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spiritual. To the reader her life is a personal inspiration; an inspiration, not only in the sense that he is moved to imitate the virtues which she displayed so continuously and so eminently, but an inspiration also in this, that in Mother Seton, in the bishops and priests of her day, the Church in America has a noble history, that God is with it in his holy purposes, obscure though they may be, and that the present generation, with the same spirit of complete sacrifice, the same abundance of hope, should take up and enrich the inheritance.

The author's work, though it forms but a small volume, is done quite thoroughly. It is evidently the fruit of much conscientious labor and of great love, for the spirit of exactness and enthusiasm characterizes it. The volume is a worthy tribute to a most worthy woman.

The author of this volume of poems has not chosen high and lofty themes that might have led her into the obscure and the indefinite. The subjects of her poems are simple; and their treatment simple also; yet their poetry is not trite nor commonplace. Her work is sweet and musical, and the author evidences a measure of poetic insight and of easy writing. And because of this the volume deserves a worthier title than the empty, alliterative one which has been given to it.

The Daily Review† is such an exceptional newspaper, and puts forth such worthy aims, that we willingly give it here a word of praise and encouragement. This daily newspaper is a courageous movement in favor of white journalism. It prints in condensed form all the important news of the world that it is necessary or edifying for one to know; and for the reader. is a saving both of morals and of time. It excludes all unbecoming advertising, such as liquor, tobacco, or indecent and suggestive matter. The Daily Review is a distinct and hopeful departure and we wish it all success.

*Friendship's Fragrant Fancies. By Catherine Moriarty. New York: Dodge Publishing Company.

The Chicago Daily Review, 1322 Wabash Avenue, Chicago, Ill. $1 a year.

I

VOL. LXXXI -54

ever, and, in the course of a long life, grew to be one of the most famous physicians in the country. But he did not allow the cares of his profession to absorb all his energy. When a mere boy a relative presented him with a copy of the Imitation of Christ, and from that day to this he has been a student of this most wonderful book, and of the other works of its author, Thomas à Kempis. While he was still a young man, a great contest was being waged as to the authorship of the Imitation. Learned prelates and other scholars had filled volume after volume with arguments in favor of À Kempis, or of Gerson, or of Gersen, and the issue was still undecided. Sir Francis entered with zest on a complete study of the subject, examined the most ancient manuscripts, consulted the most learned writers on the subject, visited the birthplace and the monastery of Thomas à Kempis-and then wrote his book. Today there is hardly a single authority of weight but admits that À Kempis is the author of what has been well described as the most perfect of books, except the Scriptures. The people of Kempen, the town whose chief glory is the fact that it gave birth to Thomas à Kempis, have named one of their streets after Dr. Cruise. Meanwhile this busy Irish doctor was engaged in a new English translation of the Imitation. It has been published within the past year by the Catholic Truth Society of Ireland, and is now printed by the Catholic Truth Society of San Francisco, so that it bids fair to become the favorite version throughout Ireland and America. Pius X. conferred the Knighthood of St. Gregory on Sir Francis, as a reward for his zeal and learning, and in receiving him in audience blessed him and his family most effusively, and told him that it was now recognized that his works were indispensable for all students of the life and writings of Thomas à Kempis.

Aubrey de Vere was a Catholic writer of prose and poetry who should be better known among cur Reading Circles. At least one quotation from his writings could be presented at every meeting for the coming year. His claim to recognition is thus presented by Miss Jeanette L. Gilder in a notice of his Memoir:

One of the most interesting men of letters in London was the late Aubrey de Vere. He was a poet by temperament rather than by his acomplishment in the way of poetry. His verses were refined and scholarly, but they were not epoch-making; and, though he published several volumes in the course of his long, interesting life, it is not as a poet, but as a friend of poets and men of letters that he will be best known.

He was such a delightful man, such a gentleman, that his friendship was eagerly sought and highly prized by men and women of the highest standing in England. He was an Irishman and a Catholic, but he lived the most of his life in London and he began as a Protestant.

Ever since Mr. de Vere's death we have been expecting a "memoir " containing his letters to and from the well-known people whom he had known so intimately. Messrs. Longmans, Green & Co. publish the Memoir, based on his unpublished diaries and correspondence, and edited by his literary executor, Mr. Wilfrid Ward. Mr. de Vere published a volume of Recollections before his death, but he was so modest that he kept himself in the background, and yet it was his own personality that his readers wanted to get at.

Sara Coleridge, the daughter of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, said of Mr. de Vere: I have lived among poets a great deal and have known greater poets than he is, but a more entire poet and one more a poet in his whole mind and temperament I never knew or met with. But he was more modest about his own attainments than most poets, and therefore one really gets more of the man in these memoirs than in the book that he wrote with his own hand. Wordsworth was his friend, and it was Wordsworth who influenced his poetry, but his verse did not have all the qualities of his master.

There is no gossip in Mr. de Vere's letters-he was not of the gossiping nature-but there is much intimate talk in his diaries of his friends among men and women of letters. With Tennyson he was very intimate and saw him in all circumstances. For instance, he records in his diary in 1845:

I called on Alfred Tennyson and found him at first much out of spirits. He cheered up soon and read me some beautiful elegies, complaining much of some writer in Fraser's Magazine who had spoken of the "foolish facility" of Tennysonian poetry. I went to the House of Commons and heard a good speech from Sir G. Grey-went back to Tennyson, who "crooned" out his magnificent elegies till one in the morning.

April 18-Sat with Alfred Tennyson, who read MS. poetry to Tcm Taylor and me. Walked with him to his lawyer's; came back and listened to the "University of Women" Had talk with him on various subjects, and walked with him to Moxon's. As I went away, he said he would willingly bargain for the reputation of Suckling or Lovelace, and alluded to "the foolish facility of Tennysonian poetry." Said he was dreadfully cut up by all he had gone through.

