in that Heart. As he was nearest on earth, must he not in heaven be nearest and dearest to Mary and to Jesus? If God will not let a cup of water given in His Name go without its reward, what reward must He have given in return for the services that He deigned to accept from His foster-father, the Spouse of His Blessed Mother-services that in their tender and continuous familiarity approach closest to the Divine Maternity itself. How great, then, must be the power of St. Joseph's Patronage! Saint Joseph is our Patron. In ancient Roman times persons of humble birth attached themselves as clients and dependents to some powerful nobleman who was their patronus and who as such was bound to act towards them the part of adviser, guardian, defender. The Saints in heaven are our patrons. Some are specially honoured and trusted by certain countries, as St. Patrick by Ireland-some by certain religious Orders which they founded or to which they belonged, as St. Francis of Assisi and St. Bonaventure by the Franciscans, St. Dominick and St. Thomas Aquinas by the Dominicans, St. Ignatius and St. Francis Xavier and St. Aloysius by the Society of Jesus--and others again are chosen by individuals for the mere sake of their names or on account of some personal attraction. But the patronage of our great and glorious Saint Joseph is not monopolised by any class or any country. He is the patron and the protector of the Universal Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, not only on account of the relations which he held and holds to Christ and His Mother, but because the Church has solemnly installed him in this office, and bestowed this title upon him, and because she had already done so by establishing the Feast of St. Joseph's Patronage. The qualities of an efficient patron are power and goodnessto be able and then to be willing to help us. Saint Joseph has the power and the will. His power in heaven is in some sort the continuation of his authority in the Holy Family on earth. The playful reasoning of the great Grecian warrior, Themistocles, may with all reverence be applied to our Saint. "My little boy Astyages," argued the Athenian leader, "is the real ruler of Greece for the infant's will is supreme with his mother, and she rules me, and I rule Athens, and Athens is the mistress of Greece." St. Joseph's prayer is more than a prayer when addressed to his Immaculate Spouse; and she in turn exercises over her Divine Son the "suppliant omnipotence" of a mother. Nay, we might venture to discover a parallel for St. Joseph's authority in another incident in the life of this Grecian hero. In one of the changes of his fate he had to fly from the anger of his people, and he took refuge in the palace of Admetus, king of the Molossi. Admetus was absent at the moment; but his wife, pitying the illustrious fugitive and knowing that her husband was hostile to him, advised Themistocles to take her child into his arms and sit as a suppliant at their hearth. The king Admetus soon entered his palace, and, seeing Themistocles thus, he took him under his protection and guarded him from his enemies. St. Joseph too was once a fugitive but not for his own sake. and take the Child with His Mother." Nor was it for his own sake that the Mother of the Child bade him take the Child into his arms. It was to save that Child who was Ilimself a fugitive and in danger, although the Incarnate Son of the King of Heaven, our Lord and our God. "Arise God never forgets, and the Heart of Jesus feels for Joseph at this moment the affection and gratitude that filled it when beating against St. Joseph's heart during the flight to Egypt. How great, then, is the power of St. Joseph's Patronage, equalled only by his fatherly tenderness and his eagerness to use that power in our behalf. May his holy Patronage help us to live, and help us to die! ON THE MER-DE-GLACE. ITHER God brought His rebel seas, to try How high His power could lash them unrelieved By sinking spaces, or by low'ring sky. And they, by boundless altitudes deceived Leaped to His lash as if they fain believed They, too, could sweep His skies, and there decry But He, resenting such Titanic pride Shall level all things, all proud things dethrone, PATRICK AUGUSTINE SHEEHAN. CLAVIS ACROSTICA. A KEY TO "DUBLIN ACROSTICS." VI. Perhaps the cracking of nuts is too hard work for vacation; but at all events at this present writing J. W. A. is the only one who has discovered that No. 9 is "Bill-hook," with the lights bull-finch, indigo, Lothario, and luck, while No. 10 is "tippet," with tap and ice the first two lights-but what is the third? J. W. A. says parrot; but have parrots such brilliant plumage that an acrostician might fairly indicate them by the egotistical exclamation, "Admire my Wing?" Mr. Reeves has given "port" as this third light. There is something, it seems, floating about in good old crusted port which is called "bee's-wing," though Worcester's big Dictionary does not condescend to recognize it. In reference to "Poor Rembrandt's last" in No. 7, J. W. A. asks: "Would not Van Rhyn's absurd avarice and his consequent discomfort account for the epithet?" Mr. Joseph Saldanha sends all the way from Bombay a correct solution of June's acrostics. A new competitor, W. S. B.. has solved No. 10 correctly, but he too has no acquaintance with bee's wing and port. In leaving No. 11 and No. 12 to be revealed next month, we rejoice that we have our manuscript key to fall back upon, if even the ingenious and perspicacious J. W. A. should be baffled. 