8. The Watches of the Passion. By Father Gallwey, S.J. (Art and Book Company: London and Leamington).

This is the third edition of a work which is sure to become a sacred classic. It is profoundly scriptural and profoundly contemplative, and glows with love of Jesus and Him Crucified. The marvel is not that so large a work has reached a third edition in so short a time, but that this third edition in two large and well printed volumes, with maps and illustrations, can be given for six shillings, although the first edition at double that price was sold out rapidly at a loss of forty pounds. "One more such victory, and I shall be undone," said Pyrrhus, King of Epirus. Whoever may be responsible for such a costly work produced so cheaply may say, "A few more editions, and bankruptcy will stare me in the face."

9. The publishers of the preceding work have brought out several useful publications which hardly belong to literature: "The Catholic Prayerbook Almanack," "The Priest's Census Book," "The Priest's Register of Intentions," and "Catholic Diary for 1897." But there is one small book issued by the same Firm, the sale of which we hope to increase by many hundred copies by simply saying that it costs eight pence and that it is worthy of the literary and religious reputation of its author. "The Daily Life of a Religious, by Mother Francis Raphael, O.S.D. (A. T. Drane)." It consists of ten admirably written chapters on the perfection of ordinary actions, the first thoughts of the day, the daily sacrifice, recollection, mental prayer, work, study and teaching, the spirit of active work, little faults and little virtues. It is a grace to have the opportunity of helping to spread so holy and so beautiful a little book as this is.

10. Father Magnier, C.SS.R., has published at Rome, but in English, a "Life of St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori for the Young." The Redemptorist Father dates it "September 27th, 1896, biscentenary of the Holy Doctor's birth." It is admirably adapted for its purpose of interesting youthful hearts in the life and character of Saint Alphonsus. We wish that English and Irish addresses had been given on the title page, along with F. Cuggiani, 35 Piazza della Pace, Roma; but no doubt Irish booksellers will know how to procure it for their young customers.

11. Socialism and Catholicism. From the Italian of Count Edward Sodorini. By Richard Jenery Shee. (Longman and Co: London).

We hope to give an adequate appreciation of this work from the pen of a competent critic; but at present we must be content with mentioning that Cardinal Vaughan has contributed a preface in which he states that this book may be taken as the best and fullest commentary that has yet appeared on the Encyclical Rerum novarum.

12. Carmina Sacra S. Alphonsi (Rome: Cuggiani.)

Father Francis Xavier Reuss, C.SS.R., secretary to the present General of the Redemptorists, Father Mathias Raus, has paid to the Founder of his Order an exquisite tribute of filial devotion by turning the sacred songs of St. Alphonsus into classical Latin metres of the utmost skilfulness and variety. He has been rewarded with a Brief from the Holy Father, who, best of all, can appreciate such compositions. He tells the translator that his Blessed Founder, thus honoured, will look upon him with a more benign countenance, and will obtain for him in abundance the more precious gifts which he desires as the reward of his labour." Quorum munerum auspex accedat Apostolica benedictio quam tibi paterno animo impertimus." We are very glad that Father Reuss has placed side by side with his own translations the simple Italian originals of St. Alphonsus, which most readers will prefer to even the most skilful version. The book, which is beautifully brought out, recalls the almost forgotten art of Sidronius Hoschius and other modern Latinists.

13. A very dainty booklet is "Little Gems of St. Anthony," which the very numerous and fervent clients of the Saint owe to St. Joseph's Hospital for Sick Children, 14 Temple Street, Dublin, in which is established the Association of St. Anthony. This was the first special hospital for children in Ireland-the subject of so many interesting "Notes in the Big House" in the early volumes of THE IRISH MONTHLY, and at present interesting so many hearts, hands, and pockets in connection with the approaching Moy Mell which is to crown the series of brilliant bazaars organised of late years in Dublin for various benevolent Institutions. Divers collections of "Gems" from different Saints have been published, made up chiefly of their pithy sayings and extracts from their writings. St. Anthony's gems are pious prayers addressed to the Saint. They are set in a very pretty border round each page.

14. It is nearly twenty years since a book of eucharistic verses appeared under the title of "Emmanuel." As this Hebrew name means "God with us," a eucharistic signification has been attached to it; and accordingly this is the name of the official monthly organ of the Priests' Eucharistic League in the United States. The January Number contains a beautiful letter from Cardinal Perraud-who many years ago, when a young priest, visited Ireland and published a plesant and sympathetic book about us. How has the translator of of this holy "Christmas Letter," who has done all the rest admirably, left such a phrase as "Many a priestly life whose every instant is implicated into a multiplicity of the most unavoidable occupations ?"

15. Journal of the Waterford and South-East of Ireland Archæological Society. Vol. II., 1896. (Waterford: Printed for the Society, by Harvey and Co.)

This Society has completed its second annual volume and begun its third in a very satisfactory manner. An index is furnished to the second volume, indicating the pages at which information may be found about an immense number of persons and places. These eight closely packed pages of index are the most useful of the whole volume.

16. This paragraph is not a criticism but merely an invitation to our Catholic readers to rejoice that a Catholic lady is declared by high authorities (Coventry Patmore and George Meredith among them) to be first among the essayists of the day, when the essay is one of the finest exercises of literary art. Alice Meynell's three slender volumes, "The Rhythm of Life," "The Colour of Life," and "The Children," are the very perfection of style, subtle and noble thought expressed with refinement and restraint. Some of our readers may not know, and may be glad to be told, that Mrs. Meynell's sister is the lady addressed in the charming dedication quoted in the first of these "Notes on New Books."

