The first five chapters of the book explain the nature of alcohol, its proportions in liquors and patent medicines, its physical and mental effects, the alcoholic insanities, the relation between alcoholism and heredity, and the physical treatment of alcoholism. The next five chapters describe the moral treatment. The author explains the moral responsibility of the drunkard, the control of the passions, the four cardinal virtues, and the natural and supernatural means of curing drunkenness. A final chapter treats of opium, cocaine, morphine, and other intoxicating drugs.

We commend this excellent treatise to doctors and priests, although we are skeptical of some of Dr. O'Malley's pet theories, as, for example, the relation of climate to certain races. Dr. O'Malley gives too much theology in his second part. What he says is accurate and true, but it is hardly germane to his subject to discuss at such length the various Catholic theories of grace, the gifts of the Holy Ghost, the cardinal virtues, etc. For instance:

Treating a drunkard with drugs solely is quackery; giving the pledge as a remedy is often an incitement to perjury.

The hospital authorities that supply whiskey to drunken patients are respectable " speak easys," which are never raided by the police, because no one has ever directed the attention of the police to them.

There is always something wrong with the mind of a true neurasthenic, and he does not take moral medicine well.

A confirmed drunkard is not a Catholic, of course, except in the state census.

WORLDLYMAN: A MODERN MORALITY OF OUR DAY. By Percy Fitzgerald. New York: Benziger Brothers. 90 cents

net.

We are pleased to be able to welcome a new book from the author of Saxonhurst. Mr. Fitzgerald's latest publication is a "modern morality," Anslem Worldlyman of Old Saxonhurst, a dissipated, frivolous pleasure-monger, not too bad it is true, but "like the curate's egg," good in parts, is rapidly sliding down-hill. His friend, Father S. Sepulchre, has foreseen this, and true to the promise made when Worldlyman was leaving school, has always kept an eye on his young protégé.

A crisis comes. A breakdown in health; a convenient "really you must take a sea voyage" from H. R. H.'s own medico; a first trip of the new unsinkable Leviathan, a few days of "reckless

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junketing in the booths of this Vanity Fair afloat," and then the beginning of the end. A festival in honor of the "admirable captain of I don't know how many voyages" brings on a speech in praise of the "unsinkable ship." This covert blasphemy is rebuked by Worldlyman, but his words are greeted with cries of: "shut up," "keep it till Sunday," no sermons here." Events move rapidly. Fun and folly pay no heed to the sudden shock, and the rasping sound as the iceberg strikes the ship. The ghastly figure of Mors, the monk, stalks across the scene, and warns Worldlyman of the approaching doom. In answer to Worldlyman's prayers, Father S. Sepulchre arrives (never mind how) to prepare him for the end. And the end is not long delayed. The lifeboats hurry off with their burdens, and those who must die face death with a calmness and a courage given them by the faith and zeal of the wonder-working priest.

"You don't like thinking? Well, here are some facts." This is the spirit of the book. Worldlyman is every man, and the thin wall of an ocean liner is about as sure and as treacherous as what separates any of us from eternity-that enormous fact which we glide over so heedlessly, "when we glibly say, 'life everlasting. Amen.'"

The book is attractively written, and alive with humor. Its most interesting character is Father S. Sepulchre, with his improvised proverbs; his shrewd and quaint comments; his wonderworking zeal. The closing paragraph shows the kindly apostle the same in death as in life, “smiling, praying, comforting, encouraging, calling on all near him to be ready and alert for the only next few moments, when they should at last 'step into eternity' together." There is more fact than fancy in this little book, and much food for thought in the sober realism of Worldlyman, a modern morality of our own day, setting forth how he passed from death to life, from sin to virtue; how he was lost and how he was found again.

FRANCISCAN TERTIARIES. By Father William, O.S.F.C. New York: Benziger Brothers. $1.00 net.

Though, as the title indicates, this book is intended for members of the Third Order of St. Francis, it is in many respects adapted to the needs of any Catholic who sincerely desires to put the teaching of the Church into practice in daily life. Such chapters as those on Loyalty to Church, on Dress, and on Amusements are exceedingly "timely."

SPIRITISM UNVEILED. By D. I. Lanslots, O.S.B. St. Louis:

B. Herder. 75 cents net.

This work ought to be welcomed by Catholics who are desirious of knowing the attitude of the Church on this important subject. The treatment, though brief, is thorough, and questions of philosophy and theology are considered entirely from the viewpoint of Catholic teaching. The book has the value and authority so utterly lacking in the studies of Spiritism, which confuse verifiable phenomena with hypothetical explanations not always consistent with what the present author calls "sound theology."

"CHRIST'S CADETS." By C. C. Martindale, S.J. New York: Benziger Brothers. 35 cents net.

