3. Mr. Coventry Patmore, in finishing and editing the translation of the series of beautiful excerpts from St. Bernard, which his wife had begun, has presented his readers with a precious and welcome volume of spiritual reading. Some of the ardent language of the holy Doctor's Sermons on the Canticles, used indiscriminately and apart from its context, would no doubt be found in these days of disrespect to be rather too strong and suggestive. Some readers may be disposed to object to this little book on the same grounds. But, after all, we cannot lay aside the venerable works of saints because modern associations may have touched with their coarseness the spiritual purity of their contemplations. At least, if there are any for whom such associations are too strong, they are to be pitied, but their case is no rule for all.

4. A new edition, which is also a new translation, of the "Imitation of Christ," is proof, if any proof were needed, that whilst men dispute about its authorship they do not neglect to study its contents. This new translation is beautifully brought out, and enriched with woodcuts in the robust German style, which has grown so familiar during the last twenty years. Although it professes to be "new," the translation retains most of the old mistakes. For instance, in I. 1, we have "know the whole Bible outwardly," instead of "know" (it) "by heart;" in II. 9, the phrase, "does not fall back upon comforts," should be "rely upon," &c.; the curious sentence in II. 12, cruce totum constat et in moriendo totum jacet," is very inadequately rendered. Behold in the Cross all doth consist, and all lieth in our dying" whilst the phrase, with the same equal countenance," (III. 25) is not English, and should be "indifferently."

ecce in

5. We have in this translation of Dr. Schmitt's "Instructions" a well-meant and, to some extent, useful répertoire of matters connected with first communion. The form of the work is not attractive, however, and the style is heavy. The translation seems to be correct ; but there is in the greater number of German spiritual books a want of finish, which is always reflected in their translations. There are one or two inaccuracies of language. For instance, it should not be asserted that the institution of the Holy Eucharist in both kinds was necessary in order that it should be a Sacrifice (p. 127). And the reason given for this is almost more than misleading-"these separated kinds, exhibiting to us the Body and Blood of Christ as separated, are emblems, &c. . . . . represent His Sacrifice upon the Cross." The same language occurs in pp. 93, 94, though the true doctrine is also stated. The reality of the Sacrifice of the Mass and its representative characters, are two different things.

6. We need do no more than note this new edition of one of the most genuine and beautiful spiritual books ever written. The translation is that of Dr. Willymott, a Cambridge University dignitary, and was first published in 1722. Father Comerford has done little more than efface the evidences of Protestantism.

7. "The Will of God" is a little book of edifying reading on the duty and advantages of resignation. But either the author or the translator has got into difficulties with the "form" of the exhortation. The first section begins as if our Lord were speaking to the faithful

soul, as in the "Imitation:" "My son, you know the prayer I addressed. to my heavenly Father," &c. At the end of the second section, without warning, we come upon what seems to be a direct speech of the Eternal Father: "Giving up my only Son," &c. The rest of the book appears to be written, for the most part, in the author's own person.

8. Père Boudreaux's learned and exact treatise on "The Happiness of Heaven," translated, is also a new edition. It is an excellent book of its kind, and ought to prove useful and suggestive on one of the most difficult of subjects. There are some who look forward to a carnal heaven, some to an insipid one, and many to a very vague Theology, and devout but accurate meditation, have here provided the means of correcting all such views.

one.

9. One whose Christian name happens to be Frederick, naturally resents the question, which other people sometimes ask, "Was there ever a St. Frederick ?" Father Maples undertakes, in an attractive little book, to inform such persons that St. Frederick was a Bishop of Utrecht, martyred in 838 for his apostolic zeal. An interesting point is connected with the "Prayer" of St. Frederick, here printed (p. 28). It is evidently an (very brief) extract from the Athanasian Creed, with two or three phrases of a devotional character added, and was intended for popular use. We know that St. Frederick, assisted by St. Odulph, had to wage serious war against Arianism and Sabellianism. The discovery of the "Utrecht" Psalter, containing the earliest known text of the Athanasian Creed, and ascribed by some to the very century in which St. Frederick lived, has given us an interesting relic, which the Saint himself may have read or possessed.

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10. In the day of a multiplication of Confraternities, such a guide-book as this little brochure by Dr. Richards is most welcome. 11. The Association of the Holy Angels" seems to be intended for the profit of young girls at school, who are to wear a "preparatory" ribbon, and then a ribbon of full admission; who are to draw a billet on the first Tuesday of every month, &c. The rules are simple and really edifying, and the devotions are touching and attractive.

