tian wisdom, first opened by the Doctor of Aosta and abundantly enriched by Aquinas. On this head remember always the instructions of our predecessor, Leo XIII., of happy memory, and those we have ourself given more than once, and again in the above-mentioned encyclical, "Pascendi dominici gregis." Bitter experience only too clearly proves every day the loss and the ruin ensuing from the neglect of these studies, or from the pursuit of them without a clear and sure method; while many, before being fitted or prepared, presumed to discuss the deepest questions of the faith. (De Fide Trinitatis, cap. 2.) Deploring this evil with Anselm, we repeat the strong recommendations made by him: "Let no one rashly plunge into the intricate questions of divine things until he has first acquired, with firmness in the faith, gravity of conduct and of wisdom, lest while discussing with uncautious levity amid the manifold twistings of sophistry he fall into the toils of some tenacious error." (De Fide Trinitatis, cap. 2.) And this same incautious levity, when heated, as so often is the case, at the fire of the passions proves the total ruin of serious studies and of the integrity of doctrine. Because, puffed up with that foolish pride, lamented by Anselm in the heretical dialecticians of his time, they despise the sacred authorities of the Holy Scriptures, and of the Fathers and Doctors, concerning which a more modest genius would be glad to use instead the respectful words of Anselm: "Neither in our own time nor in the future do we ever hope to seek their like in the contemplation of the truth." (De Fide Trinitatis, Praefatio.)

Nor do they hold in greater account the authority of the Church and of the Supreme Pontiff whenever efforts are made to bring them to a better sense, although at times as far as words go they are lavish of promises of submission as long as they can hope to hide themselves behind these and gain credit and protection. This contempt almost bars the way to all well-founded hope of the conversion of the erring; while they refuse obedience to him "to whom Divine Providence as to the Lord and Father of the whole Church in its pilgrimage on earth has entrusted the custody of Christian life and faith and the government of His Church; wherefore when anything arises in the Church against the Catholic faith to no other authority but his is to be rightly referred for correction and to no other with such certainty as to him has it been shown what answer is to be made to error in order that it may be examined by his prudence." (De Fide Trinitatis, cap. 2.) And would to God that these poor wanderers, on whose lips one so often hears the fair words of sincerity, conscience, religious experience, the faith that is felt and lived, and so on, learned their lesson from Anselm, understood his holy teachings, imitated his glorious example, and above all

took deeply to heart those words of his: "First the heart is to be purified by faith, and first the eyes are to be illuminated by the observance of the precepts of the Lord and first with humble obedience to the testimonies of God we must become small to learn wisdom and not only when faith and obedience to the commandments are removed is the mind hindered from ascending to the intelligence of higher truths, but often enough the intelligence that has been given is taken away and faith is overthrown, when right conscience is neglected." (De Fide Trinitatis, cap. 2.)

But if the erring continue obstinately to scatter the seeds of dissension and error, to waste the patrimony of the sacred doctrine of the Church, to attack discipline, to heap contempt on venerated customs, "to destroy which is a species of heresy" (S. Anselm., De nuptiis consanguineorum, cap. 1), in the phrase of St. Anselm, and to destroy the constitution of the Church in its very foundations, then all the more strictly must we watch, Venerable Brothers, and keep away from our flock, and especially from youth, which is the most tender part of it, so deadly a pest. This grace we implore of God with incessant prayers, interposing the most powerful patronage of the August Mother of God and the intercession of the blessed citizens of the Church triumphant, St. Anselm especially, shining light of Christian wisdom, incorrupt guardian and valiant defender of all the sacred rights of the Church, to whom we would here, in conclusion, address the same words that our holy predecessor, Gregory VII., wrote to him during his lifetime: "Since the sweet odor of your good works has reached us, we return due thanks for them to God, and we embrace you heartily in the love of Christ, holding it for certain that by your example the Church of God has been greatly benefited, and that by your prayers and those of men like you she may even be liberated from the dangers that hang over her, with the mercy of Christ to succor us." Hence we beg your fraternity to implore God assiduously to relieve the Church and us who govern it, albeit unworthily, from the pressing assaults of the heretics and lead these from their errors to the way of truth." (In libro II., Epist. S. Anselmi, ep. 31.)

Supported by this great protection, and trusting in your coöperation, we bestow the Apostolic Benediction with all affection in the Lord, as a pledge of heavenly grace and in testimony of our goodwill, on all of you, Venerable Brothers, and on the clergy and people entrusted to each of you.

Given at Rome at St. Peter's on the feast of St. Anselm, April 21, 1909, in the eighth year of our Pontificate.

