It might be naturally expected that we should concern ourselves more with the ecclesiological than with the purely architectural portions of the Essay. Mr. Scott has new, or less common, views on not a few topics concerning ancient ritual, art effort, &c., to some of which we should prefer to recur when more space might be devoted to their discussion. Of his views about the orientation of ancient and medieval churches we have already made mention. Another point on which Mr. Scott holds an opinion new to us and unexpected, is on the construction of the chasuble. Old convictions are dislodged slowly: this must be our excuse for not feeling convinced by the first perusal of the author's certainly ingenious theory :

The true conception of the chasuble is that of a semi-circular piece of some woven material, folded in two so as to form a quadrant, the two edges of which are sewn together from the circumference to the centre, with the exception of a small portion at the summit of the angle left unsewn for the passage of the head (p. 113).

This dogmatic statement, the point of departure, in fact, of Mr. Scott's explanation, rests on no other proof apparently than the practical absurdity of the seamless circle of cloth pierced by a central head hole. We fail-at least yet to see the absurdity. But his theory, explained at length in a special discursus, merits to be read and weighed. Its further discussion would necessitate frequent reference to Plate XXII., in which the changes of the chasuble are represented by diagrams.

A criticism that occurs to us, viewing the newly-read book as a whole, is that the author allows too little play in the history of Christian art to symbolism, or the mere ingenuity of artistic imagination steeped in religious feeling: whether a church or a chasuble, neither of them has the cross impressed on them of purpose-it is, in both cases, a growth of construction. On the other hand, nothing can be more pleasing than the feeling maintained throughout the volume towards forms of art not English and Gothic. In nothing does Mr. Scott show more clearly his right to be heard as an architectural critic than in this. His singular appreciation of the purpose of builders of every age, though it may naturally sometimes fail him, has much to do with this impartiality. It is high but deserved praise to say of Mr. Scott that he is, in this Essay, emphatically the Christian artist, rather than the partisan of any style. If he can see in the old Roman basilicas, as in the old British and Irish chapels, in the classical Italian churches as in the Norman and pointed cathedrals and abbeys, both beauties of construction and defects-and in the primitive forms traces of a greater concern to guard strictly the traditional methods of meeting ritual requirements-we think he is right. Gothic, with all its excellences is by no means the only deserving outcome in art of Catholic feeling and Christian sentiment; though we should add that this is our hurried and perhaps clumsy attempt to formulate a sentiment pervading the book, which the writer does not formulate anywhere in words of his own.

We had marked several passages for quotation, but shall be unable

to find room for them. Mr. Scott writes not only with great force, ease of diction, happiness of illustration, and a use of antitheses suggestive of Macaulay, but also with great originality of thought. There is an abundance of discursive matter in both text and notes, but scarcely any we should not have been sorry to miss, so happily are his sentiments and conclusions stated: and we feel this even when we dissent from some of them. We choose one passage for quotation, as summarizing the drift of the book—a drift to which we may not have done justice in spite of our desire.

It is to Rome, to Constantinople, and to the East, that we must look for the earliest existing examples of church architecture. For the same local centres from which we derive our religion itself is derived also the art which is its material embodiment. In the same manner all through the history we shall have to refer from time to time to influences which have affected its progress in our own country, but which came to us from without. Such influences cannot properly be called foreign. To a Christian no portion of Christendom is foreign soil; and until the schism of East and West, and the troubles of the Reformation period had divided the one society, its unity was realized in a practical intercommunication of all the churches, which affected in the most direct manner the history of Christian art. We shall see from the fourth to the seventh century the same type of church-building prevailing in Central Syria, in Byzantium, in Greece, and at Rome, which we find to prevail in France, in Germany, in Saxon England, and, with slight modifications, in Celtic Ireland. For the prototype of the architecture employed by St. Augustine at Canterbury, we shall seek naturally at Rome and at Ravenna. The future of English art, after the Norman Conquest, was determined by that great impulse which stirred the whole of the Western Church at the preaching of Peter the Hermit, of Amiens. Its subsequent progress, until the fourteenth century, cannot be studied apart from the history of the art in France, while the movement which ultimately overthrew the gothie style in this country, as elsewhere, was distinctly Italian in its origin. Anxious as the English Reformers were to cut us off completely from the unreformed churches of the continent, they still could not prevent their influence upon our church architecture. We had rejected Roman doctrine, but we could not escape the influence of Roman art. Our religion might be national, but our church architecture became Italian. Canterbury had broken absolutely with the Vatican, but St. Paul's Cathedral would have been impossible but for the erection of St. Peter's.

Let us say, finally, that we heartily wish this Essay the wide sale that it deserves. It will be invaluable to antiquarians and to Catholics of every class who have any artistic appreciation of the treasures yet remaining to us of native ecclesiastical art. So many points of ceremonial and ritual interest are raised in its pages, that priestswhether intending "to build" or not-will read it with special interest. The wonderful explanation of St. John's Apocalypse (pp. 27-34), as showing that primitive Christianity was æsthetic, not iconoclastic, in its spirit and practice, is worthy of being recommended to notice. Through a detailed examination Mr. Scott seeks to prove that the imagery of St. John's vision was taken from a primitive Christian temple, and the vestments of the Christian hierarchy-glorified and transformed, of course, under the pen of the inspired writer.

