Ad rum quaesitum: Affirmative, quin tamen inde reprehendendi censeantur qui opiniones ab aliis probatis auctoribus traditas sequuntur. Ad 2um quaesitum: Negative, habita ratione mentis Sanctae Sedis circa approbationem scriptorum Servorum Dei ad effectum Canonizationis. Datum Romae in S. Poenitentiaria die 5 Jul., 1831. A. F. DE RETZ, S.P., Regens. The Redemptorist Theologians see in this reply something much greater than permission, viz., positive commendation; and we once more agree with them, not unaware of the difficulty we shall have to solve. The Positive or Laudatory approbation is deduced from the objects of the consultation. These objects were: Ist, the promotion of wisdom in teaching; 2nd, the assurance of safe guidance for souls; 3rd, the establishment of a rule for professorial criticism; 4th, the constitution of a confessional oracle. Now, the decision declares St. Alphonsus' "Moral Theology" the wisdom, the rule, the guide, and the oracle. It tells the world that this doctrine can be taught and practised by learned and ignorant, pastor and people. "Who does not see," says the vote for the Doctorate, "that by this reply Alphonsus has been constituted, so to speak, the Oracle of Confessors in the Tribunal of Penance, and, consequently, his moral teaching declared above that of all others." The Oracle, indeed, reasons not but rules; and such, we are told, is Alphonsus for the theorizing as well as for the practical Theologian. Whose authority shall then compare with this? Whose censures aim so high? But there is a difficulty to be considered, and it is this: both in the Consultation and in the Decision reference is made to the Decree of Pius VII., as if nothing more were sought for and given than an explanation thereof; whence it would follow, that as the approbation given in that Decree was only negative, nothing more is given in the Reply. We solve this difficulty by observing, that inversely proceeding, we might prove thus from the Reply-that the Decree of Pius was a Positive approbation; and, nevertheless, until the Reply came the proof could not be given. Whether the Reply then be considered in an absolute or explanatory sense, the conclusions drawn from it are equally tenable, and conclusions they are of such satisfactory import for the pastors and people of God, that it can be the interest of none to impugn them. A third and last great approbation follows: the Decisive or Imperative; and of this the Objector is not reminded, because his objections preceded it, and consequently retarded it, resisted it, and were by it finally crushed-it is The Doctorate. The following words from the Brief of July 7th, 1871, may well conclude the Disputation, and fill with joyous exultation the children and disciples of Alphonsus :-"In Universali Ecclesia Catholica semper Is Doctor habeatur. Hujus Doctoris opera omnia ut aliorum Ecclesiae Doctorum non modo privatim sed publice omnibus scholasticis studiis Christianisque exercitationibus citari, proferri, atque cum res postulaverit adhiberi volumus et decernimus": that is to say, "Let him be ever held a Doctor in the Universal Catholic Church. We desire and command all the works of this Doctor to be cited, quoted, and, when necessary, adopted like the works of the other Doctors of the Church, not only privately, but also publicly, in all scholastic studies and Christian exercises." These are, indeed, words of approbation to satisfy the most scrupulous, and silence the least scrupulous amongst us.-"Volumus et decernimus." We heartily congratulate the writers of the "Vindiciae" on the great learning and moderation displayed in this Dissertation, and we commend their great work to all earnest Theologians. We shall gladly welcome the edition they promise of the "Moral Theology" of their glorious Founder, and meanwhile, with the Cardinal Archbishop of Besançon, we would exhort all to hear respectfully, and confidently obey that teaching declared so often by Peter, ever living in the Church, to be uncensurable and safe, "that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no schisms among you, but that you be perfect in the same mind and in the same judgment.”—1 Cor., i. Devotion to the Sacred Heart, by ROBERT J. CARBERY, Priest of the Society of Jesus. Dublin: Elwood and Son, 9, Capel Street. IN this excellent little volume the Rector of Clongowes Wood College furnishes, in six short chapters, a clear, attractive, and sufficiently full account of the history, nature, and practice of the Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It has manifestly been inspired by the great event of last Passion Sunday, of which the concluding chapter treats. Our religious literature, scanty as it is, has already several treatises on the Devotion to the Heart of Jesus, but generally they form part of larger volumes of Meditations, &c. We know of no one filling the position which Father Carbery's book fills so well. Apart from the opportuneness of its publication, it is sure of a rapid and wide diffusion. It will do its part in kindling and maintaining a solid and enlightened devotion to that Adorable Heart to which our beloved country has been consecrated so happily. THE IRISH ECCLESIASTICAL RECORD. JUNE, 1873. EPICTETUS.1 IT may be presumed that it is to the hard, dry, unadorned style of the Stoic Philosopher, and not to any defect of interest inherent in the subject-matter of the treatise which bears his name, that we should attribute the silent deposition of the first and best of 'Handbooks' from the honored place which once it occupied on the Maynooth roll of matriculation classics. Time was when the ambitious candidate, aspiring to the honors of a pass in Rhetoric, might reckon himself pretty secure, ceteris paribus, if he had been at the pains of establishing an intimacy with the Phrygian Slave-Philosopher. But Ilium fuit. That good old time is gone. It expired with the era of those private academies which, familar to the first half of the present century by the name of classical schools, were the humble but useful precursors of the existing diocesan seminaries. In the Maynooth programme of to-day the Porch is superseded by the Academy; Plato usurps the chair of Epictetus. Of