quick the very essence of man's intelligence and allures it with its charms.

...

"What Pantheism proposes to do for the mind, it also promises to do for

the soul.

"There is, in man's heart or soul, impressed in indelible characters, a tendency after the infinite, a craving almost infinite in its energy, such is the violence with which it impels the soul to seek and yearn after its object. To prove such a tendency were useless. That void, that feeling of satiety and sadness, which overwhelms the soul, even after the enjoyment of the most exquisite pleasure, either sensible or sentimental; the phenomenon of solitaries in all times and countries; the very fact of the existence of religion in all ages and among all peoples; the enthusiasm, the recklessness and barbarity which characterize the wars undertaken for religion's sake; the love of the marvellous and the mysterious exhibited by the multitude; that sense of terror and reverence, that feeling of our own nothingness, which steals into our souls in contemplating the wide ocean in a still or stormy night, or in contemplating a wilderness, a mountain, or a mighty chasm, all are evident proofs of that imperious, delicious, violent craving of our souls after the infinite. How otherwise explain all this? Why do we feel a void, a sadness, a kind of pain, after having enjoyed the most stirring delights? Because the infinite is the weight of the soul-the centre of gravity of the heart-because created pleasures, however delightful or exquisite, can never quiet that craving, can never fill up that chasm placed between us and God.

"The pretended sages of mankind have never been able to exterminate religion, because they could never root out of the soul of man that tendency. I say pretended sages, because all true geniuses have, with very few exceptions, been religious; for in them that tendency is more keenly and more imperiously felt.

Το

"This is the second reason of the prevalence of Pantheism. promise the actual and immediate possession of the infinite, nay, the transformation into the infinite, is to entice the very best of human aspirations, is to touch the deepest and most sensitive chord of the human heart" (pp. 15-20).

We do not believe that Pantheism will ever become the predominant religious error of this country; but it may very probably become sufficiently prominent, and gain such a hold over the imagination where it does not gain it over the reason, as may make it advisable to bring into the foreground of theological and quasi-theological discussion the contrast between it and the Catholic religion. There is no contrast as to things entirely disparate. As to the end of man, Catholicism and Pantheism both affirm that it is union with the infinite; and the contrast is found in the different ways in which they interpret this union, which is, according to Pantheism, a unity of substance; and, according to Catholicism, the union in the Beatific Vision. As to the speculative part of religion, Catholicism and Pantheism both affirm that the universe is a synthesis, and in this they differ from all other systems, while they differ from each other as to the manner in which they interpret this synthesis, which is, according to Pantheism, a unity of substance with a multiplicity of manifestations occurring in an order determined by laws of evolution; and, according to Catholicism, a synthesis of God and creatures. The position of the Pantheist, in face of the Catholic religion, therefore is, that in regard of the general and speculative synthesis of the universe (i.e.

of all that is, of God and creatures), Pantheism gives a complete and satisfactory, Catholicism an incomplete and illogical intellectual theory; and that in regard of the special and practical synthesis of man and the infinite, Pantheism does, and Catholicism does not, satisfy the religious cravings of humanity. To overthrow the Pantheist position thus understood, and to establish the converse Catholic position, is the aim of "Catholicity and Pantheism."

We have endeavoured to explain the motive and the aim of this book ; two other things remain to be noticed. In the first place, how does the author carry out his purpose in detail? What arguments does he use? In what way does he use them? For this we must refer our readers to the book itself; and without expecting that they will by any means agree with everything in it, we fully anticipate that they will find it abundantly to repay the cost of buying and the trouble of perusal. The general course of the argument is as follows:-Firstly, the author contrasts the Pantheistic infinite with the Catholic God (pp. 26-81). He then (pp. 82-113) treats of that thorny subject, the mystery of the Blessed Trinity, following the Scholastics pretty closely. Passing on to finite beings, he now proceeds to discuss the possibility and the motive of creation (pp. 114-164), and having now before him the two terms of the synthesis, God and creatures, examines "how this duality, so marked and so distinct, the terms of which are so infinitely apart, can be harmonized and brought together into unity." Need we say that he finds in the Incarnation (which could not have been treated of had not the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity been previously considered) the answer to this question? In the person of Jesus Christ is the radical and central synthesis of the finite and the infinite (pp. 164–194), and on this are grounded the other syntheses of finite beings with the infinite or with each other (pp. 195-229), which are treated of under the heads of grace (pp. 230-271), the relation of grace to creation (pp. 272-300), the sacraments (pp. 301-338), and the Church (pp. 339–376). Pantheism is contrasted with Catholicism throughout.

From this analysis the reader will see both what subjects are dealt with and what space is given to them; he will also perceive that the present volume does not complete the work. It is, in fact, only the first part of a larger work (to complete which we trust the author will receive sufficient encouragement) on the same subject. We must give F. De Concilio our hearty thanks for a valuable contribution to Catholic literature. His terminology, it is true, is at first somewhat forbidding; but the point of view in which Catholic doctrines are placed by contrasting them with Pantheism is eminently instructive.

Finally, it may be asked whether and how those who are neither Catholics nor Pantheists are concerned by the contrast between Catholicism and Pantheism. F. De Concilio answers that this contrast exhibits the whole body of Catholic truths in all their universality, unity, grandeur, and beauty. And here he brings out, perhaps with some exaggeration, a point of great importance :

"We are firmly convinced, with all the thinking minds of the century

that the form of controversy must be thoroughly changed. Hitherto we have endeavoured to lead men's minds to Catholic truth by external evidence; we must now change our tactics, and convince them by internal evidence. External evidence was [formerly] as it were a homeargument to him [a non-Catholic], because it chimed in and agreed with the bent of his mind. But now that he does not believe in, nor has a true idea of God, who rejects scornfully all possibility of anything supernatural and superintelligible, it is impossible for us to follow the beaten track, but [we] must find a new way of presenting the Catholic truths to him; that is, to lay them out before him in all the internal evidence of which they are capable: internal evidence, which results not only from reasons, with which each particular truth may be supported, but that which emanates from the link by which all truths hang upon each other, by the bearing which they have on all the fundamental problems raised by the human mind, and from the relations they possess with all the orders of human knowledge" (pp. 7-9).

