which makes the beginning and the end the most important pages in a Latin sentence. "By the former our attention is excited, on the latter it rests." We wish "Absum” had affixed at least her initials to the excellent essay on “Memories." This begins the number, and Miss Eileen Kingston ends it with a pleasant account of Prague. Very various and agreeable are the many items between these two, especially three roundels by “Our Dear S. M. S." The cover and get-up of Veritas are in excellent taste. The Fordham Monthly for June is the most stately of all the magazines. A physician, a lawyer, and Mr. Stanley J. Quin are the most noteworthy contributors. Dr. Wingerter's address is the very best and most effective of sermons; and that of the Hon. Charles Hughes, Governor of the State of New York, enforces so noble an ideal of the legal profession that we would fain reprint it for the benefit of our law students here at home. One of the newest periodicals is the Father Mathew Record which issues from the Father Mathew Memorial Hall, Church Street, Dublin, where the Capuchin Fathers carry on the Total Abstinence movement with untiring energy and with splendid success. It improves with every number, and the July number is only the seventh. 14. Among the recent pennyworths issued by the Catholic Truth Society of Ireland (27, Lower Abbey Street, Dublin), is a selection of chapters from Father Arnold's Imitation of the Sacred Heart to which very properly is prefixed a brief notice of Father Arnold or Aernoudt. Another is a very pious little treatise about visiting the Blessed Sacrament, which we notice separately further on-Who May Come? by the Rev. J. Halpin, P.P., Scariff. Also The Shannon and its Shrines, Part II., by J. B. Cullen; The Ancient Laws of Ireland, by the Rev. J. E. M'Kenna, C.C., M.R.I.A., and The Colleen from the Moor, a Romance of the Kingdom of Kerry, by J. B. Cronin. Mr. Cronin is a very skilful story-teller, as The Boy from over the Hill (another C.T.S. pennyworth) proved some time ago. The Colleen's story is very pleasantly told, and the sudden winding up is particularly good. We may interpolate here, out of place, the remark that Miss Emily Hickey's novel, Lois, which we recommended to our readers, is pronounced by the rather fastidious Catholic Book Notes to be "a quiet, refined, thoughtful, well-planned tale, admirably written, with careful studies of character, an unusually large number of good yet interesting folk, and an entire absence of bad ones." 15. The American Catholic Quarterly Review contains in its April number many admirable articles; but the one that interests us most is disguised under the title "An Eighteenth Century Witness." In it Father Edmund Walsh, S.J., of Woodstock College, Maryland, U.S.A., discusses very fully and satisfactorily the religious aspects of Samuel Johnson's character. He begins by saying that the subject was revived by "Mr. Charles Waters' graceful essay" in our pages. His own article is the best and completest account of the matter. 16. One of the most interesting items in the very brilliant new number of the Castleknock College Chronicle is a page of autograph signatures, upon which J. B. C. founds a bold attempt to discriminate the characteristics of the different writers. He himself does not dip his pen in gall. The splendid historical pageant enacted in the open air and sunshine during Easter week is described very effectively. How interesting these journals must be for those who know all the persons and things described and depicted! How valuable will be hereafter a set of these domestic records ! 17. The Clongownian for this fine sunny summer of 1908 is full of interesting portraits and personalities. The account of the new college chapel is, perhaps, the principal item, claiming for it the distinction of being "the largest and finest chapel attached to any boys' college in Ireland." Extraordinary zeal and industry have evidently been exercised in collecting from far and near the materials for this really valuable chronicle of another year of dear old C.W.C. 18. Who May Come? By the Rev. J. Halpin, P.P., Scariff. Dublin Catholic Truth Society of Ireland, 27, Lower Abbey Street. (Price 1d.) The question put by this little book on its title-page regards vistis to the Blessed Sacrament; and of course the answer must be that all ought to come. But Father Halpin dwells specially on three classes-sinners, little children, and the poor. He urges very earnestly our duty of not leaving our Eucharistic Lord alone, when we can help it; and he weaves very skilfully into his own excellent matter brief but most effective quotations from Faber, Dalgairns, Didon, Aernoudt, etc. We fear that, with all their piety, our people do not, especially in country towns, show sufficiently their faith in the Blessed Sacrament in the manner described by this zealous Clare priest. Many who could easily hear Mass on week-days neglect to do so. It will be enough to mention here The Daily Companion for the Use of Religious, published by R. & T. Washbourne with their usual care and taste. 19. A particularly elegant memorial, compiled by the Hon. William J. Onahan, is A Little History of Old St. Mary's Church, Chicago, 1833-1908. In 1833 there were a hundred VOL. XXXVI.-No. 422. 32 Catholics in Chicago, and no priest; in 1908 an archbishop, several auxiliary bishops, four hundred priests, nearly two hundred churches, schools, colleges, innumerable convents, etc. Less elegant but more massive, a royal octavo of 133 pages forms the Souvenir in Honour of the Triple Anniversary of the Rev. John O'Brien of East Cambridge, Massachusetts-nearly 40 years a priest, 35 years pastor of East Cambridge, and 20 years editor of the Sacred Heart Review, of which he is also the founder. A noble record! 