erature, manuals, prayer books, compilations for the benefit of religious communities. He is part author, part editor of the present volume, and from the combined efforts of his own pen and those of such writers as Dom Bede Camm, Reginald Buckler, Blosius, Father Faber, St. Francis de Sales, and others, he has put together a very comprehensive manual of "Reflections on the General Principles of Religious Life, on Charity, Vocation, the Vows, the Rules, the Cloister Virtues, and the Main Devotions of the Church." The result is a volume that may be used equally well as a source of thoughts for meditation, or a thesaurus of information on the multitudinous points indicated. It is a fit companion for his Prayer Book for Religious. ESSENTIALS AND NON ESSENTIALS. How are we to distinguish between what is of obligation and what is not, in matters of faith and practice, is a question frequently asked both by Catholics and non Catholics. It is one which demands a careful reply that cannot be given in a sentence or two. Vague, evasive answers will not satisfy an intelligent inquirer. Exaggeration, on one side or the other, may easily result in harm. Some time ago the subject was treated with ability in a series of papers in the Ave Maria, which are now published in book form. If the volume bears no Imprimatur-which is somewhat surprising-the want is not due to any danger that it might not pass the ordeal of the most rigid canonical censorship. Father Hughes expounds the theological principles of the question with admirable clearness and conciseness; and with detail sufficient to convey a thoroughly practical grasp of Catholic teaching and practice, either to the inquiring stranger, or to the children of the household. ISRAEL'S HISTORICAL NARRATIVES. No one, at the present day, can go very far in the study of the Bible without feeling at times the need of just such a work as Dr. Kent's Student's Old Testament.+ The second volume, which lies before us, contains the historical and * Essentials and Non-Essentials of the Catholic Religion. By the Rev. H. G. Hughes. South Bend, Indiana: The Ave Maria Press. ↑ Israel's Historical and Biographical Narratives. By Charles Foster Kent, Ph.D. New not been given to us, but that the coverings anciently given to us have been torn by violent hands, insomuch that our soul is bowed down to the dust, our belly cleaveth unto the earth. We suffer from various diseases, enduring pains in our back and sides; we lie with our limbs unstrung by palsey, and there is no man who layeth it to heart, and no man who provides a mollifying plaster. Our native whiteness that was clear with light has turned to dun and yellow, so that no leech who should see us would doubt that we are diseased with jaundice. Some of us are suffering from gout; as our twisted extremities plainly show. The books exhibit their endurance of all the ills that flesh is heir to. They are put in pledge at taverns, their ancient nobility is ruined by having new names imposed upon them by worthless compilers, translators, and transformers, "so that, against our will, the name of some wretched step-father is imposed upon us, and the sons are robbed of the names of their true fathers." Alas! for the noblest of human hopes. What became of the good bishop's books is a matter of conjecture. Most probably they went, at his death in 1345, to the house of the Durham Benedictines, at Oxford, where they remained till the suppression by Henry VIII. Then some went to Duke Humphrey's library, others to Balliol, and the remainder to the purchaser of the dissolved college. How many prayers have been offered up, for the past three hundred years, at "the chief nursing mother of all liberal arts" for the prince of book-lovers? In 1888, for the first time, an accurate text of the Latin original was printed, the results of fifteen years of labor, by an eminent scholar. From that text the present translation is made. This publication is among the first of a series which proposes to issue popular editions of the old English classics. The translator has cleverly preserved the quaintness of the original. THE RELIGIOUS LIFE. The indefatigable Father Lasance appears again in the lists with his tenth manual of devotion.* It is in his usual field-the field he has won for himself by his former successes-that of devotional lit*Thoughts on the Religious Life, etc. By Rev. F. L. Lasance. New York: Benziger erature, manuals, prayer books, compilations for the benefit of religious communities. He is part author, part editor of the present volume, and from the combined efforts of his own pen and those of such writers as Dom Bede Camm, Reginald Buckler, Blosius, Father Faber, St. Francis de Sales, and others, he has put together a very comprehensive manual of "Reflections on the General Principles of Religious Life, on Charity, Vocation, the Vows, the Rules, the Cloister Virtues, and the Main Devotions of the Church." The result is a volume that may be used equally well as a source of thoughts for meditation, or a thesaurus of information on the multitudinous points indicated. It is a fit companion for his Prayer Book for Religious. ESSENTIALS AND NON ESSENTIALS. How are we to distinguish between what is of obligation and what is not, in matters of faith and practice, is a question frequently asked both by Catholics and non- Catholics. It is one which demands a careful reply that cannot be given in a sentence or two. Vague, evasive answers will not satisfy an intelligent inquirer. Exaggeration, on one side or the other, may easily result in harm. Some time ago the subject was treated with ability in a series of papers in the Ave Maria, which are now published in book form. If the volume bears no Imprimatur—which is somewhat surprising-the want is not due to any danger that it might not pass the ordeal of the most rigid canonical censorship. Father Hughes expounds the theological principles of the question with admirable clearness and conciseness; and with detail sufficient to convey a thoroughly practical grasp of Catholic teaching and practice, either to the inquiring stranger, or to the children of the household. ISRAEL'S HISTORICAL NARRATIVES. No one, at the present day, can go very far in the study of the Bible without feeling at times the need of just such a work as Dr. Kent's Student's Old Testament.