that are everywhere scattered through its forty chapters, there is a distinct and orderly treatise on Prayer and its higher states, contained in the chapters that occur between the ninth and the twenty-third-a treatise of which every paragraph is classical. Readers will naturally go to the work, if they go at all, chiefly for the purpose of studying the science of Prayer. But they will meet with many other things by the way. This life seems to have an especial gift of infusing courage into the hearts of those who are trying to lead a life of perfection. It is not that S. Teresa makes too light of the difficulties of such an attempt. She knew well enough what it means, and she says that the world is so hard upon beginners, that "it requires greater courage in one not yet perfect to walk in the way of perfection than to undergo an instant martyrdom” (p. 260). Still, the account of her own childhood and early religious life, of her levity and shortcomings until she was well advanced in years, is encouraging to those who are but too conscious of much of the same thing in themselves. They seem to see that Teresa was a woman after all, and that the Holy Ghost made her a Saint. It is this view which furnishes the refrain of all her experiences, and it is a view that does the ordinary devout Christian more good than many sermons on asceticism. It may be true that the Saint gives us an exaggerated account of her youthful failings, and that Teresa at her worst was better than most of us at our best. Still, the impression of God's condescension and limitless power and love remains upon the mind, and souls learn to regard perfection as not out of their reach. "Let them not distress themselves; let them trust in our Lord" (p. 261). Another general impression that is left by the words of the Saint is, that of the necessity of advice. Perhaps we should rather say, the necessity of conferring with others. It may seem a paradox to say that those who are striving after perfection feel a difficulty in speaking to others concerning the state of their souls. Devout people, it may be thought, are generally too fond, perhaps, of imparting their experiences and requesting advice. But it must be remembered that among devout people the number of those seriously and (so to speak) scientifically aiming at perfection is not by any means large, and that there are people in this number whose naturally difficult natures may prevent them for a long time from being classed among the (externally) devout. S. Teresa, indeed, seems almost to make light of the necessity of a director for people who have no desire to live more than an ordinary life, though she advises beginners to talk on spiritual matters with those who are like-minded with themselves. But when the soul has entered and made some progress in the way of perfection, then enlightened guidance is absolutely necessary. And her allusions to confessors and learned men are both touching and startling; touching, from the affectionate anxiety with which she often declares that she prays for them and trusts in them; startling, from the demands she makes on those who have anything to do with advanced souls. One of the most thrilling passages of the Life, is that which describes her meeting with S. Peter of Alcantara. "I saw almost at once that he understood me, by reason of his experience. . . . To a person whom our Lord has raised to this state, there is no pleasure or comfort equal to that of meeting with another whom our Lord has begun to raise in the same way" (p. 241). Her delight on finding a really efficient master in the spiritual life sometimes rises to enthusiasm. "What a grand thing it is," she exclaims, "to understand a soul!" (p. 186). It is not to be expected that a Saint will spend much time in speaking of her own personal appearance or natural character, however much a little knowledge on both these subjects would please and edify her readers. It is from other sources, therefore, that we learn that she had a pleasant face, rather inclining to fulness; that her hair was black; and that a pair of black and keen eyes communicated to her, in common life, sometimes an air of shrewdness, not without a suggestion of sarcasm; at other times, a wonderful and commanding attraction. But of her natural character she does give us one or two traits in the Life. She owns that she has the gift of courage. They say of me that my courage is not slight, and it is known that God has given me a courage beyond that of a woman; but I have made a bad use of it" (p. 56). Grace in S. Teresa's soul is so powerful and beautiful that speculations as to her natural gifts are of little interest. But when grace made her a reformer, a founder, and a ruler of women and of men, one cannot help suspecting that she would have been one of the "strong women" of the world, for good or for evil, whether she had been a Saint or not. The child who wanted to run away to the Moors for martyrdom, was none the less fit to defy the devil, in after life, with characteristic scorn, and to go on from one foundation to another, and from one height of prayer to another, amid all the difficulties of doubting directors, of troublesome authorities, and of what we cannot properly take into account now-the jealous scrutiny of that Tribunal whose power was as great as its means of information were ample. Another piece of knowledge that she gives us about herself is, that she had "no imagination." She repeats this over and over again, and attributes to this want of imagination her inability to make what