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Those who read the earlier work will find this supplement thereto nowise unworthy of it. In a few fruitful pages he discusses the meaning of "theological certainty "; infallibility in the canonizing of saints; and the meaning and authority of two or three articles of the Syllabus. There are here too a keenness of dialectic and an easy command of theological erudition which mark the genuine scholar and the thoroughly trained student. We heartily recommend the treatise, and express our hope that we shall hear more of M. Viollet. He is evidently one of those rare men whose pen is capable of doing vastly more than it has yet accomplished.

THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST.
By Abbe Fremont.

M.

The sixth volume of a series of works in defense of Christianity, all written, we believe, by the Abbé Georges Frémont, deals with the fundamental question of the divinity of Christ. We hardly need to speak either of the momentous and timely nature of such a subject, or of the profound scholarship which one who attempts it must possess in these days of ours. The old treatment, enclosed within a few pages of the tract De Verbo Incarnato, is insufficient now, and must be supplemented by accurate and painstaking information regarding the methods and conclusions of the higher criticism of the New Testament. Frémont has some appreciation of this fact; and consequently, when compared with certain others of our manuals, his work wears a look of modernity. He endeavors to take into consideration the new learning which has confronted apologetics with fresh problems, and he gives frequent citations from the Libres-Penseurs of the day. Everybody, by the way, according to the good Abbé, is a libre-penseur who has any opinions different from Bacuez and Vigouroux's Manuel Biblique. Woe upon us if we dare to talk about " redactions," or if we venture to hold that Mark's Gospel is prior to the others. Librespenseurs will be our tag in such a case. The only consolation left us is the reflection that nearly all Catholic critics hold many of the opinions thus branded, and we who are of like sympathies, may faintly hope that they know as much about it as the Abbé Frémont.

There is some serious work in this volume, we are glad to

*La Divinité du Christ. Par l'Abbé G. Frémont. Paris: Librairie Bloud et Cie.

say, and it is marked by an edifying earnestness to do good to the great cause of Christian truth. Our best wishes for success must attend a purpose so exalted. But we cannot refrain from observing that the pious author has something still to learn before he can win distinction with his present theme. This we say with respectful deference to the arguments irrésistibles which he tells us he can furnish, and to the twenty-five or thirty years of study which he informs us, over and over, he has devoted to his task. We fear that not enough of that long period was given to the study of the authors whom he sets out to overthrow. In the discussion of such subjects as the synoptic and Joannine problems, the meaning of Filius Dei, and the testimony of St. Paul, the Abbé Frémont hardly displays the critical erudition and acumen which these matters demand.

As to the tone of the work, it is dignified enough until the Abbé Loisy is mentioned, whereupon it descends to abuse. Whatever other censures M. Frémont might have been able to pass upon M. Loisy, he made a grave mistake in selecting Loisy's scholarship as the object of his sarcasm. That scholarship is too deep and varied and too widely recognized to be injured by unfounded charges. Some other line of attack would have displayed better the Abbé Frémont's prudence. However, let us once more recognize that much in this volume is sound. and strong, and that it is, taken all in all, a creditable essay in Christian apologetics.

The expectations formed concernTHE NEW YORK REVIEW. ing the New York Review, high though they were, have been more than fulfilled by the initial number. In point of literary excellence the Review will stand comparison with the very best of the great secular magazines; and the excellence of its matter will prove a revelation to those who have been led to believe that the Catholic Church has ceased to produce enlightened thinkers and scholars.

The most striking, and encouraging feature of the Review is that the entire contents, articles, book reviews, editorial notes, Scriptural studies, breathe one and the same spirit. This fact is all the more remarkable because, as we have learned, this unanimity is not the result of any previous unThe New York Review. Vol. I., No. 1. New York: St. Joseph's Seminary, Yonkers.

derstanding, consultation, or editorial direction. The intellectual attitude unmistakably manifested throughout the number is a cheerful willingness to welcome the legitimate claims of the modern mind, and regard it as a potential ally to the cause of Catholic truth. It has become almost a truism among us that the Church's great need, to-day, is a genius who would do for our age what St. Thomas did for his, which was to bring our theological system into harmony with the advances gained in secular knowledge. But no commanding intellect like that of the great Dominican has been vouchsafed to the Church in these later days. Indeed, the vast growth of the sciences forbids the possibility that, ever again, one single mind, within the compass of a lifetime, should be equal to forming the synthesis of science and theology. The task must be achieved by many men working, under one co-ordinating principle, along many distinct lines. The composition of the New York Review, with its contributions from America, England, and France, affords consoling evidence that everywhere there is a strong movement in progress towards the desired end. The Spirit of God is agitating the waters for the healing of the nations. Hitherto the movement has suffered for want of an organ for its adequate expression in the English tongue. The English-speaking world has to thank the Archbishop of New York for conferring on it the blessing of which it stood in need. Let but the New York Review realize, as everything indicates it will, the splendid promise of its initial number, and Archbishop Farley will have the satisfaction of knowing, not merely that he has built himself a monument ære perennius, but that he has done an inestimable service to the Church in every land where our language is spoken. We offer to the learned editor and his able assistants our warmest congratulations, and our sincerest good wishes for their continued success.

