present volumes may be considered the most important of all, for it was during this time that it may be fairly said that the tide turned when the gradual shrinkage of the Catholic body which had been proceeding steadily for over two centuries ceased, and a future began to open out before the Catholics of England in a manner to which their forefathers had been strangers. This period may therefore be appropriately called the dawn of the Catholic revival which has been proceeding ever since. The number and variety of influences at work, the abolition of the penal laws, the influx of the French refugee clergy, the return of our colleges and convents to English soil and other influences as well, combine to fill it with instructive historical lessons. It has been endeavored to present a history of the English Catholic body in general, together with a detailed account of their development in London and the home counties-the old 'London District,' as it was called. For obvious reasons no attempt has been made to describe the Catholic missions throughout the country. In many cases this has been done by books published locally by priests of the missions they concern; in at least one instance a whole county has been covered in a single book."

Much courage was required on the part of the author who would undertake to review the events of that quarter of a century. Much learning also, and much labor. During that period event crowded event so closely that the chronicler must be a man of sharp vision, cool judgment and clear mind to be able to record them. Mgr. Ward possesses all the qualities for the work in an eminent degree, and therefore he manages his material so well as to produce an admirable history of a momentous period.

BIOGRAPHIES OF ENGLISH CATHOLICS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. By Rev. John Kirk, D. D. Being part of his projected continuation of "Dodd's Church History." Edited by John Hungerford Pollen, S. J., and Edwin Burton, D. D., F. R. Hist. S. 12mo., pp. 293, illustrated. Burns & Oates, London. Benziger Brothers, New York, Cincinnati, Chicago.

Here is a splendid addition to Catholic biographical literature, which contains so many names not yet recorded in accessible form. The sketches are necessarily brief, but very interesting and full of surprises. The book will be of immense value to literary men especially. The following account of its history is interesting:

"For those who are at all familiar with the history of the English Catholics in the early years of the last century there will be little, if any need of a formal introduction to the Rev. John Kirk. All our larger Catholic archives preserve papers from his pen, his manuscript collections have been cited by numerous authors, and but for the almost insuperable obstacles of his times, the great history which he projected might have been carried out and his name as an author might already have been notable for nearly a century. "From about the year 1776, when as a student in Rome he discovered a copy of Dodd's 'Church History' among the books of the English College, his ambition was to continue that great work from 1688 to his own time. With this object in view, he labored for more than fifty years to gather from all sources information as to the history of the Catholic Church in England during the eighteenth century.

"He wrote and copied, he bound up loose papers, and his MS. series of volumes entitled 'Collectanea Anglo-Catholica' grew to considerable dimensions. Yet he was never able to complete the undertaking he had projected in his youth. He grew old in collecting the material, and the history of the English Catholics in the eighteenth century remains unwritten.

"Yet his labors have not been unproductive of results. To say nothing of his large manuscript collections, an invaluable source for future historians, which but for his industry might have been lost, we have the collection of lives now given to the public. Dodd has included in his history chapters on the 'Lives of Bishops,' 'Lives of Peers,' 'Lives of Secular Clergymen,' etc., and Kirk had not only accepted and somewhat amplified the idea, but actually carried this part of the plan into execution, and was able to write on the last page 'Finis, April 7, 1841.'"

LETTERS ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. (Second Series.) The Seven Sacraments. Part II.-The Sacrament of Extreme Unction and Last Rites, the Sacrament of Holy Orders and the Sacrament of Matrimony. By F. M. De Zulueta, S. J. 12mo., pp. 275. R. & T. Washbourne, London. Benziger Brothers. New York.

This is indeed an exhaustless subject. We cannot have too many explanations of Christian doctrine, provided that they really explain, and provided that they are suited to the capacity of those for whom they are intended. The previous volumes of the work before us had these two qualities. By way of introduction to the present volume the author says:

"In laying before his many kind readers the second installment of 'Letters' on the Seven Sacraments, the author wishes to remind them once again that these volumes on Christian doctrine in no way pretend to form a complete manual of theology. Although they may prove of use to busy priests by supplying ready materials for instruction to their people, yet their main purpose is to popularize theology for the laity, and particularly for lay or non-priestly instructors.

