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reconcile it to ours as a critic to commend it. The Discourse on Church and State can receive from a Catholic only unqualified condemnation, for its No-Churchism, Individualism, and Rationalism. The author babbles of religious freedom, just as if there could be religious freedom where faith rests on human authority, whether the authority of the state, the public, or the individual! The author has not taken his first lesson in religious liberty.

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The Sinner's Conversion reduced to Principles. By F. FRANCIS SALAZAR, S. J. Arranged according to the Method of The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Philadelphia: Cunningham. 1845. 16mo. pp. 226.

THIS is a most excellent book, admirably adapted both for spiritual reading and meditation, and worthy to be in the hands of every one who aspires to a devout life. It would do even our Protestant friends no harm to possess it, to read and meditate it daily; for, if they would do so, after a while they would begin to suspect that Catholics do not wholly disregard practical piety. The work is very neatly printed, and does great credit to the publishers. We have detected a few typographical errors, which we hope pains will be taken to correct in a second edition, which will, we doubt not, soon be called for, if it has not been already.

The work, it will be seen, is by a Jesuit. It is by the production and publication of such works as this, that the Jesuits reply to the charges everywhere preferred against them. We were asked, the other day, by a worthy Protestant lady, who, we pray God, may not much longer be a Protestant, why it is that the Jesuits are everywhere the objects of such decided hostility. The answer is simple. Whoever will live piously in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." The Society of Jesus has been, since its institution in the sixteenth century, the great instrument in the hands of Almighty God in rolling back the tide of heresy and infidelity, and extending the borders of the Church. It thus necessarily encounters the opposition of those three inveterate enemies of the Christian,—the world, the flesh, and the devil. It is everywhere instrumental in making men Christians, and therefore devoted to the Church. This is sufficient to excite against it all infidel governments, and all governments which seek to make the Church the tool of the State. But the order lives, and will live, and live to bless even its enemies.

4.- Familiar Instructions in the Faith and Morality of the Catholic Church, adapted to the Use both of Children and Adults. Compiled from the Works of the most approved Catholic Writers. By the REV. JoSEPH CURR. Boston: Donahoe. 1845. 16mo. pp. 152.

It is enough to say, in commendation of this little manual, that it is published with the approbation of the Bishop of the Diocese of Boston. It will be found to contain a large amount of instruction simply and clearly given, admirably adapted to the more advanced classes in our Sunday Schools.

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5.- Saul: a Mystery. By the Author of "Christian Ballads," "Athanasion," &c. New York: Appleton & Co. 1845. 12mo. pp. 297.

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THIS work, we are told, is by a clergyman of the Protestant Episcopal Church. How the author can reconcile it to his conscience to remain a member of that Church is more than we can understand. The work has very considerable poetic merit; the verse, in general, flows freely and at times harmoniously. We marked several passages, in reading, of rare beauty. Its great fault is its diffuseness. The author has great facility, and expands through a dozen lines what he ought to say in a word, the common fault of nearly the whole race of our present English and American poets. Nevertheless, we have found Saul very pleasant reading. In doctrine and sentiment it is generally unexceptionable. The only fault we noticed, of much consequence, was that of making David fall in love with Abigail, while Nabal, her husband, was yet living. The whole love passage might have been omitted altogether. The passion of love has been sung and romanced upon quite enough, and quite too much, even when the sentiment is pure, for the morals of our people. The sentiment of love is sufficiently active without being stimulated by the poet's inspiration.

6. The Principle of Protestantism as related to the present State of the Church. By PHILIP SCHAF, PH. D., Professor of Church History and Biblical Literature in the Theological Seminary of the German Reformed Church. Translated from the German, with an Introduction. By John W. Nevin, D. D. Chambersburg, Pa. 1845. 8vo. pp. 215.

WE may take occasion hereafter to recur to this work at some length, for it is a work of some ability. The author is a Professor at Mercersburg, Pa., and has been quite recently imported from Germany. His pamphlet has made some noise, and produced some confusion. Its general character is easily guessed, when we say the Professor adopts, in the main, the views of Neander, and will be understood by the old readers of The Boston Quarterly Review, when we tell them that its doctrine is substantially the same we brought out in opposition to Mr. Parker in the last number of that work, October, 1842. It is simply, that the Christian revelation was given to us in the form, not of doctrine, but of life. This life received and cultivated by us expresses itself in doctrines, which will become more and more adequate expressions of the truth, in proportion as the life is more and more truly lived. Thus faith is not necessary to Christian life, but Christian life is necessary to faith. It is not necessary to believe the truth in order to live it, but it is necessary to live it in order to believe it. The objection to the doctrine is, that it begins at the end, and ends at the beginning. The error of the author, to use a homely illustration, consists in putting the cart before the horse, —not an uncommon error with German theorizers.