17. The Creed Explained; or, an Exposition of Catholic Doctrine according to the Creeds of Faith and the Constitutions and Definitions of the Church. By the Rev. Arthur Devine, Passionist, author of "Convent Life" and "History of the Passion." (London: R. Washbourne).

This is the second edition of the solid work of 450 pages which Father Devine published five years ago. A minute table of contents fills sixteen closely printed pages and almost makes us forgive the omission of an index at the end. Father Devine has compiled with great care and industry, and arranged very clearly and skilfully, full instruction upon all the points of doctrine contained explicitly or implicitly in the articles of the Apostle's Creed. We hope that a third edition will be required at even a shorter interval than the lustrum which has separated first and second. The binding and printing are of the satisfactory quality that we are used to in Mr. Washbourne's publications.

18. We have received from St. Andrew's Press, Union Street, Barnet, "Through the Darkest Night," and the nineteenth volume of "St. Andrew's Magazine." The latter is an excellent magazine published for a penny a month, much more brightly written and more instructive than many periodicals of much higher pretensions. This is explained by these words on the titlepage: "Edited by the Rev. George Bampfield, B.A., Oxon." There are many amusing little papers and many original controversial articles, such as the

series which has run through the entire of last year, disguised under the name of "Bandmaster Pratt." The only other serial papers are the story we have already named and the "Mantle of St. Paul,” which is a very ingenious and interesting tribute to St. Ignatius of Loyola. "Through the Darkest Night" is a tale by S. D. B., author of "Kathleen's Motto," "Dulcie de San Doval," and other stories. It has been reprinted from the Magazine in a very tasteful form with a particularly neat binding. We hope it will not be indiscreet praise of the author to mention that she has had, we believe, the honour of collaborating in this department with one of the most gifted women of our century, the author of "The New Utopia," Mother Francis Raphael Drane. Though written with a purpose, the story is extremely interesting.

19. Messrs. Burns and Oates have sent us "The Book of the Holy Rosary" which the Rev. Henry Formby published twenty-five years ago. The present issue is not dated, and we are not told that this is a new edition. The nature of the book may be explained by the sub-title that Father Formby added on the title-page: "A popular doctrinal exposition of the Fifteen Mysteries mainly conveyed in select extracts from the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, with an explanation of their corresponding types in the Old Testament: a Preservative against Unbelief." The large and elegant pages of this edition are embellished with thirty-six full-page illustrations. It is a holy and beautiful book.

20. From the indefatigable press of Benziger Brothers have issued, in bindings that please us better than most of the Americanbound books, new editions of "The Imitation of the Blessed Virgin translated from the French by Mrs. Bennett Gladstone, "Explanation of the Salve Regina " by Saint Alphonsus Liguori, and "Explanation of the Our Father and the Hail Mary." This last has been adapted from the German by the Rev. Richard Brennan and contains numerous examples, parables, and interesting anecdotes drawn from Holy Scripture, the Lives of the Saints, the Doctors of the Church, and other sources. It is a very useful edition to our spiritual books

so good that the German author or authors ought to have been mentioned, at least in an introductory note. But it is so well written and reads so naturally and pleasantly that we suspect Dr. Brennan has "adapted" his originals very freely; he has certainly adapted them very skilfully. It is a book to read and keep.

21. Lest it should not catch the eyes of all those for whose benefit it is intended, let me end by repeating the earnest recommendation given in the ninth of these paragraphs in favour of "The Daily Life of a Religious," by the late Mother Raphael Drane, O S.D. I do not envy the conscience-or the purse- that would hesitate about adding to the convent library this wise and holy book at the cost only of eightpence net."

THERE

PRIEDIEU PAPERS.

No. 8.-THE PERILS OF THE YOUNG SOUL.

HERE are phrases and passages of Holy Scripture which somehow come to be associated in certain minds with meanings not suggested by the literal context. The summons of the angel to St. Joseph after the exile in Egypt, "Arise and take the Child," ends with the reason: defuncti sunt enim qui quaerebant animam pueri-Matth. II., 20; "for they are dead who sought the life of the child." These last words have long borne for me a fanciful meaning, as if referring to the peculiar dangers which beset the human soul in the earlier stages of its career, and which either pass away or are greatly lessened with the mere lapse of time.

The personal career of each human being may be supposed to begin with the use of reason. The Christian child, to whose soul the merits of the Redemption have been applied in the saving waters of Baptism, is sinless and incapable of sin, till the mind's faculties have so far developed as to make the child able to choose between good and evil, This awful power, which is at once the source of its merit and its greatness and the occasion of its misery and sin, is not attained at any fixed date in the young life; but, as in the succession of day to night, the night disappears gradually, the dawn steals imperceptibly upon the darkness, and you cannot fix on any moment when night ceases and day begins, but suddenly you look around and find that it is no longer night but day—even so from the dawn of reason the light grows brighter and brighter in the young soul till at some undefinable period of childhood it reaches that degree of maturity which constitutes it a responsible creature of God.

Then the real dangers of life begin, and with them begins the real interest of the soul's story-that story which, if we could follow it through all its hidden vicissitudes, would be incomparably more interesting than the most fascinating fictions of romance. Its interest is chiefly pathetic. I remember being told by one who accompanied the very gifted Irishman, Isaac Butt, to a Christian Brothers' School in Liverpool, that, seeing all those children before him, his eyes filled with tears; and he confessed that he could never look on such a crowd of young faces without being saddened