death, after death, the Office for the dead, the requiem Mass, the cemetery, the burial of infants and cremation-as full and precise matter on those points as could possibly be crushed into some twenty pages. We must join here the mere mention of Pax Animae, Canon Vaughan's edition of an old translation of St. Peter Alcantara (price is. net), and Instructions and Devotions for Confession for Young People (price one penny) published by Browne & Nolan, Ltd., Dublin.

17. Essays for Ireland. By Louis H. Victory. Dublin: Sealy, Bryers, & Walker. (Price Is. net.)

We have read this neat little volume carefully, and almost always with full assent, especially the appreciative essays on Thomas Davis, Thomas Caulfield Irwin, and Seumas MacManus. The two or three last pages of this book contain a list of the recent publications of this enterprising firm, and a very creditable catalogue it is.

18. As our own welcome to The Splendid Knight in one of the preceding paragraphs has been unduly delayed, we may make some compensation by mentioning that Cardinal Logue, writing to the author, calls it "a very interesting and well written volume," and hopes that it will "have the success which its literary merits certainly deserve. I believe [he adds] that it will have a special interest for boys; and hence I think it is a very appropriate book for a school prize."

19. The Glasgow Herald is kind enough to discover in Idyls of Killowen (of which Burns & Oates have recently issued a new edition at two shillings), "wit and tenderness," and also "a happy blending of wisdom, coaxing humour, and love of country." The Freeman's Journal describes them as "poetry inspired by true Irish and religious feeling, and touched here and there with a quiet Irish humour." The Universe says still kinder things which somehow do not (as the curious phrase puts it) lend themselves to quotation.

20. A previous paragraph quotes sundry critiques of The Life of Sir John Gilbert. A private criticism describes the book better than any of the printed ones:-" All that literary skill and grace, sympathetic insight, and painstaking research could accomplish have here been devoted to the production of a worthy memorial of one so distinguished and beloved. What an intimate acquaintance with his learned labours is here shown, and

what an exact estimate is given of them! What a faithful depiction of his character and aims, and how charming an account of his home-life and of his dear Villa Nova !

Enchantress, with her wand of power,

She makes the past be present still—

The emerald lawn, the lime-leaved bower."

However, it is fair to add that, when we preferred the foregoing amateur to the professional critics, we had not read the two careful columns which the Athenæum of December 23, devotes to The Life of Sir John Gilbert, which it calls “a well written and delicate panegyric of a notable man," a skilful and fascinating tribute to his virtues and achievements," " a charming picture of a career that might have satisfied the requirements even of a Solon." That career is thus summarized:-" He lived in the middle of great stores of learning which he had unearthed; he was in correspondence with the most eminent men of his day; the chequered fortunes of his life never compelled him to abandon his beloved home; his value as a specialist admitted him to some of the most splendid houses in the country; he got through an enormous amount of work; he died without a day's illness or decay."

IF

CUM SIMPLICIBUS

F one could hear our good Catholic peasants at their prayers, or when any trouble comes suddenly upon them, and if one could take down exactly the words in which they give expression to their feelings, the record would be interesting and edifying. The phrases I am going to put together do not belong to this class, though I Boswellised them on the spot.

One poor woman prayed this very Catholic blessing, "May Jesus, Mary, and Joseph have a hand in ye, and save the wide world and protect the poor Pope !"

44

A beggarwoman rewarded a kind "No" with this prayer, "May the light of heaven shine on all the generations of sowls that have left ye!"

A desolate widow said, I asked God to be a husband to me, and a provider and a father to my children." That is always high praise for the father of a family: "He is a good provider."

A favourite exclamation among our pious people is, " Welcome be the will of God!" Sometimes in confessing their sins they add with simplicity and with perfect truth: "But all through I had a good mind for my God."

A horse-breaker from the Glen of Aherlow, who probably approached the altar only once a year, told me that he used to say ten acts of contrition a day when riding very fast at a hunt. He never began to train a dangerous horse without blessing himself, "for (added he) I am very fond of my sowl."