+ The second volume, which lies before us, contains the historical and *Essentials and Non-Essentials of the Catholic Religion. By the Rev. H. G. Hughes. South Bend, Indiana: The Ave Maria Press. Israel's Historical and Biographical Narratives. By Charles Foster Kent, Ph.D. New biographical narratives covering the period from Samuel to the Maccabean triumph. The work, apart from the notes, chiefly textual, and an introduction on the character of the narratives, is simply an edition of the Old Testament arranged according to subject-matter; thus, in the present instance, the historical materials are disposed, not in the canonical order, but according to the chronological sequence of events. It is, in fact, a sort of harmony of the Old Testament, which gives us at a glance, in parallel columns, all the narratives referring to any particular event, precisely as a gospel harmony or synopsis. Thus, for the reign of David, we have the parallel accounts of Samuel and the Chronicler; for the Maccabean times, of First and Second Maccabees, the editor includes not only the historical books proper, but also the historical portions of certain prophetical books, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Haggai. The excellent maps and chronological tables will be welcomed as valuable aids by the student-if the cost of the six rather expensive volumes, which will comprise the set, do not keep them out of his reach. The Catholic reader will be pleased to note that the learned Yale professor includes the two books of Maccabees among his historical sources, and favors their admission into the canon. He will be pleased likewise to see that high historical value is accorded to the first book of Maccabees, and that some historical elements, at least, are recognized as existing in the second; and while he will regret that this scholar has been unable to accord a higher degree of historical trustworthiness to these books of Sacred Scripture, he will better comprehend the reason for it on learning that the erudite Jesuit commentator, Father Knabenbauer, until recently the very bulwark of conservative criticism, has felt constrained to take an attitude on this question essentially similar to Dr. Kent's. The errors and inaccuracies which the Jesuit author points out in these books are ascribed to popular rumor; but they are reconciled with the doctrine of inspiration by an admirable application of the theory respecting the intention of the writer. The book of Esther is placed by Dr. Kent among the historical writings; not that he regards the facts it relates as real history, but because the work exhibits the temper of the chosen race in the second century before Christ. On his own ground, Tobias. An impartial criticism will not rank them below Esther in historical worth; and a devout mind will find in them. far more food for edification than in the story of Vashti's rival, especially as it stands in the Protestant Bible. We do not doubt that if Judith and Tobias were found in the Protestant Canon, our author could reconcile his conscience to including them among the historical books, just as easily as he has found room for Esther. Dr. Kent's method of dealing with Esther has been followed by the Catholic Cosquin with respect to Tobias; and the Sulpician Father Vigouroux, the present secretary of the Biblical Commission, with unwonted boldness, has added his great authority to the application by giving it his encouragement, if not entire acceptance. If this radical method of dealing with the deutero-canonical historical books is to prevail in the circles of Vigouroux and Knabenbauer, objection on the part of scholars like Dr. Kent to including them in the Canon would probably disappear. Our author's favorable view of Maccabees leads us to hope that he is free from the bias which so unwisely excludes from the Canon the beautiful books of Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus; and that perhaps the day is not far distant when the Church's position respecting the Canon of the Old Testament will be fully vindicated by non-Catholic scholars. The attitude which the Yale professor takes up in reference to Ezra and Nehemiah is an indication that Van Hoonacker, the distinguished Louvain professor, is at last about to come. into his own. The priority of Nehemiah to Ezra in the work of reforming the restored Jewish community, first mooted and then, post multa certamina, proven by Van Hoonacker, is fully upheld by Dr. Kent; and it seems likely that the great restorer of Israel will receive the place in history that he deserves. The Ezra of Dr. Kent, however, is far too shadowy a figure to appeal to the historical sense of the Dutch critic. The general plan of the present volume and its execution are worthy of all praise; but many incidental blemishes, particularly its freedom in questioning or denying the trustworthiness of many narratives, prevent us from recommending this otherwise admirable work as a manual suitable to Catholic |