NOTES ON NEW BOOKS

1. St. Francis of Assisi, Social Reformer. By Leo L. Dubois S.M. New York, Cincinnati, Chicago: Benziger. (Price 4s. net.)

This is perhaps the latest of the immense number of books of all sorts and sizes devoted of late years to the various aspects of the life, work, and character of St. Francis of Assisi. American title pages are sometimes not sufficiently communicative, not even telling whether a certain work is a translation or original. The writer of the present work seems to be a Marist Father working in the United States, and, in spite of his French name, writing English as his native tongue, just as Rossetti, Hilaire Belloc, and other foreign names are linked with the best and purest of English. He throws into a novel form a great deal of information about the history of St. Francis and his Order, besides special disquisitions on the character of the Saint and his ideas concerning social reform. Thirty pages at the end are devoted to a bibliography of Franciscan literature, understanding that last phrase in the narrow sense which confines it to the seraphic Patriarch himself.

2. Our Lady, Queen of Prophets, or Devotion to the Priscillian Madonna. London: Burns & Oates.

The title page tells us, besides, that this book is introduced by a preface from the pen of Father Joseph Bonavenia, S.J., Professor of Archæology in the Gregorian University; and with the London Publishers is associated "English Convent, Via S. Sebastiano, Rome." Regina Prophetarum is the title given by due authority to what is considered the most ancient pieture of the Blessed Virgin in the Roman Catacombs. This picture, which is a work of classic art, not rude and inartiistic as are most of the pictures in the Catacombs, was discovered in the Cemetery of St. Priscilla on the Via Salaria. Its history and many other matters connected with the history of the Catacombs are told very clearly and pleasingly in these pages, which also include interesting lectures on the subject by Cardinal Parocchi and Father Fletcher, an English priest who is full of zeal for the conversion of his countrymen-the end to which the devotion

to the Regina Prophetarum in the church of St. George and the English Saints is chiefly directed. The Foundress of the Poor Servants of the Mother of God, who have charge of this sanc. tuary, was Mother Magdalen Taylor, who herself would at most claim only to be co-foundress with Lady Georgiana Fullerton In her last years she strove earnestly to promote the devotion on which the Church has now set its seal by granting a Proper Mass for the Feast of the Regina Prophetarum (January 27).

3. The late Dr. Bellord, who was for many years a disguished chaplain in the army before being appointed Bishop of Gibraltar, published a very solid spiritual work, Meditations on Christian Dogma. It is partly a translation of an old French book, La Théologie Affective, ou St. Thomas en Méditation. But this consists of five octavo volumes; Dr. Bellord reduced it to two, and adapted it judiciously for use in these countries and these times. Many others besides 'priests will relish the large infusion of theology in these meditations. The first volume contains thirty-five meditations on the nature and attributes of God, twenty on the Blessed Trinity, twenty-five on the Angels, twenty-seven on the world and man, fifty-one on the life of the Divine Redeemer, and twenty-one on the Blessed Virgin. The subjects meditated in the second volume are Beatitude, Laws, Grace, the Theological Virtues, the Cardinal Virtues, Perfection, the Sacraments, and the Four Last Things. Two compact pages are given to each meditation, and into each is compressed a great deal of solid matter. Dr. Bellord has not scrupled to adapt the whole to modern use. Even the X-Rays come into the meditation on the Personal Condition of the Blessed. The holy Bishop, for many years before his death, took a deep interest in the missionary school which the Sisters of Mercy, Callan, Co. Kilkenny, conduct with eminent success, and which the deplorable events in France will henceforth render more necessary for the supply of religious for foreign missions. As a final token of his interest in this holy undertaking, he bequeathed for its benefit the valuable work of which we have given a brief account, and of which a third edition is now being printed in Dublin. A few copies of the second edition remain and will be sent post free by the Sisters for 7s. 6d. to the first applicants.

4. Among the reviews that continue to appear in the prin

cipal journals of The Life of Sir John Gilbert (London: Longmans & Co.), there is one in the Spectator, March 10, the writer of which finds her less successful as a biographer than as a novelist. "Lady Gilbert's biography of her husband reminds us of Edmund Waller's famous reply to Charles II. when the King asked him how it was that his panegyric on Oliver Cromwell was so much more successful than what he had written on himself. 'Poets, sire, succeed better in fiction than in truth.' We are accustomed to see very graceful and attractive work given to the world under the name of Rosa Mulholland." The reviewer thinks that the true story of the life-work of Sir John Gilbert is told less effectively; but he cannot deny the literary charm of the narrative or the impressive beauty of "the picture of a single-minded worker " that is here presented to us. The Daily News describes Sir John Gilbert as one of those un assuming but industrious and learned men who perform in valuable services to the public for which they get little recog. nition ;" and it concludes its notice of his "Life" by saying that "Lady Gilbert has performed her task well." Like the Spectator, the Month pits Lady Gilbert against herself as biographer and as novelist. "No one possesses in greater measure than she the art of telling a story brightly and naturally. The many charming books published under her maiden name of Rosa Mulholland can leave no doubt upon this point." The reviewer finds that "it is a singularly modest, noble, upright, and un selfish Christian character which stands revealed" in what he calls earlier in his notice "a full and careful biography." 5. The Catholic Girl's Guide. Counsels and Devotions for Girls in the ordinary walks of Life. Edited by the Rev. Francis X. Lasance. New York, Cincinnati, Chicago: Benziger Brothers. (Price 4s.)