The Professor says some true things about the Middle Ages, which we commend to Professor Park. But we do not thank the Professor for what he says. We tell him, Hands off! You Protestants have done nothing but calumniate the Middle Ages for three hundred years. We shall not suffer you now to claim them. They are our property. We have borne the reproach, and will not be robbed of the glory. You must

content yourselves with tracing your pedigree to the Reformers, in the sixteenth century. There it stops. If you are dissatisfied with being novi homines, that is not our fault; and to relieve you we shall not admit your claim to a descent from our ancestors. Novi homines you are. Such you boasted yourselves, and such you shall be. The glorious ancestry you covet belongs to those who will acknowledge no relationship with you. You must be grafted, as the wild olive, into the true olive, before you can be permitted to share in its glory.

7.- Essays on Human Rights and their Political Guaranties. By E. P. HURLBUT. New York: Greeley & McElrath. 1845. 12mo. pp. 219.

A BOOK in which a good share of ability is thrown away. The author makes some just strictures, but would, were his views adopted, make matters worse than they now are, which is altogether needless. The man who can quote George Combe as a philosopher, and accept phrenology as a philosophy of human nature, should be sent back to the nursery. Really, we had supposed the phrenological humbug was extinct, and we advise Mr. Hurlbut to go and try to ascertain the duties of man, before he undertakes to expound to us the "rights" of man. Man's rights are all summed up in his right to do his duty. We are quite sick of this cant about the "Rights of Man," "Rights of Woman," and all that. It should have ceased with Tom Paine and Mary Wolstonecroft. Let us try and learn our duties and discharge them. We shall in that way best secure our freedom, and best promote the prosperity of our brethren.

8.The Garden of Roses, and Valley of Lilies. By THOMAS À KEMPIS. Now first correctly translated from the Latin. New York: Casserly & Sons.

THERE is, we believe, some question as to the authorship of this work, a work which could not have proceeded from the same author as the Following of Christ, to which, with all deference to the translator, we hold it to be altogether inferior, whether for learned or for simple. Nevertheless, it is an excellent ascetic book, well adapted to promote Christian knowledge and solid piety, as is well known. It is very beautifully translated, and, we presume, from the known scholarship of the translator, very correctly done.

9.- Father Oswald. A genuine Catholic Story. 2d edition. New York: Casserly & Sons. 16mo. pp. 299.

AN interesting story, written with a good deal of ability, and containing a large amount of valuable instruction and solid argument. It is defective as a story, in making Edward Sefton needlessly cruel, and the Anglican clergyman needlessly brutal and stupid. Such cruelty as Ed

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ward Sefton's, and such brutality and stupidity as Rev. Mr. Davidson's, are within the bounds of possibility, perhaps of probability; but the effect of the story would have been better, if the author had softened somewhat the former, and relieved a little the latter. It is never well to overdo matters, and we as Catholics can afford to be even generous towards our opponents. We are strong enough, we hope, to knock down their strongest men. Let us not, then, waste our prowess on mere "men of

straw."

10.- Harvard University.

THE late President of this institution sent us a copy of his speech concerning it, which we have mislaid. We read it with attention. We owe no affection to Cambridge, and, as Catholics, we feel aggrieved by its annual Dudleian Lecture. But we confess we have no sympathy with the movement now going on against the University. The University is a private corporation, not a State institution, as some suppose, and we are not prepared to deny the doctrine of "vested rights." We cannot follow the course taken by our political friends in regard to it. Take it from the Unitarians, and you throw it into the hands of the Calvinists. As Catholics, we prefer to have it as it now is. It is bad enough now, but if it came under the control of the Calvinists, it would be a great deal worse. We hope none of our religious friends will join the movement against it. For, under the plea of making it not sectarian, if there is a change, it will be made sectarian in the very worst sense. The distinguished politician who has led off the attack against it is, perhaps, not to be followed in all his movements, even by his friends; and in nothing have we, as one of his friends, felt more aggrieved than in his attack on Cambridge University, his own Alma Mater, and to whose generosity, it is said, he is not a little indebted. It is not well, nor manly, to seek to gratify our private resentments under plea of the public good. The Unitarians make the University as little sectarian as possible. They teach the smallest amount of theology conceivable, and the professors are as little disposed to inculcate peculiar religious views, and as near in a state of equilibrium as to all theological doctrines, as can be desired. We certainly think Unitarian negation and indifference far less objectionable than Calvinistic falsehood and bigotry. We hope the University will remain under Unitarian control.

WE beg the indulgence of the booksellers who have sent us works which we have neglected to notice. We promise, hereafter, to try and do better. The length of the article on Professor Park has crowded out much matter prepared or intended for this number, especially replies to the Episcopal Observer and Methodist Quarterly Review.

ERRATUM. — Page 489, line 38, for Sardagne read Sardagna...

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