If this means that we are to lay more stress than hitherto on internal evidence it is sound and good advice; but it would be madness to rely on internal evidence altogether. Without external evidence, which is as an anchor of the mind, truth evaporates, and is lost in endless speculation and disputation.

The Three Kings, and other Poems. By EMILY BOWLES. London : Burns & Oates.

IT

T is some time now since Germany got through the "Sturm und Drang" period of her literary life, but we in England are more behindhand, and, as far as contemporary poetry goes, are (with a few notable exceptions) in the very midst of it. The chief object of most of our modern verse-writers appears to be, to take a given number of problems of the world we live in, the world beyond us, the mysteries of our moral being, and any others that come to hand, and having stripped them of everything which might facilitate their solution, to present them to their readers, and to say, "Existence is chaos, and everything we believe, or love, or hope for is a dream or a delusion, and do not flatter yourselves that here or elsewhere we can ever arrive at a greater certainty than we have at present."

It is a relief to turn from these hazy pessimists, who yet appear to derive considerable enjoyment from their fogs, to such a volume as Miss Bowles has given us. She, too, recognizes the mysteries that hem us in; she, too, tells in most pathetic words of the deep heart-sorrows that are so terribly near to our deepest joys; she, too, knows full well the empty homes, and the broken ties, and the lost loves that are the daily bread of life to many; but through it all she recognizes "No spirit dread, but God my

Lord." Through all the failures and sins and sorrows, through the valley of death itself, she sees that, as she tells us in her beautiful poem of Hyacinthus:

"So life still swallows death, and while we weep

Our‘Ai! Ai! Hyacinthus slain!'

We find him, glorious, in new life again."

The longest poem, and the one which gives its name to the book, is a dramatic sketch of the appearance of the star to the Wise Men, and their following up of the quest. It is full of beauties which deserve more particular attention than can here be given to them, though we cannot forbear to notice the delicate and subtle delineation of the three principal characters Balthazar's soliloquy, with which the poem opens, and Mary's address to the Kings when the quest is achieved.

Amongst the lesser poems we especially admire the "Greene Turfe," in which the pathetic beauty of the ideas is enhanced by the quaint old English in which they are rendered; and that little knot of poems in which several of the Greek myths are so gracefully presented as embodying a Christian truth. "Eurydice" and "Hyacinthus," and the beautiful "Compline" hymn, in which our Lady is invoked as the "Mighty Mother' of the Greeks"; as "Thou from the mind of God Athené leaping, arm'd for the deathless strife"; and as 66 Demeter, when she seeks her child among the doomful holds"; "Mother of harvests, sheaves of souls still reaping." Indeed, throughout the book, the author's ardent love of nature, and keen perception of its varied moods and tenderest lights and shades, are mingled most happily with her classic lore and all the subtler thoughts and images which are only present when to the poetic afflatus is joined high and careful cultivation. Our want of space compels us to leave unmentioned many poems equally deserving of notice, but we must not pass over one called "With the Bluebells," one of those beautiful wildflower lessons which come perhaps to all who love spring, and the country, and flowers, but which few can put into words like these; the hymn, "If it be Thou," which expresses in forcible words the desolation of the Christian, tried all but beyond her strength; the poems about children, written some, of those who are still the light and joy of their homes,-others, of those who are, alas! but tender and holy memories; and the touching poem called "In Memoriam," the concluding lines of which are perhaps among the strongest and most beautiful in the volume.

Proposed Offering to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, in commemoration of the Pilgrimage made by English and Scotch Catholics to Paray-le-Monial, September, 1873. 1874.

A

CIRCULAR has been put out by Lady Petre, containing an appeal for a Night Home for Poor Girls above thirteen years old and upwards, unmarried, in London. It is proposed to build class-rooms, a VOL. XXIII.—NO. XLV. [New Serics.]

refectory, dormitories, and a chapel, for the use of a most destitute class of girls, who may thus be permanently rescued from every evil of a vagabond life. The cause pleaded in this circular is pre-eminently the cause of the poor, and the singular success of the House of the Sisters of Charity in Bulstrode-street is a guarantee that this further appeal will not be made in vain. Probably the minor details are not as yet immoveably arranged; and-unless there are reasons, unknown to us, for the arrangement—the bias of our own judgment would be that the obligation of the applicants being known to the priests of their parish, the Sisters, or ladies interested in the work, would be better away. There must be many girls, almost children, in London, on the brink of ruin, whose lives and very existence are unknown, except to Almighty God, to whom the angels of these literally lost sheep are crying day and night for rescue.

Glory and Sorrow, or the Consequences of Ambition; and Selim, the Pasha of Salonica. Translated from the French by P. S., a Graduate of S. Joseph's, Emenittsburg. New York: The Catholic Publication Society, Warren-street. 1874.

TH

HESE are two very pretty little French tales, nicely translated, an put forth to the world by our active American neighbours, whose labours for the Catholic Church are beginning to bring their literature s prominently before their brethren of the old world. The second tale, Selim, is really beautiful and full of interest, and the description of F. Mariel Auge paints in vivid colours, that most heavenly and perfect of characters, the French Religious. This little book will be an attractive addition to our lending libraries.