HOMERIC STUDY.
By Fr. Browne.

The Reverend Henry Browne,
S.J., of University College, Dub-
lin, has published a handbook to
Homer which deserves the high-

est commendation. It deals with judiciously selected topics concerning which the student needs to be informed, and in

* Handbook of Homeric Study. By Henry Browne, S.J. New York: Longmans, Green & Co.

treating them combines the thoroughness of specialized scholarship with a happy manner of popular presentation. We all remember what we wanted to know as our reading in Homer progressed: Who was this Homer; or who were these Homers? How did the cycle of poems come down to us? Who were the people and what their customs, among whom the Iliad and the Odyssey arose? And what is the philosophy of Homer's poetic and grammatical peculiarities? All these questions Father Browne answers simply and eruditely. He is acquainted with the best works in the recent English and German literature of Greek philology; and he has a happy aptitude in addressing himself to a student's mind such as only long experience in the classroom could give. The use of a manual like this will transform the study of Homer from a dull to a fascinating exercise. Marvelous it is how some teachers can lead their students through the classics as though it were through the Sahara; never a word on the history of the author; on the customs of his age; on the literary problems involved; on anything beyond a bovine plodding from word to word which leaves the wealth of the original unappreciated, and our English vernacular wounded grievously in the house of its friends. It will be to Father Browne's credit that he will be the means of relieving so scandalous a situation and of surrounding Homeric study with the pleasure and profit which should always accompany it. We may mention in conclusion that Father Browne strongly maintains that the Homeric poems are not the work of one man, but that the period of their composition extended through several generations.

SAINTLY WOMEN.
By Dunbar.

It was a happy thought that led to the writing of this Dictionary of Saintly Women,* by Agnes B. C. Dunbar; a work in two volumes,

of which we have just received the first, consisting of biographical sketches of women who are honored as saints. It is written with ardent sympathy and with a highly respectable erudition. It would appear that the author is an advanced Anglican, although it is possible that she is a Catholic. A few phrases, very few indeed, however, indicate a falling short from the traditional Catholic spirit; as when she says that St. Ger

*A Dictionary of Saintly Women. By Agnes B. C. Dunbar.

London: G. Bell & Sons.

trude relied more on the Savior's grace than on the indulgences of the Church. Slips of this sort, as we said, are very rare. Substantially the work is Catholic in spirit, and it makes profitable and edifying reading. When completed it will be a valuable addition to hagiography. It is a slight blemish that Mother Augusta Theodosia Drane is referred to as Mrs. Drane.

ELIZABETH SETON.
By Sadlier.

The present volume is a worthy memorial of the centenary of Elizabeth Seton's conversion to the Catholic Faith. The life and work

of this heroic and saintly woman are familiar, or should be familiar, to every Catholic in the land. From the beginning, absolute and unerring faithfulness to the will of God was the greatest and most constant desire of her soul. Even when she went much into society, she never neglected her rigorous examination of conscience. To know God's will-this was her hunger and her thirst. When that will led her, through a veritable crucifixion of spirit, to the Catholic Church, Elizabeth Seton followed it heroically, even though it cost her poverty, helplessness, and social ostracism, and persecution by her family. She saw nothing then of her wonderful after work, which we see and know now.

Widowed and left alone with her children, she started a school in New York City, but her pupils were taken away because she was a Catholic. Later she went to Baltimore and there laid the foundations of the community of the American Sisters of Charity, which afterwards, from Emmitsburg, was to establish houses throughout the entire United States. These early days were days of suffering, of distress, and doubt; but the struggle, the pain, and the sacrifice, the hunger, and the cold, are all to be blessed because, like the darkened background, they bring out in pure, strong light the soul of this wonderful, saintly woman, whose work has done so much for the inspiration of others, the welfare of country, the glory of the Church, and the glory of God.

The lessons of her exceptional life are manifold. A wife, a mother, a religious; faithful and devoted, she was watchful, tender, and resigned, she was self-denying, holy, and thoroughly

* Elizabeth Seton, Foundress of the American Sisters of Charity. Her Life and Work. By Agnes Sadlier. New York: D. & J. Sadlier & Co.

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