THE THRESHOLD OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. A Course of Plain Instructions for those entering her Communion. By Rev. John B. Bagshawe, Missionary Rector of St. Elizabeth's, Richmond. With a preface by the Right Rev. Monsignor Capel. New York Catholic Publication Society, 1873. Received through Peter F. Cunningham, 216 S. Third Street.

The title of this book is in a certain sense a misnomer, for while at first glance it would lead us to believe that the work is specially intended for the benefit of those who are at furthest only at the portals of the Church, we, on fuller inspection, find that it is equally serviceabie for a large class of Catholics whom we regret to have to classify as little better than strangers within her gates.

Father Bagshawe very aptly remarks (pp. 7 and 8): "A man who has got his mind very full of the notion of God sees his own littleness in comparison with God's greatness, feels his own ignorance in comparison with God's infinite wisdom, thinks of God's presence every where, consequently has a great reverence for Him and all things belonging to Him, and feels a deep responsibility to Him for all his actions. Such a man as this finds no difficulty in religion. The mysteries of his faith seem quite reasonable and natural to him; they are consistent with the idea of God, which is familiar to him. The things required of him in the service of God are just what he is prepared to give. If he is not a Catholic, should the Catholic religion ever be put in his way so as to give him a chance of knowing it, he will be in a good disposition to embrace it.

"On the other hand, if a man has not in his heart much real thought of God or reverence for Him, you may be sure that his religion rests on a very slight foundation. It is like the house built on the sand; whatever external appearance it may have, it is in danger of falling in the first trial-and the rains fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it fell' (St. Matthew, 7:27)."

Here we have minutely described the characters of the two classes of persons for whom this book is intended. They can, however, be ranged under one head, namely, those needing instruction in the Catholic religion, whether as outsiders seeking it, or baptized children of the

faith failing to know and appreciate the gift of God. The former, coming to the fountain of living waters, as they generally do come, with a perfect heart, need only instruction for the head; the latter, personified by the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well, must be trained through the heart and by the instrumentality of a winsome love. Both must be made to know the gift of God before they can fully appreciate it, receiving first the word with joy ere they bring forth fruit in season. How is this to be done? They must read.

Whatever profession of life we adopt we must prepare for it by arduous study; no duty of the world, however trifling, can be fulfilled without some preparation, nor perfectly performed without long practice. Shall the science of salvation, in comparison with which all secular learning and profit are nothing, shall it alone be neglected? Learned intuitively it may be, by a special grace, a grace, however, not wasted upon those whom God has blessed with the talents and means to acquire it in the natural promptly, No. The duty of studying the way, but to the main question we answer Christian religion being self-apparent, we have only to add that we know of no work better suited for the purpose, no book better adapted to educate both the head and heart, none more thorough, treating alike of dogma, doctrine, discipline, and ritual, yet none at the same time more briefly comprehensive than Father Bagshawe's welcome work. Himself one of those English converts than whom none know better the trials of a mind seeking the light of faith, the completeness with which he has provided so excellent a means for so perfect an end is proven by the warm reception his book has already received.

SCRAMBLES AMONGST THE ALPS in the

years 1860-69. By Edward Whymper; with over 100 illustrations. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1873.

We can suggest nothing more seasonable as a subject for summer reading than the pages of this charming volume, redolent with the spray of Alpine avalanches and delicious with the crisp breathings of those snow-clad peaks and cool retreats mid the recesses of the mountain boulders. Who has not heard of the Alps, their magnificent scenery, and the exciting adventures of tourists who cross their famous passes from France to Italy?

The romantic hospitality of Mount Saint Bernard, or the more material pleasure of a ride over the Fell railway, or through the Mount Cenis Tunnel, are familiar themes to all; but who has known of this marvellous range of mountains as Mr. Whymper so graphically describes them? Seldom if ever have the ice-bound secrets of their by ways, the hidden places of their rocks, their highest summits and deepest valleys, their Fauna and Flora, the character of their inhabitants, their manner of life, even their peculiar dis eases, cretinism and the goitre; in a word, everything in the natural order, as well as the mechanical wonders by which the skill of nian has superadded to the marvels of this region and facilitated travel therein, are all discussed in a style full of the deep research and romantic dash of one thoroughly conversant with the subject. He has literally scrambled all through this terra incognita, and disclosed its wonders, to the pleasure and profit of the reader, in a series of papers recently published in Lippincott's Magazine, of which this book is a compilation in the form of an octavo volume, beautifully printed on rich tinted paper, handsomely bound, and its literary value doubly enhanced by the profusion of illustrations on wood, which have merited unqualified praise from hosts of connoisseurs as being almost unequalled of their kind in the engraver's art. These are from designs and photographs by a number of distinguished artists, and executed under the personal supervision of Messrs. T. W. and Edward Whymper. A COURSE OF PHILOSOPHY, embracing Logic, Metaphysics, and Ethics, designed as a text-book for the use of schools. By Rev. A. Louage, C.S.C., professor in the University at Notre Dame. Baltimore: Kelly, Piet & Co., 1873. In the June (1873) number of the RECORD, while reviewing a work on philosophy somewhat similar to the one before us, we took occasion to express our gratification at the publication of a Catholic philosophical text-book, and at the same time gave utterance to the wish that it would be followed speedily by other kindred works. We little anticipated then that our desire would be so soon gratified. Fr. Louage's work is far more elementary, more condensed and simpler in its diction than the pioneer volume of Fr. Hill. We particularly advise the reader to peruse the preface to the present volume, as it is valuable for the suggestions it gives with regard to the importance of studying philosophy. We have not found anything in the body of the work contrary