12. There are many, especially of those who have read Mr. Healy Thompson's admirable "Life of Marie Lataste," who will welcome this companion volume of her "Letters and Writings," translated by the same accomplished scholar. The volume, however, is by no means equal in point of interest or value to the former one. Whatever a saint writes carries a weight and effectiveness of its own; and Marie Lataste, though not a canonized saint, may be prudently held as a woman of heroic sanctity. But, apart from this consideration, her utterances on the Christian mysteries and the spiritual life are not remarkable; and the notes of the good Jesuit Father who "explains" her, and vouches for her orthodoxy in one or two perilous collocations, weight still more heavily a book that can hardly be called attractive reading.

13. Father Schouppe has done much to bring exact theological science to bear upon popular religious instruction; and this translation, by a competent person, of his "First Communicants' Manual," will be found useful by priests and teachers.

in itself and in its relations with anterior styles. Our mediæval churches are not only the descendants, in a distant clime, of the first Roman and Eastern Christian church buildings, but the law of their growth and the circumstances determining their variations from the infant type can be traced and described.

My object throughout has been to exhibit the history with which it attempts to deal as one continuous fact, having an origin, which can be quite accurately ascertained, and an orderly evolution determined by the conditions, internal and external. . . . . It has been my aim to exhibit the architectural art of Christendom as a part of the great fact of Christianity, to deal with the church architecture of our own country as but a portion of a great whole, and to display the essential solidarity of the history of christian art in England with that of christian art in general and of Christianity itself. . . . . Ecclesiology in England did not start into being-an Athene sprung adult from the brain of Zeus-at the bidding of St. Augustine. Our ancestors, upon their conversion, but took up the threads ofbut fell with the stream of-a tradition already venerable from its years. Or rather and this is of the essence of the matter-they came by that event under the influence of two traditions so distinct in their history that as we follow back their parted streams we find no common channel till we reach the common fountain-head. It should, however, be clearly understood at the outset that this distinction in the ecclesiological and ritual tradition existed side by side with identity of faith, complete intercommunion, hierarchical subordination, and organic unity (Pref. i.).

The double ecclesiological tradition of which the writer makes so much use in this Essay, is that which the Roman missionaries of the sixth century introduced into England, and that older one of the British Church which they found in the island, and which soon re-asserted itself and largely influenced Roman methods and details. Indeed, Mr. Scott contends that our English architecture is what may be called the resultant of these two conflicting forces. The salient point of the Roman usage was the apsidal termination; that of the British tradition, on the contrary, was the square east end. The Roman type Mr.

Scott traces down from the basilican model of the churches built after the deliverance of the Church from persecution. The square end marks the more primitive type of Christian church that existed long before Constantine, originating, doubtless, in the oratories or chapels formed in rooms in the houses of converts to the faith. This is the British model.

The only

The question remains, whence came the british model? probable answer seems to be, that this peculiar type prevailed in this island before the time of Constantine; that it dates, in fact, from the first introduction of Christianity into this country-whether by St. Joseph of Arimathea, St. Paul, or by later missionaries: and that the apse, an introduction of the roman immigrants, was foreign to the traditions of the native Church, and never became naturalized here. This square-ended plan has survived, in a remarkable manner, repeated attempts to supplant it by the apse. The first we have just alluded to-the constant immigration of Romans, bringing with them the ecclesiastical customs of their own country. Again, the roman missionaries to the Saxons naturally introduced the roman plan, but the primitive british tradition again re-asserted itself, as we shall see as we proceed. At the norman

conquest a similar struggle between the two types occurred. Again the british plan triumphed. Let us hope that from its present struggle with an unnatural imitation of continental architecture and a feeble affectation of novelty it may issue again successful (p. 37).

A still fuller résumé of the same struggle and its results is to be found on p. 130, so important is it held to be. The apparent anomaly of English churches dating from various early periods, and having apses is explained with great ingenuity and vraisemblance. Space compels us to refer the reader to the Essay itself. The writer is very severe on those who would introduce apsidal chancels on to English soil; they betray ignorance of the venerable antiquity of the squareended form; still worse, a taste for apses in England is "ignorant caprice or a morbid craving after novelty." There is enough, however, in these able pages calling for appreciation to enable us to quite overlook a little enthusiastic purism. And the writer also carefully points out, more than once, that the diverse methods of arrangement witness nevertheless to liturgical uniformity. Thus the square end of our old English churches never supports "a sideboard" altar. The altar is a free table set at a distance from the wall, leaving space between for the seats of bishop and clergy-an arrangement identical in result with that of the basilican apse.

