In, boy; go first. You houseless poverty,-
Nay, get thee in. I'll pray, and then I'll sleep.
Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are,
That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,
How shall your houseless heads, and unfed sides,
Your loop'd and window'd raggedness, defend you
From seasons such as these? O, I have ta'en
Too little care of this! Take physick, pomp;
Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel,
That thou mayst shake the superflux to them,
And show the heavens more just.

The fool finds Edgar in his disguise, in the hovel, is frightened and begs Lear not to enter: "Come not in here, nuncle, here's a spirit. Help me, help me!" Edgar comes forward, and Lear, fast lapsing into actual insanity, takes him to be a replica of himself: "Hast thou given all to thy two daughters? And art thou come to this?" Gloster enters and leads Lear and the others to a farmhouse near his castle. Here Lear, now quite mad, imagines that Goneril and Regan are about to take their trial, and the fool enters into the humor. Lear says to Edgar :

Thou robed man of justice, take thy place;

And thou [to the fool], his yoke-fellow of equity,
Bench by his side.

Arraign her first; 'tis Goneril. I here take my oath
before this honourable assembly, she kicked the poor
king, her father.

Fool: Come hither, mistress, is your name Goneril?
Lear: She cannot deny it.

Fool: Cry you mercy, I took you for a joint-stool.

Lear, presently calmed, says: "Make no noise, make no noise; draw the curtains: So, so, so, We'll go to supper i' the morning.. So, so, so." To which the fool adds: "And I'll go to bed at noon."

Then the fool disappears from the play.

After Shakespeare, the stage clown quickly died out; Ben Jonson never introduces the character; Beaumont and Fletcher seldom; Massinger never. A few generations later, the domestic fool, as an institution, became extinct; we are indebted mainly to Shakespeare for continuing to us the memory of it.

VOL. LXXXVI. -52

HISTORY.

The History of the Society of Jesus in North America, Colonial and Federal, is the title which Father Hughes has chosen for the work which has already exacted from him so many laborious years, and which, before its completion, if it is to be completed on the scale of the first volume, will absorb a great many more. He explains why he has chosen this somewhat unwieldy geographical designation contained in the title. After observing that Parkman had appropriated the shorter and popular epithet of "Jesuits" to denote the Society, in the title of his work, The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century, Father Hughes states:

This was a rather wide undertaking for that brilliant writer; and his performance did not carry it into execution. He treated of the French and left out the Spanish and English Jesuits in North America. We, for our part, could not pretend to adopt so comprehensive a term. We feel that our title, like our subject, must needs be circumscribed, to distinguish it and exclude from it Spanish and French North America. This we have attempted to do with the aid of two adjectives, "Colonial and Federal," which imply a double stage of history, as before and after the American Revolution, and also include Canada from the time of its being ceded to England. The definition of our subject, by means of these two adjectives, connotes a line of history which was not common to New Spain or to New France.

The portion of the American history covered by the present volume properly belongs to the history of the English province of the Society. But it has been judged more consistent with the general symmetry of the projected universal history of the Society, of which this is a part, to attach the story of the Maryland mission to the American, rather than to the English division.

English affairs occupy a good third of the space; for, besides defining the general features of the religious situation in England, and the position of the Society, Father Hughes, in

* History of the Society of Jesus in North America, Colonial and Federal. By Thomas Hughes, of the same Society. Text, Vol. I., from the First Colonization till 1645. New York: Longmans, Green & Co.

order properly to discuss the character of Lord Baltimore's high-handed dealings with the clergy and their possessions, enters into an examination of the law of Mortmain, the scope of the Bulla Cana, Test Acts, and Oaths, and the nature of the charter which Baltimore obtained from the English Crown. A remarkable feature of the work is that it pleads strongly for a reversion of the hitherto entertained opinion that Cecilius Baltimore was a kind and generous protector of Catholicism. On the contrary, Father Hughes charges him with tyrannous rapacity, duplicity, and a persistent pursuit of his own aggrandizement at the expense of the interests of the Church. And Leonard Calvert does not fare much better; for Father Hughes' evidence goes to prove that, though Leonard was not quite so unscrupulous, he generally proved a pliant tool in the hands of his elder brother.

Bristling with documents and references at every step, full of meritorious discussions on canon and civil law, on obscure incidents and complicated political and legal transactions, this work supplies food for the serious student, rather than easy entertaining reading for leisure hours. It will prove an invaluable mine for future historians.