to sound doctrine or even of unsafe tendency, but we would, as a general rule, warn authors of such treatises, now that they are beginning to take a place among our school-books, against too great condensation, lest they become dangerously inexplicit or be chargeable with a brevity equivalent to absurdity.

POINTS OF HISTORY. Boston: Patrick Donahue, 1873.

We are heartily delighted at the issue of a new edition of this old and invaluable little work, coming as it does at a time when the argumentative contest over the historical questions of which it treats is being reopened with renewed bitterness. Protestantism, the offspring of the "father of lies," lives, thrives, and fattens on the food of mendacity, served up by its own writers. Catholic authors, however, have been on the alert. The late and doubly lamented Col. James F. Meline-peace to his ashes!-by his

Mary, Queen of Scots," his recompilation of Hüber's "Xystus V," and, if we mistake not the penman, by several articles in the Catholic World, on such subjects as "Pope Joan" and similar mendacious trash, has dealt most vigorous blows upon the backs of some of the "new school historians " and the old "reformed" ones too. The little book we are reviewing appeared, however, long before Col. Meline entered the lists, and ably refutes the calumnies against the Church, or explains the doubtful points in such subjects as The Inquisition, The Albigenses and the Waldenses, The Massacre of St. Bartholomew, The Gunpowder Plot, Galileo, and Religious Toleration a Question of First Principles. The only fault we have heard insinuated against the book is the absence of notes of reference or an index of authorities. then the present edition comes to us more substantially clad than its predecessors, and the new dress is so pleasing that we will let it cover those little sins of omission, while we take the book like an old friend upon its yet never-failing word.

SUMMER EXCURSIONIST, 1873.

But

We have received from D. M. Boyd, Jr., Esq., a copy of "The Summer Excursionist," a neat little pamphlet issued by the enterprising managers of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, containing a descriptive list of several hundred favorite excursions. This little volume contains much valuable information to the travelling public, and will be found particularly useful to all who may be contemplating a trip at the present time, the most delightful season of the year for travelling.

WE find ourselves in a particularly happy and intellectual state of mind this bright September morning. Our happiness we must set down to the exhilarating state of the weather, for the fact is undeniable that we are and have been for a long time a victim to that foul fiend dyspepsia. The phase of our intellectuality is such that we have no right to attribute any relief, physical or mental, to that score, for if our mental digestion indicates anything it proves this fact, that we have been doing a deal of heavy reading of late. We have been poring over page after page of those lightsome tomes which a renowned litterateur,whose demise we deplore, has so aptly styled "leaders of disjointed thinking;" in a word, to get out of the woods of metaphor, we have been perusing the newspapers. We have labored for years, indeed, ever since our juvenile days, under the impression that it was our bounden duty not only to cultivate our mind by good reading, but also to keep its growth fresh and vigorVOL. V.-21

ous after, it was cultivated; and how could we better do this, thought we, than by watering it with the intellectual dew of newspaperdom? Do not the newspapers keep you up with the times? do not the newspapers tell you all that's going on? and a good deal that isn't going on too? Are not the newspapers the thermometers of thought and action? Are they not, in the language of all the Solons of the nineteenth century, among the greatest engines of all the material and metaphysical highfalutinism of this age of ages? Are they not the levers of public opinion? are they not the leaders of progressive thought? are they not the teachers of the people? Above all, don't they always tell the truth? don't they always have the latest and most reliable intelligence? (reliable in a double sense) no matter whether they get from "an intelligent contraband," "a gentleman just arrived from the scene of action,"

favor that every little insignificant sheet that starts into existence, and is nursed into hardihood by little urchins who run it vigorously all day long up and down in the open street for the benefit of its health, on the same principle, we suppose, that nurse takes baby out for an airing; we repeat, does not this process prove so thriving that in a little while our paper has grown to such tremendous dimensions that, in order to properly appreciate its contents, we have to treat it just as we serve our mutton, quarter it? In a word, is not the press generally as superlatively superior to all other created things, except a locomotive, as that remarkable and vigorous female, "Major De Boots's wife?" To all of which we, as American citizens, proud of the privilege of honoring this mighty champion of the people's rights and the people's wrongs, answer, unhesitatingly, Yes! most certainly. Therefore, what better could we do than read the newspapers?