the relative merits of these two sages in respect of doctrine it might be perilous to adventure a comparison; but it seems safe enough to assign the palm of literary merit to Plato, "the majesty of whose style," says Sydney Smith, "would have made a great orator of a bad philosopher." From the point of view therefore, of those "most potent, grave, and reverend signors" who, in regulating programmes of examination, adopt the qualities of style for standard to measure the fitness of text-books by, the substitution of a treatise of Plato for a treatise of Epictetus was 1 Ancient Philosophy; or the Enchiridion of Epictetus, and the Chrusa Epe of Pythagoras translated into English prose and verse, by Hon. Thomas Talbot. Lovel: Montreal, 1873. VOL. IX. 26 a commendable reform. But suppose we were to take, upon the subject of the alteration, the suffrages of the candidatesa body of gentlemen whose wishes College Dons are so careless to ascertain, and so slow to recognise-how should we find them to incline? Of this much we are certain. In the days of his ascendancy in the schools Epictetus was by no means unpopular. He may not be very profound, or imaginative, or brilliant; but he is very clear, vigorous, and homely—and, chiefest of charms, he is short. There is not much of the Enchiridion, and what there is of it is not too hard.' Upon these grounds the Enchiridion was a favourite with the young student of a race who now write P.P. after their name and forget Epictetus. The facility with which it is grasped flows from its character, as a well-assorted collection of plain, intelligible, practical lessons of moral conduct-instructions and admonitions "that come home to men's business and bosoms"-conveyed in a style at once clear, terse, and full of energy. Though the maxims of Epictetus are not disjointed fragments of 'hob-nailed philosophy' presented in the form of proverbs, yet such is the pithy way in which they are stated, that the Epictetea are as readily seized, as quickly understood, and almost as easily remembered, as any proverbs outside the Old Testament. So simple are the precepts of this most benevolent of ancients, so faithful to nature is his picture of the human heart, so Christian are his sentiments in their lofty morality, and so universal in their application are his rules of life, that construing and comprehending the Enchiridion, go abreast with more ease and freedom than these operations are commonly attended with in the study of the ancient authors. As our Stoic was studied only by those who had views of entering Maynooth, or by those who prosecuted their studies in a school, the majority of the pupils of which entertained such expectations, he has fallen into complete oblivion here in Ireland, since the countenance of the Imperial College on the Rye was withdrawn. Now it is not too much to say that if the book which has occasioned the present notice, had seen the light a quarter of a century ago, Epictetus, instead of lying in the cold shade of neglect, would now be basking in the warm sunshine of scholastic favour and popularity. It is gratifying to the admirers of the old Stoic Professor to behold even one Irishman mindful of obligations to him, and bringing from the treasures of a ripe and cultured intellect tribute to lay at the feet of his early preceptor. The Hon. T. Talbot, who has just recently evoked Epictetus from the limbo of the neglected ancients, and clothed him in a rich and rare vesture of English poetry, may be presumed to have made his acquaintance with his author in an Irish school. For Mr. Talbot is an Irishman. He is one of that number whose name is legion, who in foreign lands have carved their way to eminence, and won for themselves power and position, a distinction from which faith, or blood, or both, had cut them off at home. From the yoke of office, and from the duties of Government in his adopted country (Newfoundland), this gentleman contrives to escape occasionally, and snatch some time in order to devote it to literary relaxation, and the only department of literary labour that can in strictness be called "a labour of love," namely, the courtship of the Muses. And his success and popularity in the commonwealth of letters are on a par with his political prosperity, if we may judge from the favourable criticisms that swell the welcome accorded to his latest work on the other side of the Atlantic. The press of Canada is loud in praise of the book, and, to our minds, rightly and justly. This book aims at more than does any volume of the ancient classics for English readers now issuing from the English press. Instead of an outline of the author, Mr. Talbot's book is a translation more or less strict; in place of compressing the Epictetea, it inclines rather to expand them, and instead of a dry summary or a marrowless abstract, it places before us a flowing poetical version of these beautiful maxims. Mr. Talbot was wise in selecting the poetic medium. We have the authority of Pope that verse is the easiest fitting garb in which to array moral truths. Truth in verse is truth transfigured and glorified. The Epictetea in heroic verse are neither more pagan nor less Christian than the "Essay on Man," to which poem the work under review bears a very marked resemblance. Indeed the new Enchiridion, as we are justified in styling this spirited reproduction by Mr. Talbot's muse, is the better book of the two. It contains numerous excellent practical rules of life, while the Essay is no more than a tissue of highly wrought sentiment, and of very beautiful and very fantastic conceits, shot with a very rare thread of Christian truth, but taking its prevailing colour from the cold uncertain light of Deistic philosophy Where either poem diverges from the practical it will appear, as might be expected beforehand, as if the Enchiridion rises above the plain of the attainable, and the Essay sinks below the level of the merely sufferable. The superiority of the Enchiridion would be more conspicuous if anyone were to attempt to do that for the Essay which Mr. Talbot has not only attempted, but successfully accomplished, for the Enchiridion. He has tested and verified, and, as it were, checked |