1 Oh! splendid friend, though nicknamed by the low, 2 The moon shines bright, a maid from me descends, 3 The gold received for me the Jew retains, Nor gives the squire a zecchin for his pains. 4 I trust I shan't my lady readers vex, But one has said I'm seldom in your sex. 5 Yon massy portal that obstructs your course, R. NOTES ON NEW BOOKS. By 1. Bards of the Gael and Gall. Examples of the Poetic Literature of Erinn done into English after the Metres and Modes of the Gael. George Sigerson M.D., F.R.U.I., President of the National Literary Society of Ireland, Corresponding Member of La Société d' Anthropologie, La Société Clinique and La Société de Psychologie Psychologique de Paris, etc. (London: Fisher Unwin, 1897). Price 10s. 6d. This is by far the most important addition made for many a year to our Irish Literature. The publisher has produced it in a very attractive form, photogravure portrait of the blind Irish Bard, Carolan, faces the title page which we have transcribed in full, and in which by the way Gall and Gael mean stranger and native, Celt and Saxon or the original Irish and the English intruders. After a joint dedication to Sir C. G. Duffy and Dr. Douglas Hyde, and three exquisitely appropriate mottoes from Ossian, Edmund Spenser, and Wordsworth: a most appetising table of contents arranges some hundred and fifty translations of Irish Lyrics according to twelve successive periods, beginning with the Milesian invaders. A learned and interesting introduction, which is greatly needed, gives information on a great many points in a very agreeable manner and is not a line too long, although it occupies a hundred pages. Greatly needed also is the erudite appendix of sixty pages which supplements the occasional notes appended to many of the poems. Incidentally Dr. Sigerson claims for Ireland the glory of being the first to use rhyme and blank VOL. XXV. No. 290 32 verse; nay, he boasts of her having produced the first Christian epic and something very like the first rondeau. Dr. Sigerson's knowledge of the theory and practice of the curiously complicated Celtic metres is marvellous. This volume is the ripe fruit of the enthusiastic industry of many years. The readers who are best able to appreciate his labours will probably wish that he had indicated more minutely the sources from which his vast mass of materials has been drawn and where the originals can now be studied. We have seen the new epithet, "epoch-making," applied to this work. It will certainly link the name of Dr. George Sigerson with the Bards of the Gael and Gall, and with the Celtic literature of Ireland, 2. The Gospel of Saint John. With Notes Critical and Explanatory. By the Rev. Joseph MacRory, D.D., Professor of Sacred Scripture and Hebrew, Maynooth College. (Dublin: Brown and Nolan, Limited.) Dr. MacRory in his brief preface gives excellent reasons for publishing a new Scripture Commentary. Certainly this admirably printed volume will be studied by his pupils with far greater pleasure and profit than those class-notes which it would otherwise, as he explains, have been necessary for him to dictate. He condenses the preliminary discussions, concerning authorship, language, etc., into eleven pages; and he passes quickly in his commentary over the easier portions of the Gospel. The Latin Vulgate and the Rhemish Version are given side by side, while the Author's comments fill the lower half of each page. The arrangements of type conduce greatly to the ease and comfort of the student. We think Dr. MacRory has achieved the purposes which he had in view in composing this work. It is authorized by the censorship of the Rev. Walter MacDonald, Prefect of the Dunboyne Establishment in Maynooth College. 3. Darab's Wine- Cup and Other Tales. By Bart Kennedy. (London : Sidney L. Ollif, 110 Strand.) This is the first title-page on which we have seen the name of either author or publisher. Mr. Kennedy, indeed, we recognize as a recent contributor to the Magazines, in which we have seen two at least of the sketches forming the present volume. The sketches being thirtythree in number are necessarily very short, sometimes only three or four pages with wide spaces and large type. Most of them also are rather unrhymed poetry than prose. There is vivid fancy and deep feeling in many of them, and although an austere taste may sometimes condemn the diction, there is a praiseworthy effort after originality and vividness of style. Traces of a deeply religious spirit also make themselves apparent. Has Mr. Kennedy any authority for his peculiar version of the beautiful legend of the death of King Connor |