

SERMONS.

Fourteen sermons preached in the English College of St. Edmund, between the years 1847 and 1904,

have just been published.* Many of the preachers are names that have lived and will live in history: Cardinals Wiseman, Manning, and Vaughan, Bishops Ullathorne and Hedley, Canon Oakeley, and some others of less repute. Like most sermoncollections, this one contains discourses good and discourses middling. We do not propose to designate the division in greater detail. Let it be enough to say that as the literature of homiletics stands at the present time, this volume has a fair share of meritorious work. The subjects of the sermons are such high and useful topics as: The Christian Vocation,

*Sermons Preached in St. Edmund's College Chapel on Various Occasions. With an Introduction by Most Rev. Francis Bourne, Archbishop of Westminster. Collected and Arranged by Edwin Burton, Vice-President. New York: Benziger Brothers.

The Holy Ghost, and-but here a glance at the title page discloses that all the others are on St. Edmund, or else have to do with the opening of Provincial Synods and the burial of local celebrities, matters which cannot fail to interest any one who has ever been a student at St. Edmund's.

PATHFINDERS OF
THE WEST.
By Laut.

More absorbing than the most thrilling romance of imaginary heroes is Agnes C. Laut's Pathfinders of the West.* It tells the story of the men who discovered

and explored the great Northwest. First among the explorers of the land west of the Mississippi the author places Pierre Radisson, claiming precedence for him over Marquette, Joliet, and La Salle. These names have been so long associated with the discovery and exploration of the great Northwest that this championship of the almost unknown Radisson and Groseillers comes with almost iconolastic significance. The discovery of an account of Radisson's voyages, written by himself, the authenticity of which has been generally admitted by scholars, has induced the author to popularize the story of his life in the West and rescue his name from oblivion. Miss Laut's book, or rather the substance of it which appeared first in magazine form, has given rise to considerable controversy and some antagonism. If the discovered manuscript be authentic, and if Radisson be credited with speaking the truth, there seems no reason why Miss Laut should not be congratulated upon her effort to write history true. Surely the work in this country of the Jesuits has been monumental enough to lose nothing by this late acknowledgment of our debt to Pierre Radisson.

Directors of souls are probably agreed that "spiritual despondency" is not a disease that is alarmingly prevalent among the masses of the people. We are given to over-confidence rather than to despair. But none the less it is certain that among the comparatively few who try genuinely to make progress in the spiritual life there are many who, sooner or later, meet with this chief difficulty of the pious, a tendency, or even a fixed habit of soul, to disbelieve in the possibility of achieving anything like success in the struggle for perfection. + Pathfinders of the West. By Agnes C. Laut. New York: The Macmillan Company.

To such as these, the first part of Father Garesché's volume * will doubtless be helpful.

Others, that is those who have never experienced this dreadful tendency of mind, and who consequently will scarcely appreciate the importance of the author's words on the subject of despair, may pass quickly to his very helpful chapters on temptation. They may read with especial comfort the chapter on the means of recognizing whether or not one has consented to temptation, a very clear and very encouraging statement of the usual teaching on the matter.

The Divine Fire,† by May Sinclair, is unmistakably the work of an unusually gifted writer, and one does not hesitate to pronounce this book literature. The story is of a young London Cockney who begins life in his father's secondhand bookshop, and who finally becomes one of the great poets of his time-not an extraordinary theme for a story, and yet one which offers opportunity for a great book. May Sinclair, whoever she may be, has developed her story with admirable skill and sustained power. A keen understanding, an ethical interpretation, and a lyric style have combined to produce one of the noblest, most inspiring, and absorbing books we have read in years.

The Bell in the Fog takes its name from the initial story of the volume. Some of the tales in the book are entirely new, and others appeared previously in magazines. From a Catholic standpoint the simplicity of the peasants mentioned in the volume as living on the estates of the Count of Croisac, and whose dead were disturbed by the roar and rumble of the new steam-railway is, to say the least, rather far-fetched. We have no doubt, however, that the author had a real foundation, on which, by her vivid imagination, she has built up these interesting but rather uncanny series of events. The dominant note of the book is-uncanny. The stories, needless to say, are told by one who can tell them well, but they are the result of introspection rather than of observation. The volume has a certain charm of interest, and, although in places weird and unsatisfactory, will hold the average reader to the end.