"In the present volume it has, of course, been necessary to deal with that increasingly momentous sacrament, Holy Matrimony. The author has been fully conscious of the delicacy of this part of his subject, but not less alive to the slender instructions concerning it so often to be noticed even among Catholics.

"Now, here it would have been quite easy and far more pleasant to deal in mere pious generalities. But such policy seemed utterly useless in a work of practical instruction, and even unconscientious, if not misleading.

"On the whole, then, it seemed to the author that his choice lay not between silence and speech, but between an endeavor on the one hand to convey a sufficient knowledge of Catholic moral principles, and on the other withholding a needful antidote to the false notions that are current at the present time."

He adopted the latter course, and the result justifies his resolution. He has the happy and rare faculty of speaking on delicate subjects without giving offense, and yet in an informing way.

THOUGHTS OF THE HEART. By P. M. Northcote, O. S. M., author of "Consolamini," "The Bond of Perfection," etc. 12mo., pp. 288. Benziger Brothers, New York.

The book is a collection of short essays which may be used as meditations, or short instructions, or foundations for sermons. They are notable for the wide field which they cover, and also for their originality and unction. The compiler offers this word of explanation:

"The expression 'Thoughts of the Heart' is frequently made use of in Holy Scripture. The phrase is a beautiful one, implying as it does that not only is the mind occupied in ruminating the secret and hidden things of God's wisdom, but furthermore that from the meditation of heavenly truths the heart is awakened to elicit corresponding aspirations towards God.

"These are truly 'Thoughts of the Heart,' for the same consoling and helpful friendship which moved the author to produce his book of meditations entitled 'Consolamini' is responsible also for this new volume, which is in truth but a continuation of the former.

"Moreover, they are essentially 'Thoughts of the Heart' from the manner of their composition, since they are written upon no preconsidered system, but just according as some idea presented itself to the author's mind, calling forth a corresponding elevation of the heart towards the Infinite Being, from whom all light and warmth proceed. In compiling them, however, for publication, I have endeavored where possible to observe some sort of rough sequence.

"Perhaps they are not, strictly speaking, meditations, but rather short spiritual readings. I have nevertheless, divided the different subjects into three or four points for the sake of those who choose to make use of the book as a manual of meditation."

TRAVAIL ET FOLIE. Influences professionnelles sur l'étiologie psychopathique. Drs. A. Marie et R. Martial. One vol. in 16. Bibliothèque de Psychologie expérimentale et de métapsychie. Bloud, éditeur, 7 place Saint-Sulpice, Paris.

The relations subsisting between labor and insanity present a problem which calls in question several notions which though practically considered as settled, are always open to discussion in a philosophical point of view.

The authors of this new book do not maintain that in this or that particular case labor is the cause of insanity. Every disease, whether mental or of another kind, is occasioned by multiple causes, and in each case each of the causes occupies a place of different and variable importance in the totality of causes whence the disorder is derived. What these writers endeavor to decide is what part in the etiological totality of causes giving rise to "psychosis" is to be attributed to manual or intellectual labor on the one hand, and on the other, what is the proportion or percentage of laborers afflicted with "psychosis" as compared with the sum total of laborers in general and as compared with the sum total of laborers in each profession.

This work, then, chiefly consists of the elaboration of documents. But it will comprise in addition some amount of scientific discussion and reasoning, since the etiology of certain psychopathies entails the examination of some opinions accepted or about to be accepted on the subject of vesanic etiology.

This book supplies a want long felt in medico-psychological literature, being the first work that enters deeply into the question at issue, while basing its conclusions on a plentiful amount of observation.

LA THEOLOGIE SCOLASTIQUE ET LA TRANSCENDANCE DU SURNATUREL. Par H. Ligeard, professeur d'apologétique à l'école de théologie de LyonFrancheville. One vol. in 16. De viii.+138 pages. Libraire Gabriel Beauchesne et Cie, rue de Rennes, 117, Paris.

This little volume is devoted to the study of the very difficult, but very actual question of the transcendance or of the immanence of the supernatural. The theologians of the schools had already treated this question from the thirteenth to the eighteenth century. In solving it M. Ligeard saw what an advantage would be found in the study of their teaching. The first three chapters deal with the different theories professed on the subject in the Thomist, Scotist