enough; that they are devout to our Lady; that they wear the scapular; and that they say daily, without reproach or vanity, seven Paters and Aves in her honour; and that they sometimes say the Rosary and the Office of our Lady, besides fasting, and other things. To give authority to all this, and to blind themselves still further, they quote certain stories, which they have heard or read-it does not matter to them whether they be true or false,relating how people have died in mortal sin without confession; and then, because in their lifetime they sometimes said some prayers, or went through some practices of devotion to our Lady, how they have been raised to life again, in order to go to confession, or their soul been miraculously retained in their bodies till confession; or how they have obtained from God at the moment of death contrition and pardon of their sins, and so have been saved; and that they themselves expect similar favours. Nothing in Christianity is more detestable than this diabolical presumption. For how can we say truly that we love and honour our Blessed Lady, when by our sins we are pitilessly piercing, wounding, crucifying, and outraging Jesus Christ her Son? If Mary laid down a law to herself, to save by her mercy this sort of people, she would be authorising crime, and assisting to crucify and outrage her Son."

Brevi Cenni intorno alla Vita e gli Scritti di Francesca de Maistre, con alcune Memorie di Benedetta Medolago Albani, nata De Maistre. Roma: coi Tipi della Civiltà Cattolica.

WE

E have not ourselves had the opportunity of seeing this little volume, mentioned in the "Review of the Press," in the last number of the Civiltà Cattolica, but we are led to notice it in connection with an article appearing in the pages of the present REVIEW Upon the life and writings of Rosa Ferrucci. These two sisters, who, from the name, would seem to be of French extraction, offered to the world a kindred example. Our reviewers compare the book containing the portrait of their sweet lives to a beautiful nosegay of many-tinted flowers-a remark which forcibly recalls to us our own feelings when we first became acquainted with that sweet flower of Northern Italy who has unconsciously revealed herself in unaffected outpourings of her own pen. What gives a singular value to these mystical flowers of virtue, our writers observe, is the nature of the place where they have flourished, which was not some solitary cloister, but in the midst of the world and the comforts and luxuries of a rich and noble family. Their sanctity was exhibited, not in any outward singularity, but in the most diligent attention to profit by every little occasion of merit, and by an extraordinary excellence in the most ordinary acts. Francesca arrived at a very high perfection, and took the three vows of religion in the world. To a sound Catholic education she must have been greatly indebted, as by nature she had dispositions which, under less propitious training, might have led to the formation of a very different character. We are told that she was by nature of a lively disposition, with a precocious understanding, an ardent heart, a tenacious attachment to her own opinion, and a want of moderation in her inclinations which disposed her towards exaggeration and singularity in her actions, and which might easily have passed into the eccentric. What abundant materials existed here for the formation of an indocile character! What a hotbed for the fostering

of the passions! The discipline of Christian mortification, however, which she early learnt and perseveringly applied to all the minutiae of daily life, not only got the better of these natural defects, but turned all the strength and ardour of a mind which might have been so energetic for evil, to the practice of the most heroic virtue.

What is wanted is a more vigorous Christianity in our family training; and how fruitful the results might be, such specimens may serve to show. If our education lack the gentle sternness of Christ's school, we must expect to reap an abundant harvest of superficiality, vanity, delicate self-indulgence, caprice, impertinence, and unreflecting worldliness, that desolator of all that is good or loving in the heart.