A woman who was so simple as to be almost a simpleton, gave this account of her intercessory prayer: "I be praying for the poor sowls that they may have rest in the heavens, and that the marciful God may give us all a happy death and a favourable judgment and a holy life to the whole world."

Father Damen, S.J., a famous conductor of Missions in the United States, told me that once, when first he began to work as a priest with a limited supply of English-he was a Dutchman -he brought the Viaticum to a poor Irishman who was dying in Chicago, and said to him," See how good our Lord is, coming to visit you." "He's welcome, your Reverence." Father Damen's vocabulary did not furnish him with an apt rejoinder.

Not in this state of life, but in a religious community, it was said: "I can never get out of a scrape without a good solid act of humility." The same holy soul said after her brother, a young priest, had died: "I asked you before the Blessed Sacrament that, if James is in Heaven, he would get me the grace never to say or do anything henceforward against charity; and I have been very happy since."

On the eve of Corpus Christi, 1879, a good poor woman used these very words which were taken down at the time: "I am not able to read, your Reverence, but when I look up at the Stations and think what my sweet God suffered for me, my heart does be breakin', and I'm ready to be lifted in a faint, to think that He done all that for me." God certainly spoke to that simple heart. Cum simplicibus sermocinatio Ejus. (Prov. iii. 32).

ΤΗ

A CONUNDRUM SOLVED

HE conundrum proposed in one of our Pigeonhole Paragraphs has attracted a good deal of attention. Out of a score of answers two or three were correct. As the conundrum is a quatrain, it will not take up much space to give it again.

I am a word of letters four;

Take one away, you'll like me more;

Take two-I do not cease to be;

Take three, and still there's half of me.

The initials that are to be immortalised by their connexion with the right solution, and the right solution only, are J. W. A., R. N., M. G. W., and K. M. L. M. G. W. gave the solution in a very graceful quatrain which unfortunately cannot be found at the proper moment. It is a mystery how papers will suddenly disappear in this fashion. R. N., a less experienced poet, gives his answer thus

Conundrums are at best a sham-
I'd much prefer a slice of ham!
Am present is of verb To be,

And M is just the half of Me.

The letters are therefore supposed to be removed in this symmetrical manner: sham, ham, am, m. Some solvers manipulated their words more arbitrarily, and the component parts of their proposed solutions do not verify all the terms of the conundrum. S. M. S. and another were satisfied with many. In what sense do we prefer man to many? And what about the other lines of the conundrum? J. O'S. makes a better guess in Bede; but "I like bed better than Bede" would be a curious statement. J. G. voted for dote, intending by dot the French word for that very desirable thing, a good dowry. R. R. and P. P. McS. may wonder that they are left to the last. Both of them hit upon sham; but they were so injudicious as to give alternatives; R. R. added damn and harm, removing the letters in an irregular way which the terms of the conundrum, we grant, do not forbid. P. P. McS. bracketed with

sham the word "beer; " but he very properly doubted whether any one but a Pioneer would prefer bee to beer. Some who look at this page will be puzzled by our "Pioneer," but we cannot wait to explain the term, though we wish that many would begin the New Year by becoming Pioneers. Here is a very old chestnut which dates back, it is said, to George Canning :

There is a word of plural number,
Foe to peace and tranquil slumber..
Now any word you choose to take
By adding s will plural make;
But if you add an s to this,
Strange is the metamorphosis:
Plural is plural then no more,

And sweet what bitter was before.

Very good rhyming at any rate, whatever the reason of it may be. Such trifles fill up vacant moments innocently, and anything in the way of innocent amusement is, like the Waverley Pen, a boon and a blessing.

After this official report had been drawn up, a letter came from a certain Presentation Convent, sending as a Christmas box its subscription for the year 1906; "The Sisters had great fun over the riddle. Of course all solved it differently; but they awarded the palm to the tallest Sister in the house, who guessed sham. Her initials are M. A. J."

At the very last moment we perceive that we have overlooked a good solution offered by a high ecclesiastical dignitary. Jamb certainly consists of four letters. If you take away the last letter, jam remains; and then, if you take away the first letter, am remains. If you take the a, there still remains m, the half of me. A Happy New Year to us all!