is strictly called "meditation." It must be admitted that it is difficult to believe a S. Teresa when she laments her defective imagination. In all the highest operations in which the imagination is the handmaid of the in tellect, in vivid mental portraiture, in subtle combination, in telling illustration, what she does contradicts what she says. The explanation seems to be, that the imagination, in ordinary people, has to form its pictures of things by the slow process of adding line to line and tint to tint; and this is what people do who meditate; but the more powerful the imagination, the more rapidly does it combine, and in some men it combines so rapidly that it seems to combine wholesale, or, in other words, to produce the picture rather by a single act than by a process of acts. This seems to have been S. Teresa's case. She could not meditate any more than a bird can walk, because she had a more rapid way of realizing the object presented to her. But that she had the power of the imagination in its highest sense, is evident. In early life, as was natural, it required to be stimulated in order to represent God and divine things, because grace had not yet conquered it; and this explains the Saint's delight in spiritual books (during prayer), in images, in the fields, the trees, and the flowers, and it throws much light on her characteristic devotion to the sacred humanity of our Lord. "I used to labour with all my might to imagine Jesus Christ, our God and our Lord, within me. And this was the way I prayed" (p. 20). This was at the very beginning of her religious life. And during the twenty years or so that she practised mental prayer, with greater or less fervour, before the epoch when her supernatural visitations began, when she met with a director, and gave herself more completely to God-during these twenty years, when most religious would have been assiduously going from point to point in manuals of meditation, she never"meditated" at all. And she expresses her conviction that it was through God's goodness that she found no director during that time, for he would have tried to make her "meditate,” which was an impossibility to her. The study of this her method of prayer, and, indeed, of a multitude of other matters that we have no space to touch upon, makes this undying work ever attractive to those who are interested in the divine science its author has done so much to illustrate. In estimating the value of Mr. Lewis's translation, it is very necessary to bear in mind the difficulty of his task. S. Teresa, as all know who have the slightest acquaintance with her Spanish, is a difficult author. She seems to have no style, in the modern sense of the word. She puts things down, and heaps up phrase upon phrase full of weight and sometimes of brilliancy; but literary form is almost entirely wanting. And this cannot be ascribed altogether to the age in which she lived. If we turn to Luis of Granada, her contemporary, we find smoothness and cadence in great perfection. The explanation is, that Luis of Granada was an educated man, a professional writer and speaker, who had formed his style upon the best models of antiquity; whilst S. Teresa was totally devoid of literary culture, and merely wrote because she had something to say. The best way to give an English reader an idea of her style will be to take an example from a writer who has, perhaps, seldom been mentioned beside her. Bacon came of age in the same year that S. Teresa died. English prose at that time, even in the hands of its greatest masters, was rude and ill-fashioned, though it was full of great thoughts and happy words. Here are two sentences from an essay of Bacon, "On Innovation." "Surely every medicine is an innovation, and he that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils, for time is the greatest innovator; and if time, of course, alters all things for the worst, and wisdom and council shall not alter them for the better, what shall be the end? It is true that what is settled by custom, though it be not good, yet at least it is fit; and those things which have long gone together are, as it were, confederate within themselves, whereas new things piece not so well, but though they help by their utility, yet they trouble by their inconformity; besides, they are like strangers, more admired and less favoured." It is into prose something like this that S. Teresa's Spanish would naturally run. But this style of translation is out of the question. The translator, therefore, has not only to attend to word and to phrase, but he has to alter the whole mould of the composition; and there is no task which the anxiety to steer a middle course between strict fidelity and perfect ease renders more troublesome and trying. There is no doubt that the version of Mr. Lewis reads, on the whole, a little stiff; but we are inclined to think that this could not have been avoided without sacrificing S. Teresa's own spirit more than any reader would have liked. But the translation, as far as we have 66 tested it, is faithful and exact, and it is often happy. A few renderings here and there, no doubt, might be questioned; and there are one or two quasitechnical terms, such as imaginario, impetu, that might, perhaps, have been sometimes differently given. The expression, an imaginary vision" (see pp. 209-221), would convey a wrong idea to many readers, who would take "imaginary" to be opposed to "real," whereas it is opposed to "intellectual.' But, except to discharge our duty as critics, we have no desire to dwell