"A New Series of Hymns and Sacred Part-Songs, for One, Two, Three, or Four Voices, with Accompaniment," the music chiefly by living composers, edited by Frederick Westlake, A.R.A.M. (London: Lambert & Co., 17, Portman-street)—is an attempt, and we think a very successful one, to apply the resources of modern musical art to the illustration of devotional poetry, and thus to furnish what has hitherto been a desideratum in Catholic circles. The words are for the most part selected from the hymns and poems of Fathers Faber and Caswall, with a few miscellaneous pieces from Aubrey de Vere, Miss Procter, and other poets, and one or two prose verses from the Psalms. The music is of two different kinds. The first and main portion of each number consists of Catholic hymns of a comparatively simple character, for one or more voices; while another is made up of longer pieces, intended apparently to occupy in sacred music a similar field to that which has been so well cultivated by Mendelssohn and others in their secular part-songs, &c. This latter portion will be an especial boon to our schools, colleges, and choral societies, as well as to Catholic families generally. As to the character of the music, it may well be left to speak for itself. Suffice it to say that the editor has been fortunate enough to secure the assistance of such musicians as Molique, Silas, Macfarren, Schulthes, Barnett, Fagan, Lutz, and others, and that one and all have done their best. We are glad to see that, besides the miscellaneous hymns which the present parts contain, the plan comprises also a complete series of Hymns and Part-songs for the feasts of Our Lady and of the chief Saints of the Church. We may have occasion hereafter to treat more at length the subject of English Catholic Hymnology. Meantime, the work before us has our best wishes for its successful progress. We may add that it is extremely cheap.

We have received a translation from the Italian of Father Croiset's work on "Devotion to the Sacred Heart." English books on this devotion are by no means so numerous as might have been expected from its singularly touching character. Every nation has its own defects, and the English are not so easily attracted as foreigners to tenderness of devotion. Precisely for this reason we hail with pleasure every new effort calculated to imbue them

with devotion to the Sacred Heart, tenderness being its one distinguishing characteristic. The work before us is most thoughtful and solid; filled with fervent affectionateness, while completely free from anything which could be deemed extravagant or fanatical. We most cordially recommend it.

We have been greatly interested in receiving the successive numbers of The Lamp. This unpretending periodical is doing a very important Catholic work; its contents are admirably adapted to the proposed end, and are often conspicuous for ability; while its general tone, so far as we have observed, is everything which could be desired.

Mr. Marshall has put forth a new edition of his most useful and elaborate work on Christian Missions; nor is his new edition a mere reprint of the former, but, on the contrary, contains many substantial improvements. The whole question which he raises, and indeed the whole subject of foreign missions, is one to which we would earnestly solicit the attention of English Catholics. At a very early period, therefore-most probably in our next number, we shall take occasion to enlarge on those topics which Mr. Marshall's volumes so irresistibly suggest.

We see announced a work on the Holy House of Loreto, written by the late Father Hutchison in answer to Professor Stanley, of Oxford University. Monsignore Bartolini has also written an interesting work on the same theme. We hope, when Father Hutchison's work appears, to place before our readers a conspectus of the whole controversy.

FOREIGN PERIODICAL LITERATURE.

La Civiltà Cattolica. Serie V., Vols. V. VI. Roma, 1863.

HE rich periodical literature of our time exercises one very important

T office that of keeping those who have not leisure for extensive

reading au courant of the critical questions of the day, and placing before them in a condensed and easily accessible shape the attained results of thought and study. But it has become so voluminous, that it requires to have something of the same office performed in its behalf, as it performs for the literary world at large. To supply this want in a measure, as respects subjects of general Catholic interest, we purpose from time to time to give an analysis of the more important papers that appear in the pages of foreign periodicals, among which the Civiltà Cattolica deservedly holds a prominent place.

The January numbers contain two interesting papers on the Temporal Power of the Popes. They are a continuation of a series of articles thrown

into the form of conversations. Three friends meet and discuss the subject. There is the advocate of the Catholic cause, the opponent imbued with the liberalism of the day, and a Neapolitan stranger desirous of fuller information, but whose sympathies are on the Catholic side. This mode of conducting an argument has its advantages; but it commonly errs by showing undue favour to its own side, making the automaton opponent cut his own throat, or rather that of the cause he espouses, in the most accommodating fashion; thus merely helping to show off the prowess of his adversary before becoming an easy conquest. The writers of the conversations before us are not chargeable with this defect. They allow the adversary to state his case fully and strongly, and, as yet, it must be added, he shows no signs of conversion.