* Spiritual Despondency and Temptations. By Rev. P. J. Michel, S.J. Translated from the French by Rev. F. P. Garesché, S.J. New York: Benziger Brothers.

+ The Divine Fire. By May Sinclair. New York: Henry Holt & Co.

The Bell in the Fog. By Gertrude Atherton. New York: Harper Brothers.

VOL. LXXXI.—9

The Temptation of Norah Leecroft,* by Frances Noble, is a delightful little story set in the picturesque scenery of North Devon. The author is no amateur, and this latest book bears all the charm of her earlier stories. A young girl just out of school takes a position as nursery governess to the motherless children of a wealthy Englishman. His first marriage had been an unhappy one, so his love is given unreservedly to the little governess. However he is violently anti-Catholic and insisis that their marriage ceremony shall be simply a legal one. As a true Catholic, though loving him devotedly, she withstands the temptation to yield to his plea, and breaks off all communication with him. Happily the story ends, as every one would wish it, in good fairy tale fashion. The book is simply and convincingly written and deserves only praise.

Somewhat more than a hundred years ago certain very learned men, in the Edinburgh Review, unwittingly preached a sermon to critics for all time by their memorable obtuseness in the case of a poet, whose rank now is beyond dispute. With this lesson in mind, it becomes difficult to pass judgment on any piece of work which is uneven in its merits. The Red Branch Crests,† by Charles Leonard Moore, bears these uneven characteristics. Lines of singular beauty and true poetic ring. are succeeded by whole passages of merest verse, or doggerel. Naturally the impression left is a dubious one. The possibilities of the old Gaelic legends of Déidre, Mève, and Cuchulain have been appreciated by the author, and he gives much evidence of his power of dramatic insight.

It is with a sense of unusual pleasure that we announce and welcome the advent of a new contemporary into the field of Catholic literature; on the first of June next, the initial number of The New York Review will be issued under the editorship of Father James Driscoll, President of Dunwoodie Seminary. The new publication has been undertaken in obedience to the urgently expressed wish of Archbishop Farley, and in response to repeated demands on the part of Catholic readers

* The Temptation of Norah Leecroft. By Frances Noble. Dublin: M. H. Gill & Son ; New York: Benziger Brothers.

The Red Branch Crests. By Charles Leonard Moore. Philadelphia: Printed for the author.

for a periodical to meet needs not sufficiently provided for by any of our existing magazines. It will be scholarly, not popular, in tone, and will be concerned mainly with the consideration of current Scriptural and philosophical questions which affect the favorable presentation of the Catholic faith. As intended by the Archbishop, as outlined by the editorial staff, and as ensured by the published names of pledged contributors, the policy of The New York Review will be thoroughly broad and sufficiently advanced to keep its readers abreast of all the sound conclusions of modern scholars. In view of this fact, and by reason of the immense prestige borrowed from connection with so weighty an authority as Archbishop Farley, and so profound a scholar as Father Driscoll, a reasonable measure of success should be assured to the new magazine from the very first hour of its existence. As the months As the months pass and the actual nature of the work accomplished by the Review becomes known, the circle of its readers will widen, we hope, until, by means of it, the attitude of the Church toward current scientific thought will be adequately understood in many quarters where misapprehension has too often reigned. The new magazine will be a bi-monthly. Subscriptions-at the rate of two dollars per annum-may be addressed to the Very Reverend James Driscoll, St. Joseph's Seminary, Dunwoodie, Yonkers, N. Y.

The Catholic Truth Society, of San Francisco, has just published a handy manual of 128 pages on Holy Week. The little book is carefully edited, and contains the entire Morning Office of Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. An explanation of the ceremonies of the Church for these days is included.

The same Society has published a manual of the Forty Hours which contains an explanation of the ceremonies, history, and the indulgences attached to the devotion of the Forty Hours.

The price of each of these manuals is ten cents a copy, or five dollars per hundred. They may also be ordered from the International Catholic Truth Society of Brooklyn.