when recent publications have stood a fair test and have been amply criticised in our competent Catholic papers and magazines. As far as we know there is no such complete and up-todate manual at hand. Catholic book lists have been issued, it is true, and many organizations like the Knights of Columbus in St. Louis, and the Catholic Benevolent Legion in Baltimore have zealously turned their attention, even only this year, to the editing of lists of books by Catholic authors in the local public libraries. But, as is confessed in the preface of the St. Louis pamphlet they are not guides for Catholic readers. That we need a guide seems obvious; that we shall have one is our hope. In conclusion I wish only to repeat that the purpose of this paper is merely suggestive. It seems to the writer, after some years of personal observation and much information gathered from men of wider experience, that our students are being led away from our control in their private reading. He hopes only to see the question sifted thoroughly and remedies applied to offset so sericus a danger if it impends.

DISCUSSION

DR. LENNOX: I am sorry I did not hear the whole paper, but I think I heard enough to enable me to give the writer my hearty congratulations.

With regard to the suggestion that has been made by Father Fleming in the paper, I think it an admirable one. I think this Association would be really rendering efficient service to Catholicity and to morality in the English-speaking countries if it undertook to compile such a work as was indicated. An ounce of practice is worth a pound of theory.

I would like to say, further, that I think it would be well for Catholic educators to compile a list, not only of suitable works written by Catholics, but also to make a list of the good works which may be said to be factors in forming character and developing intellect, written by those who bear the greatest names in English literature.

This is the first time I have attended a meeting of the Educational Association. I came only to watch and listen and to learn something. I did not intend to address any of the meetings. However, my old friend. Dr. Hehir, having called upon me unexpectedly to-day, I did not feel free to do otherwise than comply with his request.

I consider that this Department is doing an inestimable good to Catholic education in this country, and in the future, I will endeavor to render it any service that lies within my power.

COLLEGE NIGHT ADDRESSES

THE COLLEGE MAN AN IDEAL KNIGHT

JOHN E. KANE, ESQ., DUQUESNE UNIVERSITY

It is with a certain feeling of trepidation that I have accepted the honor and privilege conferred on me by my Alma Mater to represent her in this solemn assemblage. I fully realize the significance of this occasion, and I feel instinctively the character of the intellectual atmosphere that pervades this splendid gathering.

On the other hand, I cannot but remember the prestige and dignity of the institution I represent; an institution which, if I am not mistaken, is just now the youngest of America's universities, an institution which has had but a youthful career beside that of many represented here to-night, but which with all its youth stands forth vigorous and healthful and already crowned with the successful achievements of a ripe and glorious manhood.

Nor can I forget the scenery and settings of the stage upon which we play our part to-night, and of the wondrous industrial and populous center that has been chosen for our present educational convention. It has been the theatre of many struggles. It is even to-day the very spot on which most vigorously and most acutely the great conflict between labor and capital is being fought out. It is the melting pot of nationalities and of all the elements that are entering into our future American citizenship. At this twofold point of view, therefore, it presents most absorbing problems, particularly, I should say, in the subject matter which has been occupying your attention, namely, that of edu

cation.

To answer and solve these problems, to mould these newcomers into worthy participants of our free institutions, to make them

contribute to the progress and prosperity of our country, instead of becoming a menace to its stability, is a work to which education must contribute a leading part.

With all the warring elements and factions that surround us on every side, there is a call for another crusade. It is once more the Cross against the Crescent. Christianity and the civilization which she alone engendered, against the standard and forces of infidelity! Who shall be the leaders of this modern and gigantic conflict if not the Christian Knights, the true heirs of ancient chivalry, the chivalry of faith that has never died.

You have read in youthful days of those olden knights; their deeds have echoed to your ears in song and story, in myth and legend of heroic and Christian times. You turned from the pages of pagan literature, eloquent and beautiful as they are, but barren and empty of inspiring things, you turned from those pages even of their greatest stoic, Cicero, the mind disgusted and the heart oppressed with the cruelty, the misery, the corruption that these pages reflect from pagan men and their pagan deities: cruelty of the proud master, misery of the down-trodden slave, equal corruption of both slave and master. What a sad picture, without any redeeming or brightening feature, without any alternative between those extremes of human pride and human degradation!

