the reviewer noting particularly their effects on contemporary Catholicity. Two objections are stated in criticism of M. Brunetière-the first is that he regards the Church too much as an external corporation, the second that, like his former leader, Comte, he tends to make religion purely social. In conclusion M. Wilbois commmends M. Brunetière for the work he has done, and expresses the hope that the remaining volumes may soon appear. Annales de Philosophie Chrétienne: An obituary notice of the Abbé Denis by Père Laberthonnière-who has become editor of Les Annales-tells how the deceased (who died on the 14th of June, at the age of forty-five years) practically re-created Les Annales during the ten years of his editorship, enlarging its scope and opening it to the living thought of the day. An article by the Abbé Denis is devoted to an apology for Catholicism against Sabatier, Harnack, and Réville.-A. Brisson devotes several pages to a discussson of the view held by some Catholics, namely, that Christ foreknew his death only as "une éventualité," and that part of the human infirmity taken upon himself was the lack of special light concerning the result of his work and his death. Studi Religiosi (May-June): An anonymous article comments on the extraordinary number of pamphlets now issuing in Rome from Catholic sources urging various reforms, some of which are very drastic, in the conduct of the Roman Curia and its entourage. One of the latest of these significant publications is from the pen of a Roman prelate, who maintains the following positions: 1. The Roman Curia has wrested to it altogether too much power; so much, in fact, that it has destroyed all personal initiative in a great number of bishops and priests; 2. Several religious orders have utterly abandoned their primitive monastic ideals, and are now grasping at places of power in the government of the Church, bringing with them all the prejudices and narrow views which characterize such close corporations; 3. Communities of women ought not to be bound by strict cloister and should not take perpetual vows; 4. BOOKS RECEIVED. THE MACMILLAN COMPANY, New York: Henry the Third and the Church. By Abbot Gasquet, D.D. 1905. Pp. xvi.-446. Price. ROGER ET CHERNOVIZ, Paris: Infaillibilité et Syllabus. Response aux " Etudes." Article de M. l'Abbé Bouvier, Numero DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR. THE GOVERNMENT OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. The Bontoc Igorot. By Albert Earnest Jenks. Pp. 266. Paper. STORMONT & JACKSON, Washington, D. C.: The Pioneer Forecaster of Hurricane. By the Rev. Walter M. Drum, S.J. Pp. 29. Paper. The Life and Letters of Robert Stephen Hawker, sometimes Vicar of Morwenstow. By his THE CATHOLIC TRUTH SOCIETY, Chicago, Ill. : What About Hypnotism? By a Priest. Pp. 22. Paper. Some Martyrs of Corea. By CARY & CO., London: Downside Masses. By R. R. Terry. (No 1) For Four Voices. (No. 2) Simple Mass for WELLS, GARDNER & Co., DARTON & Co. LTD., London, Eng. : The Truth of Christianity. By W. H. Turton, D.S.O. Pp. 529. SOCIETY OF THE DIVINE WORD, Shermerville, Ill. : St. Michael's Almanac, for the year 1906. Pp. 112. Paper. English and German. Introductory History of Ireland. By an Irish Priest. Pp. 39. THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, Chicago, Ill: The Messianic Hope in the New Testament. By Shailer Mathews, D.D. Pp. 338. Price THE UNIVERSITY PUBLISHING SOCIETY, New York: The American Family. A Sociological Problem. By Frank H. Hagar, A.B. Pp. viii.- SANDS & Co., Edinburgh: Joan of Arc. By Mrs. Maxwell Scott, of Abbotsford. Pp. 106. MAN THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. ANY even among the intelligent and instructed, imagine that they can indulge with impunity in the indiscriminate reading of all kinds of literature, but it is a grave mistake, says Cardinal Logue, Archbishop of Armagh, in his recent pastoral. Slowly perhaps, and insensibly, but not less certainly, will an injurious effect be produced. The body is not more certainly affected by the food upon which it has been nourished than the mind by the thoughts to which it has long been habituated. But if injurious effects may be produced on minds that are mature and judgments that have been regulated by experience, how much more certainly will they be produced on the impressionable, unsuspecting, inexperienced minds of youth. Here arises the very grave obligation by which the heads of families are bound to exercise care, vigilance, and judgment in excluding from their homes all literature which might be injurious to those under their care. Suspicion in this matter is laudable; over-confidence may be ruinous. Nor is it enough to guard youth against doubtful or injurious literature. They should be supplied with sound, solid, wholesome reading-reading which will furnish both instruction and amusement without prejudice to either inno.cence or edification. We take the following passage from the notable pastoral letter by Bishop McFaul, of Trenton, N. J., and at the same time