We can do no more than make mere mention of some few of the most interesting opinions set forth at length in this Essay. Christian art had made great progress before Constantine; the Diocletian persecution shows the immense number of Christian churches then existing; the form of these had become traditional, and was carefully followed in the great churches erected by Constantine. The basilican type did not originate from the conversion of basilicas into churches, as is often supposed-Mr. Scott says he knows of not one authenticated instance -but from the adoption of the basilica, a smaller forum, as the model for the public place of the new religion, the church. For the church in early times was much more than it now is; it was the centre of Christian common life, "at once the house and dwelling-place of God, and the meeting-place of the citizens of his kingdom-the Civitas Dei." How the Christian basilica was elaborated from the Pagan model is told in the first chapter: the account is most interesting in its details. Read, for example, how the baldachino—a thing Gothic purists used to laugh at—was evolved from the curtains round the holy table of the primitive church, &c. As to the orientation of churches-on which Mr. Scott has a very able discursus—it ought apparently to be rather the orientation of the celebrant. His eastward position has never varied, and has been always a point of great importance; but whilst in early times the people were before the priest and faced westward, in later times they are behind the priest, and together with him face eastward.

The second chapter, which traces the history of English architecture from its dim beginnings to the Norman invasion, is particularly full and deserving of attentive perusal. The old cathedral church of Canterbury, from Eadmer's description of which we have a long extract, had an apse at both ends;-we must refer again to the Essay for

Mr. Scott's clever conjecture, that hereto, as the requirements of the monastic choir grew, we may trace the change of the altar from the west, its position in the Early Church, to the east end in the mediæval. The conjectural plan (Plate IX.) of the cathedral previous to the fire of. 1067 gives clearness to the explanation of this conjecture. This portion of the Essay, dealing as it does with a period so little known (under an art aspect) as England before the Norman period, is especially valuable under the treatment of a masterly hand. The line of separation between ancient and modern architecture is not the invention of the Gothic arch-it is the development of the Romanesque by the Normans. Speaking of St. Albans Abbey, that, being built of brick, was plastered interiorly and exteriorly and beautifully decorated within, Mr. Scott has some severe, but not unmerited, strictures on the would-be restorers who are fain to despoil the interior of its plastered beauty and who regard that early style (when thus despoiled of its charms), as rude and barbarous. "A Norman interior," he concludes, "serves to illustrate the barbarism not of the eleventh century, but of the nineteenth." The discursus on the painted ceilings of St. Albans contains information well worth noticing, and is one of the many places in which we have been struck with the author's fine appreciation of every variety and school of real art. The broadness of his sympathies is indeed refreshing in a work professedly in favour of the claims of English architecture. The catholicity (in a lay sense) of his task has been doubtless at least helped by his learned appreciation of Catholic doctrine and history.

The departure from classical models and rules of proportion, and the evolution of the "pointed" style, is told with much vigour and interest in the fourth chapter. As to the much debated origin of the pointed arch, Mr. Scott is of opinion that we learned it from the East through the Crusades. To intercourse with the East is also traced the introduction into Europe of ornamented and coloured glazing. The subsequent progress in glass-staining was a chief cause in bringing about that notable change in window tracery that is a chief mark of the perpendicular period. The beautiful flowing tracery of "decorated" windows may have begun to cloy by its very luxuriance, but the change was chiefly wrought from an artistic effort to make accommodation for the figure-designs of the now skilled glass-painter in the traceries as well as in the lights.

Mr. Scott contends for a distinction between perpendicular and Tudor of kind, not merely of degree; for, not only were new forms introduced, but new principles of construction also. The innovations of the "perpendicular" artists were barred-tracery and the fourcentred arch; that of the "tudor" was the fan-groin" of all forms of groining the most mathematical and the most elastic." Another advance in groining-" one to be wondered at rather than admired " -the "truly audacious roof" of Henry VII.'s Chapel at Westminster Abbey, "with its vault resting apparently on nothing, and exhibiting, where the pillars once stood, only a series of great pendants floating in mid-air," was a tour de force that "fitly closes the history of the gothic style."