PIUS X., POPE.

SELECTED SERMONS. By Rev. Christopher Hughes, pastor of St. Mary's Church, Fall River, Mass. Introduction by Walter Elliott, C. S. P. 12mo., pp. 222. Fr. Pustet, New York.

Father Elliott is so good an authority on preaching, and he has reviewed this book so thoroughly in his introduction, that we prefer to let him speak to our readers about it:

"To aid Catholic pastors in performing rightly their high function of the ministry of the Word of God, Father Hughes has published this volume of sermons, and in our opinion he has done his work well. The test of excellence in a sermon no less than in a preacher is experiment. Himself a good preacher, the author published but a comparatively small number of sermons out of very many actually preached by him, some of them more than once. The clergy are here invited to examine these sermons, chosen from a multitude of others really preached to an average city congregation, and preached over again, and now offered after careful revision. The style, though not unrhetorical, is good, clear, forcible English, the sentences short, the matter cleared of all extraneous thought and the manner of all verbiage.

"The sermons are all of them brief, so that they may be readily committed to memory by beginners or serve as outlines for the more practiced, dealing each with one idea of strictly religious value, simply viewed, well illustrated, powerfully advocated and enforced. The tone is at once earnest and priestly, adapted to the altar and the pulpit. Holy Scripture is happily and abundantly quoted. The range of the subject does not expressly tally with the routine of the ecclesiastical year, though the topics chosen are such as to serve practically the same purpose. Some of the sermons are on the critical points of controversy of our times, touching the relation of the religious and the civil states of men, and the bearings of our civilization on the spiritual life. Others of them are such as are not to be found, as far as our knowledge goes, anywhere printed in Catholic publications of this sort, that is to say, those which give utterance to the voice of religion on patriotic occasions, such as Decoration Day, and others again arouse tender memories of the cradle-land of our Irish-American congregations.

"Education, viewed from a standpoint at once American and Catholic, is fully represented in the choice of subjects presented by the author. There is a fine sermon on 'Religious Indifferentism,' and an inspiring one on 'Intemperance,' preached at the opening of the convention of the Catholic Total Abstinence Union in 1876. Prayer, confession, the Eucharist, sanctifying grace and its effects are treated of with much power, the supernatural gifts of the Christian state being fully displayed. A beautiful sermon for Advent, entitled 'The King's Return,' a very moving and yet practical charity sermon entitled 'Almsgiving,' one on the 'Uncanonized Saints of Ireland,' one preached at the funeral of priests and others on the Blessed Virgin, St. Joseph and St. Patrick-these have impressed us as of particular use for the great body of Catholic preachers. Finally, these sermons, so brief and so plain, and yet so full of instruction and so earnest in tone, are well adapted for the use of persons who are hindered from attending Sunday Mass, or who desire devotional reading for the sick."

LA RELIGION DES PRIMITIFS. Par Mgr. A. Le Roy Evêque d'Alinda, Supérieur Général des Peres du Saint-Esprit. Libraire Gabriel Beauchesne et Cie, rue de Rennes, 117, Paris.

This volume of Mgr. Le Roy is the outcome of the course of lectures delivered by the author on "The History of Religions" at the Catholic Institute of Paris in 1907 and 1908. It is not only the best, but the only really and thoroughly good book published until the present moment on these questions. Its statements are supported throughout by well authenticated facts. Most other works written on these matters betray the preconceived ideas of their authors concerning the religious ignorance of the savages and their lack of moral standards. They show particularly the firm belief of their writers concerning the explanation of the origin of their religions, which they assert arise totally from the nature of man. Does not this smack strongly of modernism? The modernist of to-day claims the right to derive all his religion from the demands of his nature, and he imagines that the primitive savages from their origin have made the same claim. If this be true, the modernist and the savage may well claim fellowship with each other, and perhaps of both the savage may find himself to be the less flattered by the comparison.

Mgr. Le Roy spent twenty years in Africa. He brought with him all the ideas commonly entertained in Europe about the dark tribes-people addicted to fetichism, without religion, without morals, without family, besotted worshipers of animals, trees and stones. His missionary experiences soon proved to him the incorrectness of these ideas. He discovered real treasures of moral delicacy amidst strange aberrations-magnificent rites, self-accusation, for instance, by the confession of one's sins in order to be purified from the moral defilement of which they feel conscious. In one part of the volume a whole ceremonial of this confession and absolution is described in detail as it exists in Kikuyu, a district of British East Africa. The author assures us that in these twenty years of his apostolate in Africa not a day passed without adding to his fund of knowledge, correcting an idea, clearing up a doubt, changing an