In the first number of the present year the position assumed is, that the attack on the Temporal Power is really an attack on civil liberty. As a preliminary step towards proving this point, the advocate calls attention to the fact that the attack on the temporal power of the Pope is but a particular form of the war which the world has ever waged against the Church; which war, although really directed to the uprooting of the Church, can succeed only in despoiling it of all liberty of public and social action. That the attack in question has this largeness of scope, is evident both from the ferocity with which it is urged-a ferocity inexplicable from the mere fact of the Holy Father's temporal power forming an obstacle to Italian unity, since the heretics and revolutionists of all countries assail it with a like vehemence and from the energy with which bishops, clergy, religious orders, and the Catholic laity generally, have declared themselves in favour of its maintenance. It is an instinct of self-preservation which has produced this almost unexampled unanimity. The Catholic world feels it is fighting pro aris et focis, for the palladium of ecclesiastical liberty. The necessity of the Pope's possessing an independent territory is all the more evident in the present day, now that particular Churches have lost their independent social action, through the progress of so-called liberal institutions. These local Churches have properly neither legal rights nor public action, save according to the good pleasure of the respective governments. Under these circumstances, their last and only support is the Holy See. To rob the Supreme Head of the Church of his temporal sovereignty, and thereby cripple his freedom and independence, would consequently be equivalent to reducing all particular Churches to slavery.

But in the liberty of the Church, civil liberty is itself implicated. The Catholic advocate shows that the true action of liberty was unknown before the establishment of Christianity. The problem of reconciling in each individual the dignity of the reasonable creature with the necessity of social dependence for the maintenance of order, is solved only by the submission of all to one Sovereign Ruler, which can be God alone. Hence the necessity of a spiritual power, the depository and interpreter of the oracles of God. The Catholic Church has provided the faithful with a treasure of speculative and practical truths, independent of the civil power; and in the Sovereign Pontiff proposes a living, present, and universal master for the teaching, preservation, and interpretation of these truths. Moreover, as faith teaches

that the powers of this world are constituted by God, the opprobrium of man's submission to his fellow man is thus removed: add to which, the civil power, whether wielded by an individual or by an assembly of men professing Christianity, could not arrogate to itself any authority in matters of conscience. As Christians, they would be themselves subject, in spiritual things, to the same authority; and, as Christians, it would be their duty to procure the highest good of their subjects, and protect the Church in the exercise of her rights over conscience. Such is the true ideal of liberty introduced by the Church, avowed, acted upon, and, in a measure, carried out, previously to the introduction of modern theories of freedom.

The adversary objects :-Why, if this be so perfect a system, has one nation after another become intolerant of it, and sought to substitute the modern constitutional principles inaugurated in '89? [By modern constitutionalism, as the contest shows, the writers understand the doctrine of the sovereignty of the people as held by modern democrats, who maintain, not only that sovereignty is derived from the people, in the sense of their having the original inherent right to choose their governor and their form of government, but that this sovereignty is their immutable possession, and is exercised by the governing power simply as their organ: the ruler being the incarnation, so to say, of the sovereign will of the people-or rather of the majority of the people; and, as he rules by their will, so may they at any time remove him at their pleasure. The two opposite poles of this system are despotism and revolution. It is needless to observe that our English notions of constitutionalism differ widely from those rife amongst continental liberals, and it is an unfortunate blunder, too common in this country, to confound the two ideas.]

The advocate replies that this work is not to be attributed to the people, except so far as they have been used as instruments; rather they have everywhere been against the victims. The revolt to the spiritual power originated with the secular rulers. The pride which finds its highest gratification in political dominion could not endure that the noblest portion of man should escape from its rule, leaving it only the body to govern. Hence the desire of princes and governors to restrain, cripple, and, if possible, enslave the spiritual power -the great obstacle to the despotism of the State. So evident is this, that it is utterly inconceivable that it can be the love of liberty which is the motive of the war declared against the temporal sovereignty of the Pope, who is the sole remaining bulwark of the freedom of the human family.

The adversary rejoins :-But what have civil liberties to do with the Pontifical States, or their maintenance? And how will the development of constitutional principles be hindered by "the High Priest returning to his nets ?"

The advocate thereupon develops his views of the consequences resulting from the principles of modern liberalism, which he considers to be subversive of genuine liberty. His argument is briefly this: that, while upholding the doctrine of popular sovereignty, it tends in reality to the absorption of all power by the State; that the people are cheated into believing that they are in possession of the reins of government, because they enjoy the privilege, some dozen times in their lives, of throwing a ticket