Newspapers, however, like almost everything else in this age of voluminous legislation and strict definitions, have certain rights, privileges, and prerogatives. One of their rights is a perfect freedom of expression upon all matters of a nature pertaining to that class of subjects for which they pretend a special interest. As, for instance, if they are the organ of any particular branch of business interests, or of any political party, or of any religious denomination, we naturally expect them to demonstrate and defend all matters which come professedly within their control. While these privileges and prerogatives are clearly pointed out by the common judgment of the public, that public, in turn, is equally jealons of any undue intrusion of these mouth-pieces of public sentiment upon the province of each other, or any unnecessary or violent expres

the so-called freedom of the press to degenerate into licentiousness. A professedly Democratic paper which would enunciate, or even defend in part the principles of the Republican party, would be an anomaly so startling that the partisans of the political party of which it was the pretended exponent would immediately desert its subscription list, while the verdict of the disinterested popular voice would be that its editor was looking out for spoils in the camp of the opposite party, was smarting under some offence from his own side, or was from sheer mental vacillation preparing "to jump Jim Crow." The organ of the shoe and leather trade does not attempt to deal with questions pertaining to the iron interests, while we would hardly search through the columns of the Legal Intelligencer for information properly to be sought for in the pages of the Journal of Commerce or Samuel's Circular. Upon the same principle papers which are published to advocate the religious views of various sectarian denominations, are, as a universal rule, famous for their adherence to the dogmas and doctrines of their respective churches. It was the almost unheard of departure from this rule that raised such a remarkable expression of sentiment against the tone of the Mercersburg Review and those Episcopalian journals which advocate the cause of Ritualism, because, by their misguided views, they are, according to the ideas of the churchmen they nominally represent, merely playing into the hands of the Catholics. So too with a certain magnificent periodical, which, albeit, was once, and happily is again, the favorite exponent of Catholic opinion, yet no sooner had its gifted editor advanced doctrines, which even seemed however slightly to conflict with the teach

ings of the Faith, than it immediately fell under the ban of popular disapproval. Is it not singular, then, that those magazines and newspapers which are professedly secular, that is, which claim to discuss with an impartial voice all matters of general public interest, should alone depart from this rule? In fact one would judge from the temper of their contents that they laid claim to a species of divine prerogative to judge all things with an infallible voice. Their editors are perfect "Johnnie Knowalls," conversant with everything, from "Olympus to a pebble, from an archangel to a worm." No event is too remote either in a past or future tense for their lynx-like eyes to penetrate; no problem, social, metaphysical, ethical, æsthetical, political, religious, artistic, or scientific, too abstruse for their marvellous brains to solve, and to solve with lightning-like rapidity. They are above all the restraints of logic; they rise superior to the lessons of history; they scorn, with innate pride, the teachings of everyday facts; they are the facile factotums, the great I ams, of modern progress, and the only law they know or recognize is that law unto themselves, which is the guiding star of knaves and fools.

There is one subject, however, upon which they delight to cast the wisdom-sparks of their conflicting and convulsed intellectual orbits. A subject which ever laughs the puny wits and silly investigation of Lilliputian brains to scorn, and which, consequently, is ever earning from them the hatred of the weak and malicious. That subject is the

Roman Catholic Church.

When a Catholic gentleman comes down in the morning to his coffee and rolls, he naturally takes up the daily paper; if he sees any headings which appertain to the affairs of his Church he naturally glances at them as the first thing

in order after "The Money Market." He has no objection to seeing any Church news therein, because Church news, as a portion of the current events of the day, is not out of place in a secular paper, even if the intelligence be of such a startling character as who is to be the next Pope, or that furnished by the female Jenkins, who does the Roman correspondence for the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, and who is so nicely accurate in all her statements that she can tell to the smallest fraction of an ounce the quantity of soap which His Holiness uses in the performance of his daily ablutions; but when the paper, without any previous fitness for the task, usurps the right to comment upon that news to the detriment of its Catholic readers, why, then, those readers in turn may undoubtedly claim the glorious prerogative which the newspapers say it is within their province, as leaders of progressive thought, to confer, namely, "to provoke inquiry." Neither must they complain if that powerful weapon of inquiry be turned against themselves, and their readers politely ask, "Is the press secular or Protestant?"

We do not now allude to such papers as a celebrated New York weekly, which crowns its head with the euphonious and presumptuous title, A Journal of Civilization, but which prostitutes its pages with nasty illustrations, and still nastier articles, descriptive of the well-executed woodcuts, both directed towards the avowed purpose of defaming and destroying the Roman Catholic Church, that is, of proving its own civilization by propagating lies which are intended to affect the weak-minded, prejudiced, and malicious among the Protestant portion of the American community, and by their instrumentality to make the respectable and sensible portion of that community re