upon the few defects in an excellent and valuable piece of work such as Mr. Lewis has here given us. In addition to its merit as a new and independent translation, it should be mentioned that it is translated from the latest Spanish edition of the Saint's works, that of Don Vincente de la Fuente (Madrid, 1861, 1862), from which edition the translator has also taken the newlyarranged and increased collection of "Relaciones," with which he has enriched the volume before us. The introduction, notes, and other critical apparatus show the fruits of wide reading, and render the work complete on the heads of editing and scholarship. Disputationes Theologica de Justitia et Jure, ad normam juris municipalis Britannici et Hibernici conformatæ. Auctore GEORGIO CROLLY, in Collegio S. Patricii apud Maynooth, in Hibernia, S. Theologiæ Dogmaticæ et Moralis Professore. 1870. E understand that Professor Crolly is either at press, or immediately WE of work; which part is to treat de Contractibus et de Restitutione, and is expected to appear at the close of the present or early in the next year. We therefore reserve our detailed reviewal of the work until its completion. Meantime we would observe briefly that this is the first time an attempt has been made to introduce into a scientific theological treatise a digest of the municipal laws of these countries, similar to those which have been executed by other eminent theologians for other countries by Molina, for example, for Spain. as it stood nearly three centuries ago; by Carrière for France in our own day. For the perfection of such a digest two conditions are essential-completeness and accuracy; and in the attainment of both Mr. Crolly has been eminently successful. The evidences of completeness lie open on every page. As to accuracy, putting aside the author's well-known relish for the subject, and his long and close study of it, enough to say that each sheet, as it passed through the press, was read carefully by a professional lawyer of long and high standing at the Irish bar. The want of such a work has been long and keenly felt; and every theological student should feel deeply grateful to the learned and accomplished Maynooth Professor, for the immense labour of reading and thought which he must have gone through in supplying that want and supplying it so well. Of the public appreciation of this labour no light proof has been given, in the large and steady sale of the volume, from the day of its publication down to that of the present writing. The Directorium Asceticum; or, Guide to the Spiritual Life. By JOHN T Dublin: Kelly; 1870. HIS second volume of the S. Beuno's translation of F. Scaramelli's Ascetical Directory treats of the hindrances that arise in the path of Christian Perfection from the Senses and the Passions of human nature, from Temptations and from Scruples. On looking it through, we are once more struck with the difference in value of the matter that makes it up. On the one hand it is difficult to overpraise the acute analyses, the discreetness, and completeness of advice, and the genuine and traditional Catholic spirit of which it is full. On the other hand, much of the lighter part of the volume—that which the old Jesuit Father intended to be the padding of his solid reflections-is sadly distracting to a generation so devoid of simplicity as ours. The exploits of the monks who figure in the pages of Cassian are not deficient in the grotesque; but they have an air of authenticity about them, and they have spoken to the heart of the Cloister ever since S. Benedict recommended them to his first disciples. But the materials of the Vita Patrum are by no means all as worthy of reproduction as the stories of Cassian; and, though our old acquaintance, Cesarius of Heisterbach, does not appear so frequently in the present volume, his place is not inadequately supplied by one or two others. We must not be understood to complain of the translators in this matter; we are glad to have Scaramelli whole and entire. He is sufficiently a classic to stand, without being entrusted to other people's taste to be made presentable. At the same time it is well to warn the readers of this excellent translation, that some prudence must be used in reproducing such things, as the downright speeches of S. Jerome, and the stories in which the devils so largely figure. But nothing can be more satisfactory than the way in which the author continually confirms and illustrates his teaching by the words of the holy Fathers. In Asceticism anything like narrowness and sentimentality is fatal; and there is nothing that keeps principle true and practice large, like a constant recourse to the words of those from whom the Church of all times has sought guidance. No doubt, the work of F. Scaramelli might have drawn more largely from another source-we mean, from the words and deeds of the modern saints. Perhaps many readers will be sorry he has not given more of the light of times that are nearer our own. Meanwhile, we may be thankful for what we have. There can be no greater boon to those who are beginning the exercise of the Apostolic ministry, than the plain, precise, and wise rules laid down by F. Scaramelli on Asceticism in all its branches-on the practice of mortification, on the best methods of subduing the passions, and on the ways of meeting temptation. System in spiritual matters seems to many people, if not a mistake, at least a danger. To grow in goodness by rule is impossible; therefore rules, they think, are apt to encourage formalism. If rules of |