Sister Augustine, Superior of the Sisters of Charity at the St. Johannis Hospital at Bonn. Authorized translation from the German "Memorials of Amalie von Lasaulx." London: C. Kegan Paul & Co.

A

BOOK with the above title-page and with a vignette of Sister Augustine in the head-dress of a nun as its frontispiece, may well be mistaken for a volume of Catholic biography. Indeed, the copy before us was sent by unsuspecting friends as a feast-day present to an inmate of an English Convent. A word of warning may, therefore, not be inopportune. "Sister Augustine" is the biography of a German nun who was a strenuous opponent of the dogma of Papal Infallibility; "a pillar of the opposition," as the biographer delights to call her. By word and by letter she encouraged the opposition of priests and others; she persistently refused obedience even on her deathbed, being willing to die without the Sacraments rather than submit her judgment to the decrees of the Vatican Council. If to this we add that when a superioress who had been trying to win her to a better spirit asked her if she believed at least in the Immaculate Conception of our Lady, she replied, No, not as a dogma-we shall have said all that need here be said. Our regret for the stubbornness and sad death-isolated and without the hope of Christian burial-of this misguided lady does not of course oblige us to refuse admiration to her for her life of sacrificing self-devotedness to the sick; but there is nothing in this part of her life, so far as we can recall, that may not have been philanthropy as much as the dictate of religious vocation. We have an abundance of lives, in every language, of noble Catholic women, whose charity far excels that of Amalie von Lasaulx, and which are not under any such dark cloud as spoils hers. She is called a Sister of Charity, but the religious head-dress of her portrait is not the world-famous cornette, and readers learning that the maison mère of her order was at Nancy, will therefrom gather that Sister Augustine was not one of the "Sisters of Charity." Whatever the order to which she belonged, its Superiors treated her, as the biography abundantly shows, with great patience and consideration. They are not injured by her fault. But it would have doubly surprised us had she been a daughter of St. Vincent de Paul, at the Paris Novitiate of whose Order there is every day "perpetual adoration:" two of the novices constantly succeeding each other in their half-hour of adoration and prayer before the Blessed Sacrament for the welfare and intentions of the Pope, and where also devotions in honour of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady are a conspicuous feature, and date from a long distant time before the decree was even dreamed of.

BOOKS OF DEVOTION AND SPIRITUAL READING. 1. Contemplations and Meditations on the Passion and Death, and on the Glorious Life, of Our Lord Jesus Christ, according to the Method of St. Ignatius. Translated from the French by a SISTER OF MERCY. Third edition. London: Burns & Oates. 1881. 2. Familiar Instructions and Evening Lectures on all the Truths of Religion. By Mgr. DE SEGUR. Translated from the French. Vol. II. London: Burns & Oates. 1881.

3. St. Bernard on the Love of God. Translated by MARIANNE CAROLINE and COVENTRY PATMORE. London: C. Kegan Paul & Co. 1881.

4. The Following of Christ. A New Translation. London: Burns & Oates. 1881.

5. Instructions for First Communicants. Translated from the German of the Rev. Dr. J. SCHMITT. New York: Catholic Publication Society Company. 1881.

6. The Three Tabernacles: a Golden Treatise. By THOMAS À KEMPIS. Edited by the Rev. M. COMERFORD, New edition. Dublin: M. H. Gill & Son. 1881.

7. The Will of God. Translated from the French by M. A. M. New York: Catholic Publication Society Company. 1881.

8. The Happiness of Heaven. By F. J. BOUDREAUX, S. J. Third edition. London: Burns & Oates. 1881.

9. Life of St. Frederick. By FREDERICK G. MAPLES, Missionary Apostolic. London: Burns & Oates. 1881.

10. The Confraternities, their Obligations and Indulgences. Compiled from authentic sources, by the Rev. W. J. B. RICHARDS, D.D., Oblate of St. Charles. Second edition. London: Burns & Oates. 1881.

11. Rules of the Associates of the Holy Angels. Dublin: H. M. Gill & Son. 1881.

12. Letters and Writings of Marie Lataste, with Critical and Expository Notes by two Fathers of the Society of Jesus. Translated from the French by EDWARD HEALY THOMPSON, M.A. London: Burns & Oates. Dublin: H. M. Gill & Son. 1881.

13. First Communicants' Manual: a Catechism for Children preparing to receive Holy Communion for the first time, and for the use of those charged with the Duty of instructing them. By Father F. X. SCHOUPPE, S. J. Translated from the French by M. A. CROSIER. London Burns & Oates. 1881.

1.

THE

HESE are very useful and effective meditations, not too diffuse, but well-expressed, and not without unction. The little work is in great part a second edition, but the writer or translator has added a fresh part to the book, containing meditations on the Risen Life of our Blessed Saviour.

2. Notwithstanding a little exaggeration and some fanciful explanations, Mgr. de Ségur's "Familiar Instructions" will be found both edifying to readers and useful to priests and catechists. The work, of which this is the second volume, is handy and attractive, and the translation is very fairly done.