20. The Story of St. Francis of Assisi. By M. Alice Heins.. London Burns and Oates. (Price 2s. 6d.) The Saint of Assisi leaves all other saints behind in the frequency of the literary tributes paid to him of late years. This new biography is said by Father Cuthbert in his brief preface to be for boys and girls. It is illustrated by five pictures, some of the famous paintings by Raffaelle, etc. The Italian couplet is incorrectly printed and badly translated. But the critic is not. quite unprejudiced, as he is a rival translator. PIGEONHOLE PARAGRAPHS It is deplorable what misprints creep into the best conducted magazines when the articles are not submitted each to its author. This precaution could not have been taken with regard to the exquisite sonnet quoted at page 391 of our July Number; for Katharine Furlong died in the year 1894. And so our compositor ends it with the word "right," where rhyme and reason call for "nigh." But Miss Emily Hickey, thank God, still has work to do on earth; and, if she had received a proof sheet, of page 370, she would have transferred passing" in the penultimate stanza to the following line:- Who, as on this day, from earth Passing, had their heavenly birth. In calling our attention to this disaster, the author of Lois offers this version of the German rhyme quoted last month by Dr. Hogan of Maynooth I am a little one: Clean is my heart from sin A still further erratum occurs in our July Number, page 366, where the ninth line of the poem Our Will" should read "Shall see our Sirius shine adown the stream." Miss Katharine Roche writes to us that there has lately been much plagiarism in the titles of stories. Canon Sheehan's Spoiled Priest has been forestalled by Katharine Tynan; Mr. Frank Barrett had been forestalled by herself with the title, A Missing Witness; Miss Edgeworth's Belinda is stolen by Miss Broughton, and Mrs. Walford's Pauline by Mr. W. E. Norris. Miss Braddon has The Story of Barbara, and Miss Amelia Edwards Barbara's History. What pains Dickens took with the names not only of his stories, but of every character in them! Very many of our readers have, no doubt, been delighted readers of Elizabeth and her German Garden. If they have read a more recent work of the same author, Fraulein Schmidt and Mr. Anstruther, they will be glad to see a sonnet addressed to the charming heroine by one of our poets, Mr. Edward Harding, who has been too long absent from our pages : Friendless, unvalued, peerless Rose-Marie ! All that the wisest woman-soul may know Of thoughtful, helpful, wistful pleasantry. Thy depth, thy tenderness, thy subtlety, Thy bright, brave heart, that fears not stress nor blow, I sing all noble womanhood in thee. A whimsical philosopher thou art, And thou art poet to thy finger-tips— Wisdom and beauty pair out from thy lips! Father Nicholas Lancicius, at page 113 of his Opusculum Spirituale Sextum (Cracow, 1883) gives as an excuse for repeating things said in another of his books, "quia non omnes legent omnia mea opuscula." We should think not. And if that holy Polish Jesuit, writing for certain well-defined classes of readers supplied at that time but scantily with such books, could say this with a truthful simplicity that makes us smile, what can a writer expect at the present day, seeing that every year since then has multiplied books beyond all counting in all departments ? Can he hope to say anything new, and can he expect anyone to read what he says? It would be a very pathetic discovery if we could ascertain the number of readers (if any) for certain books that have cost their writers much toil and time and money. Of the millions of reams of paper that go through the printing presses of the world in a year, what percentage is eventually sold as waste paper or remains waste paper, unread and unsold? But meanwhile printers have got their wages ; so some good has been done. In a little poem called Espoir en Dieu Victor Hugo seems to expect God's pardon without repentance. That is not hope but presumption. But poet's words must not be taken quite literally. Espère, enfant, demain, et puis demain encore, Et puis toujours demain Croyez dans l'avenir. Espère, et chaque fois que se lève l'aurore Soyons là pour prier, comme Dieu pour bénir. Nos fautes, mon pauvre ange, ont causé nos souffrances. Quand Il aura béni toutes les innocences, Puis tous les repentirs, Dieu finira par nous : We are glad to be able to give the admirable translation of this little poem by Mr. William Woodlock-not the excellent Divisional Magistrate whom Dublin still remembers with respect, but his father. Hope to-morrow! Hope still with each morrow returning. Hope! Ever new as ariseth the morning, Be we there to pray, as God will to bless. 'Tis sin, my poor angel, our souls is oppressing: When God has the innocent cheered with His blessing "We speak of the Communion of Saints,"-Father Gallwey said once in the pulpit of St. Francis Xavier's, Dublin, pleading the cause of St. Mary's Asylum, High Park-" we might also speak of the Communion of Sinners." What a fearful thing it is to do the devil's work by bringing others into sin! and what dreadful energy the wicked display in propagating their wickedness. The man that leaves after him a book attractively written, perhaps a work of genius, but such as to corrupt the reader and turn him to evil-God's mercy is infinite, but it is hard to conceive souls lost year after year by the influence of such a book and the cause of their ruin himself penitent and saved. If so, what penitence and what penance will be needed! But God's |