Then, again, there is another allusion to Tennyson. He-Mr. de Verchad been out with Wordsworth to buy spectacles and then returned to tea:

Alfred Tennyson came in and smoked his pipe. He told us with pleasure of his dinner with Wordsworth-was pleased as well as amused by Wordsworth saying to him, "Come, brother bard, to dinner," and, taking his arm, said that he was ashamed of paying Mr. Wordsworth compliments, but that he had at last, in the dark, said something about the pleasure he had had from Mr. Wordsworth's writings, and that the old poet had taken his hand and replied with some expressions equally kind and complimentary. Tennyson was evidently much pleased with the old man, and glad of having learned to know him.

At another time he found Tennyson in a bad mood:

On my way in paid a visit to Tennyson, who seemed much out of spirits and said he could no longer bear to be knocked about the world, and that he must marry, and find love and peace, or die. He was very angry about a very favorable review of him. Said that he could not stand the chattering and conceit of clever men, or the worry of society, or the meanness of tuft hunters, or the trouble of poverty, or the labor of a place, or the preying of the heart on itself.

He complained much about growing old, and said he cared nothing for fame and that his life was all thrown away for want of a competence and retirement. Said that no one had been so much harassed by anxiety and trouble as himself. I told him he wanted occupation, a wife, and orthodox principles, which he took well.

Of Wordsworth, who was his friend as well as his master, Mr. de Vere writes:

He strikes me as the kindest and most simple-hearted old man I know, and I did not think him less sublime for inquiring often after you (his sister), and saying that you were not a person to be forgotten. He talks in a manner very peculiar. As for duration, it is from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same. As for quality, a sort of thinking aloud, a perpetual purring of satisfaction. He murmurs like a tree in the breeze; as softly and as incessantly; it seems as natural to him to talk as to breathe. He is by nature audible, as well as visible, and goes on thus, uttering his being just as a fountain continues to flow, or a star to shine.

In his discourse I was at first principally struck by the extraordinary purity of his language, and the absolute perfection of his sentences; but by degrees I came to find a great charm in observing the exquisite balance of his mind, and the train of associations in which his thoughts followed each other. He does not put forward thoughts like those of Coleridge, which astonished his hearers by their depth of vastness, but you gradually discover that there is a sort of inspiration in the mode in which his thoughts flow out of each other and connect themselves with outward things. He is the voice and nature the instrument.

Our own Professor Charles Eliot Norton was one of Mr. de Vere's friends, and there are a number of letters in the book addressed to him. One entry in Mr. de Vere's diary tells how he brought Tennyson, "murmuring sore," to Hampstead, to see Mr. Wordsworth. Rogers came, and there was an amusing scene in the garden, Rogers insisting upon Wordsworth's naming a day to dine with him, and Wordsworth stoutly exhibiting his mountain lawlessness, stating that he would dine or not as it happened, or as it suited his convenience, and saying that he was sure he would find the best accommodation of every sort at Mr. Rogers', whether Mr. Rogers was in the house or not.

Mr. Rogers at last replied: Well, you may as well tell me at once to go to the devil; I can only say that my house, its master, and everything in it are heartily at your service-come when you will.

Of Macaulay, who was a guest at a certain dinner party, he says: Macaulay is far from being ill-conditioned, but he is rather bluff and good-humored than genial. His mind is evidently a very robust one; it has also ardor enough to fuse together into new combinations the mass of strange and disorderly knowledge with which his great memory litters him.

It has also a self-confidence which belongs to narrowness, and an utter inappreciation of all matters which it cannot wield and twist about, but which greatly increases his energy and apparent force, but I could observe in it no trace of originality, depth, breadth elevation, subtlety, comprehensiveness, spirituality—in one word, none of the attributes of greatness. He is, however, a strong man, and will do his day's work honestly before his day is done. I should think he despises falsehood, and likes, if not truth, at least the exhilaration of a hunt after truth or the animation of the battle for the cause of truth.

M. C. M.

use in France before the introduction of the Roman. -Dom Chapman contributes another of his biblical articles, that is both interesting and suggestive. The article is entitled "The Testimony of John the Presbyter on the Subject of St. Mark and St. Luke." The writer arouses attention to the fact that the author of the fourth Gospel was evidently striving to harmonize St. Mark and St. Luke. Some of the conclusions to be drawn, if the writer's thesis is accepted, are: that the Presbyter spoken of in the fragment of Papias is the Presbyter John; that this John is the author of the fourth Gospel; that Luke followed Mark; and finally that great importance was attached to the exactitude of historic details in the time of Presbyter John.-D. René Ancel brings to a close his study of the politics of Cardinal Charles Carafa.

La Quinzaine (1 July): Those who are interested in pedagogy will do well to read the leading article of this number. "Womanly Patience in Education "is the theme; Louis Arnould the author. He gives his idea of the virtue of patience and of its necessity in dealing with children. The obstacles that try the patience of the mother or teacher are pointed out. Concrete examples are given to illustrate his subject. The first mentioned is Miss Anne Sullivan, the well-known instructor of Helen Keller. An extensive review of M. Brunetière's latest work is begun in this number by Joseph Wilbois. First he analyzes the book, then discusses the theses advanced therein. To show the importance of this new book of apologetics, the reviewer points out the prominence of positivistic philosophy in recent times. The system of metaphysics evolved from positivism is sharply criticised, as is also Comte's attempt to reduce religion to the religion of Humanity. Then follows a further criticism of Comte, in which the fallacies of his philosophy and the ludicrousness of his religion are strongly set forth.

(16 July): M. Wilbois' review of Sur les Chemins de la Croyance is concluded in this number. The religious tendencies of contemporary positivism are taken up here,

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