strongly commend the pamphlet to our readers. It is published by Benziger Brothers, New York, and only costs ten cents; yet it is a whole volume of good, practical, Catholic reading: What shall we say of the efficacy of good books upon family life and thought! When we speak of books we do not mean to restrict them to religious and devotional works. No; we include all healthy literature. In our day everybody reads. Periodicals, pamphlets, and newspapers are the literature of the millions. It is the daily newspaper, however, that enjoys the largest patronage. We must have the news warm, at our breakfast table every morning. No doubt, a newspaper is a potent factor for good or for evil; and America publishes some excellent secular newspapers, which may safely be introduced into the family. Our religious weeklies are performing a very beneficial work, and should receive a more generous support. Every Catholic family should subscribe for a Catholic newspaper and a Catholic magazine, possess a small library of religious books, and such other works as will instruct and interest. But, what about those purveyors of uncleanness, the vulgar sheets reeking with narratives so largely read by all classes? Reprove them for their vileness, and the reply is: "We print the news." Yes, they do, and such news; and such advertisements! Let us recall the words of the Apostle of the Gentiles: "But all uncleanness .. let it not so much as be named among you, as becometh saints; or obscenity, or foolish talking, or scurrility, which is to no purpose" (Eph. v. 3, 4). Every one will admit that some of our newspapers are a disgrace. It is shocking to witness the harm which these disreputable journals do by pandering to the lower passions of the multitude. They educate in crime, destroy purity; in a word, sow immorality. They are so many foul demons entering the family for its defilement and ruin. Perhaps the most terrible indictment that can be brought against America is that the public demand for the filth supplied by the "yellow journals" is so great as to render rich and prosperous the unscrupulous editors, writers, and publishers who cater to debased appetites. We desire to employ all the power of our holy office to stem this flood of corruption, and we, therefore, most earnestly beseech parents to banish all such newspapers and books from their firesides. O fathers and mothers, never permit them to contaminate your homes! The people of Vienna are going to give wholesome literature its chance. According to the Academy, that city has of late been terribly afflicted with cheap sensational printed matter, with the result that suicide is increasingly frequent and Hooliganism stalks abroad. Whereupon the Viennese have established a society for the encouragement of decent literature through the offering of substantial prizes for healthy novels. The idea is not simply to give authors an incentive, but to make a special appeal to the public. The prize-winning novels will be put on the market at so cheap a price that the unhealthy authors will be unable to compete, but will be compelled, like the rivals of the Standard Oil combination, to shut up shop. The Academy hopes for the best, but there is much to justify the surmise that the public which buys sensational fiction buys it because it prefers it, and not from any abstract desire to lay out money to the best advantage. The consumption of good or bad literature can never be arbitrarily fixed. The gradual education of the public is all that we can rely upon to work improvement in the matter, and this process is not only slow, but, at the best, is bound to leave a large area of ignorance, especially among those who, by the agency of secular education, are deprived of the Christian ideals upon which civilization is founded. Professor W. F. P. Stockley, M. A., prepared a very suggestive outline for a study of the religious belief of Shakespeare by request of the management of the Champlain Summer-School. Some of our Reading Circles may profit by the following synopsis and bibliography: THE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT OF SHAKESPEARE.-The subject of Shakespeare's Plays, and their Consequent Limitations.-What is Assumed, in Religion and in Morals, if not Expressed.-The Variety of Life, the Humor of Life, the Facts, and the Difficulties.-The Triumphs of Evil.-The Absolute Good. -No Bar in the Plays to Further Knowledge by Revelation.-The Scepticism of Hamlet and of Lear.-The Supernatural and the Fancies of the Midsummer Night's Dream and the Tempest. SHAKESPEARE AND THE CHURCH.-The Age of Elizabeth, and the First Generation under the New Religion.—The Advantage of Catholic Insight in Feeling with and Understanding these Circumstances.-Shakespeare's Treatment of Anti-Catholic Passages in Older Plays.-The Spirit of Shakespeare's 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. * 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. A wife, The lessons of her exceptional life are manifold. 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. |