A text-book on Medieval and Modern History, by a professor of St. Thomas' College, of the archdiocese of St. Paul, is written according to the ideal that now prevails of what educational history should be. It assigns much less space than used to be allowed to military and political events, and much more to the nature and character of institutions, the significance of the religious, social, and industrial forces which have made modern civilization. Proportion and perspective are, generally speaking, respected. A topical summary at the end of each section will assist the pupil in the work of memorizing; and a judiciously chosen list of references will help to inspire a taste and serve as a guide for more extensive reading. Each paragraph is numbered, and is introduced by a line of heavier type indicating its import. The writer relates events in a very objective fashion, and seldom expresses either approbation or condemnation. Indeed one is somewhat surprised, remembering the name of the college on the title-page, that the story

* Mediæval and Modern History: Its Formative Causes and Broad Movements. By J. A. Dewe, A.M. With Maps and Illustrations. New York: Hinds, Noble & Eldredge.

of the Italian revolution, the capture of Rome, and the destruction of the temporal power of the Pope is related without a word of disapproval for the men or measures that brought about this consummation. The title of the manual is somewhat inaccurate; it treats only European history.

The two volumes of the English version of Janssen's History of the German People that have just appeared correspond to Vol. VI. of the fifteenth German edition, which was enriched with copious notes and other additions, under the editorship of Ludwig Pastor. These volumes are a survey of German civilization and culture from the end of the Middle Ages to the beginning of the Thirty Years' War. No other chapter of his work exhibits so manifestly the vast erudition of the author in his chosen field. He passes in review here, music, painting, sculpture, engraving; popular literature, including folk-lore, songs, satires, lampoons, books of jests, and love stories; the literature of occult arts and diabolism; and the various schools of the drama. From every one of these different fields of evidence he comes laden with facts, and critical inferences based on them, to convince the reader that the first stages of the Reformation were attended by decay in all forms of art, a deep corruption of morals, and an incredible coarsening of manners throughout every grade of society.

COMMENTARY ON THE

INDEX.
By Dr. Hurley.

Since the publication of the new Syllabus of Errors and the late Encyclical by the Holy Father, attention has been directed anew to the work, purpose, and powers of the Congregation of the Index. The appearance of such works as Father Hilger's Der Index der Verbotenen Bücher and The Censorship of the Church of Rome, by George H. Putnam, has also stimulated interest in the history of condemnation by the Church of certain prohibited books. It is, moreover, of great practical importance that Catholics, and especially priests who have to speak and write upon the matter, should be thoroughly and in a scholarly way acquainted with the exact legislation concerning the Index of forbidden books.

We know of no work in English which gives one the oppor*History of the German People at the Close of the Middle Ages. By Johannes Janssen. Vols. XI., XII. Translated by A. M. Christie. St. Louis: B. Herder.

tunity of making himself familiar with such legislation, except the volume before us, which has just appeared; and our sincere thanks are due to the author, Dr. Timothy Hurley. The volume includes what may be termed the whole legislation of the Church on the question of prohibited books. It gives us the letter of Pope Leo XIII. of 1897, the rules adopted by the Congregation of the Index, to which this letter was a preface, and the Bull, "Sollicita ac Provida" of Benedict XIV. which, in the reform of the Index by Leo XIII., was allowed to stand. The author dwells upon the necessity to-day of some censorship of the press; cites instances where similar legislation has been and is enacted by civil governments; relates the history. of the development of the three departments of the Index and the scope of each.

He would disabuse our minds of a popular fallacy that the Index in its legislation is co-extensive with the field of the natural and the divine law, and that it contains all the books that are forbidden to us. Dr. Hurley in writing the volume. faced an arduous and a delicate task, one that has its peculiar, circumstantial difficulties at the present time, when the partisans of this school and of that would interpret the rulings of the Index to their own special views or, on the other hand, would scout and weaken its authority and its practical usefulness entirely.

To our mind Dr. Hurley has done his work in a capable, well-tempered, and judicial manner. He is evidently a close student of the great Angelical, Thomas Aquinas, and we may say that he has brought something of the spirit of the great Doctor to the execution of this work. He has endeavored, without narrowness or partisanship, to set forth the mind of the Church; to show the logic and the necessity of her legislation; to point out that her purpose is not arbitrary nor reactionary, but that, conscious of her responsibility in the care of souls, she would, and she must, guide her children on the upward road of learning and advancement, and warn them from hid den pitfalls of which they otherwise might not know.

Every priest, particularly one who would preach on prohibited books or write on theological subjects, and particularly also one who would pass judgment or censor the work of another,

A Commentary on the Present Index Legislation. By Rev. Timothy Hurley, D.D. Dub lin: Brown & Nolan.