This little volume of the "Stella Maris" Library is addressed to the Sodalists of Our Lady, and deals with the three young Saints, Aloysius Gonzaga, Stanislaus Kostka, and John Berchmans. The author does not attempt to write "lives" of these "cadets" of Christ; he gives rather a study of the salient features of their ascetic growth. The book is excellent reading, and its practical teaching on the subject of sanctity is much to be commended. Judging by this volume, the "Stella Maris" Library should be a valuable addition to our devotional literature, for both in its style. and its treatment of excellent matter, "Christ's Cadets" is altogether pleasing.

THE STORY OF MARY DUNNE.

By M. E. Francis. New $1.35 net.

York: Longmans, Green & Co. It would be a difficult question to decide just for whom this book is intended. If it is designed for the use of parents and guardians, the story form is hardly suitable; if for those who are entering womanhood, few of those entrusted with souls who stand "where the brook and river meet," would choose to place such a tale in their hands; if it be designed for those whose work and experience have put them in possession of such facts, it is, to say the least, superfluous. There only remains the victims themselves, and while we do not deny the possibility of its moving them to remorse, regret, repentance, such a result is, on the whole, improbable. Altogether we do not find it easy to justify the existence of this book, being of opinion that in common with eugenics and their kindred subjects, it is a matter for private and individual handling; and likely to make an impression, and bear fruit for good, only under these

conditions. Doubtless the book has been written with the best intentions, but the tale itself is depressing and hopeless, disturbing in its effect on the youthful reader, and even on maturer ones.

We regret exceedingly that the author who has given us that charming idyll of The Manor Farm, should have felt impelled to combat moral evil by such a misguided method. The words of Archbishop Whiteside quoted by the author: "A barrier at the top of the precipice is better than an ambulance at the bottom," are very true and very sad, but we fear that a novel will prove but a frail barrier. The evil which this book combats is appalling, is tremendous, but no doctor endorses the exhibition of the victims of contagious disease as beneficial to those in health, neither will such exposures as this book gives stem the tide of moral corruption which at present works such havoc. A weapon to slay these dragons must be stronger forged than a novel.

THOMAS HARDY'S WESSEX. By Hermann Lea. New York: The Macmillan Co. $2.00.

Those who desire to know well the country of Hardy's novels, will be interested in this book. When all is said, mental pictures do need confirmation, at any rate, in the majority of cases. And here we have just such confirmation as is needful. Books of this kind are sometimes "made to order;" but to Mr. Hermann Lea this work has been one of leisurely delight. "It is more than twenty years," he tells us, " since I first became interested in tracing the topographical features of the Wessex novels, and I have lived in Wessex continuously during that period, and have traveled over practically all the main roads, and many of the lanes and byroads— traversing more than one hundred and fifty thousand miles on cycle, in a car and on foot."

The author's method is to give a short historical background to the Hardy country, and then to deal with the topographical features of each story in turn. The volume contains two hundred and forty illustrations, some of them of unusual excellence.

THE REVOLT OF DEMOCRACY. By Alfred Russel Wallace, O.M., F.R.S. New York: The Cassell Co.

Only a few days after the appearance of this little book, the illustrious author of it died. His own last work, to tell the truth, is a little slight and disappointing, but the excellent biographical notice of Dr. Russel Wallace contributed by Mr. James Marchant,

is both interesting and timely. In a periodical quite uncommitted to any prejudice in favor of dogmatic Christianity, there occurred a short while ago a passage which sums up most justly the great results of Dr. Wallace's life. We quote the passage, and put in italics the remarkable sentence with which it closes.

What Darwin and Wallace really did was not so much to invent a theory of evolution by Natural Selection, as to furnish and marshal the large and varied evidence necessary to establish it in the world of science, and to exhibit its far-reaching consequences in the life of thought. In this work Wallace was an able though an independent lieutenant. But his true service to his age was in furnishing a stout barrier to the torrent of quasiscientific rationalism, which, drawing over-freely from the new evolutionary teaching, threatened to submerge all the landmarks not merely of dogmatic religion, but of morality and humanitarianism.

It is certain that a later and more definitely religious generation than our own will abundantly confirm this verdict. It will look back upon Russel Wallace not only as a man who saw a valuable, though partial, scientific truth, but also as a man who saw this truth in proper relation to other truths that were far more important -truths that proclaim the spiritual nature and destiny of the whole human race. In this respect he differed from Darwin. As Mr. Marchant puts it, "Darwin thought that Natural Selection alone was sufficient to explain the development of man, in all aspects from some lower form. Wallace......thought that as an intellectual and moral being some other influence-some spiritual influx-was required to account for his special mental and psychic nature." Darwin, again, believed that acquired characters were inherited, Wallace thought not. To sum up, Wallace had philosophy enough to see that biological formulæ could not be applied beyond their proper sphere without great danger to individual, to political, and to social life. Unfortunately, many prominent leaders in thought and action seemed quite unaware of this. As a result both trade and politics have suffered terribly. Apply the doctrine of the survival of the fittest to trade, and we get the warrant for savage competition, in which the weaker always goes to the wall, and the employee becomes a mere pawn in a game of giants; apply it again to international politics, and we have a sufficient excuse for the tyranny and destruction which " imperialists" wage against inferior

races.