Father Lasance has written, translated, or compiled a great many very useful books of practical piety and devotion. The present one, which the titlepage further tells us is particularly intended for Children of Mary, consists of three parts. Part I. (430 pages), consists of conferences for girls, translated from the German of Father Celestine Muff, O.S.B. Part II. is a ful prayer-book, compiled with great care, enriched with a beautiful collection of indulgenced ejaculations, including all the special devotions of the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin, and ending with

the excellent series of meditations for the Month of May by Father Richard Clarke, S.J. Thin paper and small type have crushed into this neat volume an immense amount of matter.

6. The following new publications of the Catholic Truth Society of Ireland (27 Lower Abbey Street, Dublin), cost only a penny each. Part III. of A Short History of Some Dublin Parishes, by Dr. Nicholas Donnelly, Bishop of Canea, is devoted to Booterstown, Blackrock, Stillorgan, Kilmacud, and Dundrum. A large quantity of minute and accurate information is given about the ecclesiastical history as well as the topography and antiquities of the districts included in those parishes. When the Crede Mihi is referred to, it would have been well to pay the tribute of half a sentence to the memory of Sir John Gilbert, to whom we owe access to that and so many sources of authentic Irish history. Donal's Extravagance, by D. M. K., and Grace Morton, by Mary T. M'Kenna, are good stories, the latter showing more of literary skill. Both writers are unknown to us. Grace Morton purports to be worked out on Irish ground; but the religious atmosphere seems to be possible in the United States only, and certainly not in Ireland. On a higher level is Signor Antonio, by Katherine Roche, which is almost worthy of pairing with her early very popular story, Willie's Revenge. In spite of the Italian name it all happens on Irish soil. It will interest young people greatly and do them good.

7. The Catholic Truth Society, 60 Southwark-bridge Road, London, has recently added to its immense output of Catholic literature many penny and two sixpenny booklets-namely, a second series of Simple Meditations on the Passion of our Lord for Communion Mornings, by the Right Rev. Joseph Oswald Smith, Abbot of Ampleforth, and a solid little treatise on The Problem of Evil by the Rev. Sydney F. Smith, S.J. The penny brochures are The Deathbeds of "Bloody Mary" and Good Queen Bess," by Robert Hugh Benson, M.A.; The Scarlet Woman, or the Methods of a Protestant Novelist, by James Britten, K.S.G.; St. Bertha, Virgin and Abbess, by O.S.B., which is No. II of "Virgin Saints of the Benedictine Order; " Catholic Education and the Duties of Parents, by the Bishop of Clifton; In the Net, or Advertisement by Libel, by Dom Norbert Birt, O.S.B. As the filthy and libellous matters denounced in the last of these were only published by some contemptible nobody

in Canada, it seems a great mistake for the Catholic Truth Society of England to give him so wide an advertisement. Father Benson's account of the deathbeds of the two daughters of Henry VIII is drawn from unprejudiced authorities and is put simply and impressively. In spite of the very large amount of work that he has already done for Catholic literature, everything that he does is well done.

8. We hope many of our readers have already discovered practically the mistake made in these notes last month about Father Bearne's new book, Portraits: Stories for Old and Young. That beautiful book was falsely accused of costing 3s. 6d., whereas Is. 6d. will waft it post free to any address. Nay, it can be had in a paper picture cover for sixpence; but in this form it has only one of the very interesting pictures, and its travelling expenses amount to three-halfpence extra.

9. The Catholic Herald in a very cordial notice of our February number wished that the authority had been given for the saying attributed, at page 120, to Charles Stewart Parnell : "The Catholic Church is the only one that can make a man die with any real hope." Mr. William O'Brien, M.P., in his recent volume of Recollections, says that he heard Parnell make this remark in the smoking room of the House of Commons on an occasion which he specifies.

10. We have sometimes referred to Overbrook Seminary in Pennsylvania, as one of the most important centres of literary activity in the Catholic Church. Its publishing office is the Dolphin Press, 1305, Arch Street, Philadelphia. Hence issues the Ecclesiastical Review, a monthly publication for the clergy, established in the year 1889-written by priests for priests, and claiming the services of the best writers from all parts of the Catholic world. Another periodical that Dr. Heuser, Dr. Henry and their colleagues maintain at a very high standard is Church Music, which is not a monthly but a quarterly publication for the clergy, organists, choir directors, etc. The second number has just been issued, and contains a vast amount of matter on the many practical questions concerning sacred music that are exciting such a lively interest in the ecclesiastical world at present. The subscription to Church Music is two dollars (or we may say, eight shillings) a year.