You turned from those cheerless pages to the chronicles of Christian times. When you perused the gospel, you read, for the first time, the story of the Good Samaritan, who was the first of knights, the prototype of chivalry, the precursor of Christian charity, none other than the Savior Himself, who thus preached the gospel of charity to the oppressed, more effectually by example than could ever be done by voice or pen.

It was He that handed down to the nobler instincts of humanity the care of the poor, pity for the down-trodden, love even of the slave as a brother and an equal before God. It was He that made the works of charity to the blind and the lame, be deemed henceforth the works of Divine mission: "Go back and tell your master that the blind see, the lame walk, the poor have the gospel preached to them." It was His inspired disciple that rang out upon the astonished world this strange but consoling message:

"Religion clean and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their tribulations, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world."

This, then, became the distinguishing mark of Christianity, "By this shall all men know that you are my disciple, charity, consecrated and divinised in the very person of the Redeemer Himself." And this was the distingushing mark of early Christian civilization. But during the subsequent periods of bloody persecutions, every other mark was merged in that of martyrdom, till the dove of peace settled upon the face of Europe and Rome became the center of the new civilization, as she had been the mistress of the olden paganism.

Soon, however, her imperial power weakened under the jealousy of rival rulers, and her province of the north dissolved before the Huns and Visigoths. Once more the sway of might, of armed force, of brutal power asserted itself, and it seemed as if the ancient order of unquestioned despotism would be permanently restored. But happily for the world, for peace, and for civilization, there was a mighty barrier raised against oppression in the person of the Church and her institutions. It was her influence that stayed the arms of the mighty, that interposed for the protection of the weak. It was she that roused in the hearts of her sons that innate sense of justice and generosity that, in pagan times, had lain dormant or oppressed by passion and selfishness. It was she that gave birth to chivalry, in the framing and setting up before the ambition of men an ideal of heroic character based upon charity and Christian brotherhood.

In this ideal were interwoven and combined those grand and noble virtues which even the most degraded of men look up to as the highest expression of human emulation; the strength that will confront every peril, the valor that will rise above every assault, the modesty that bespeaks the truly brave and noble in spirit, the loyalty that never fails where duty and obedience call, the knightly courtesy that knows how to recognize equality, the compassion that respects the weak and the poor as the heritage and treasure of Christianity, the absolute devotedness to the person of Christ's Vicar upon earth.

To all this, more than to the feats of arms or the service at court, or the tilts in the tournaments, or to the military exercises on horseback, were trained originally the Christian layman that first aspired to knighthood.

It was because they were influenced by these noble sentiments more than because they were clothed in the snow white garb of knighthood, and clad in coat of mail, accoutred in helmet, spurs, and gauntlet, or armed with the sword, the battle axe or spear. that the champions of charity sallied forth with valor and confidence to enforce the rights and redress the wrongs of the poor, the weak and the oppressed.

And, to-day, once more we need those champions of every good and noble cause. We need the modern Christian knight with the same principles as of old, with the same ideals as in those heroic times. Thank God, too, we have them in our midst, on every side and in every walk of life, gathered from every rank of laymen and cleric.

We have those who glory in being the successors of the grand old Hospitalers of St. John. We have the Catholic Knights of America whose aim it is to lift the widow and the orphan and the helpless above the wave of dependence and poverty. We have the Catholic Order of Foresters whose ambition it is to promote friendship, unity and true Christian charity among men. We have the Knights of St. George; we have the members of the Ancient Order whose name recalls the loyalty, the bravery, the sacrifices and the heroism of centuries on the part of Ireland's best sons. With many others we have that noble organization, namel after the great and courageous discoverer that first plantel the cross upon our Western shores, whose desire it is to develop in the Catholic and American layman of every national and social origin, the fraternal and charitable spirit that should characterize those who are, at once, the sons of the Church and citizens of the great republic, and whose ambition it is that every single knight should renew in actual practice the noble deeds of past ages, by furthering every great educational and religious enterprise, by leading in the vanguard of every charitable work, by devotedness in service of Church, and by patriotism in service of country.