FRENCH PERIODICALS. La Controverse, Juin, Juillet, Août, 1886. Lyons. The Comparative Study of Religions.-In two articles that appear in the June and July numbers of La Controverse, Père Van den Gheyn, S.J., treats both historically and critically of the development in recent times of the so-called comparative science of religion; he traces what has been done in various countries, the establishment of professorial chairs in various universities for teaching it, &c.; and likewise the chief books written recently are described and critically estimated. He dwells, by way of introduction, on the importance of this new comparative science, properly prosecuted, as a part of Christian Apologetics. We ought, he says, to be alive to the fact that in the hands of modern incredulity this comparative mythology and history of religions has become a formidable weapon against revelation and its most fundamental dogmas. He laments the apathy of too many Catholic priests and educated laymenwhether from illusion, ignorance, or levity. In the face of professorial chairs and other tokens of activity in the work of teaching this dangerous and aggressive form of rationalism in such intellectual centres as Berlin, Brussels, Leyden, Paris, London, Geneva, and even Rome-where one of these chairs of the history of religions has just been founded-in the face of all this, what has been done on the side of religion itself by Catholics? There is the course of the "Institut Catholique" (of Paris) and its brilliant professor, the Abbé de Broglie, and there is little else; scarcely a work in refutation of Pfleiderer, Tiele, Kuenen, Réville, Emile Burnouf, Maurice Vernes, Max Müller, Gobilet d'Alviella, &c. It is time that our students and apologists concerned themselves with this present real and dangerous attack on truth. Dogma no doubt is solidly established and truth will prevail-some day; but "il faut songer aux âmes que l'erreur vient aveugler." But the attack is by no means so formidable nor are its victories hitherto by any means so real as the loud vauntings of its votaries would have every one believe. A most important point on which the writer dwells is the keen necessity that every volunteer against the enemy should prepare himself; should be, by dint of study and wide reading, &c., a competent assailant or defender in the good cause. He quotes approvingly the late Père de Valroger: "Malheur à celui qui se jettera dans la mêlée sans études serieuses et qui s'efforcerait plutot de frapper fort que de frapper juste!" We can only indicate briefly what points the author dwells on. In the June article he shows that in this special matter, as in others generally, contemporary rationalism, in its onslaught on revealed religion, has been more fatal to every form of Protestantism than to Catholicism. He traces the evidences of this in Germany, Holland, France and England. He then proceeds to trace what has been done of recent years for the spread of the teachings of this new comparative science, in Holland by Tiele, in England by the origina tors of the Hibbert Lectures, and by others. In the July article is narrated what M. Maurice Vernes has done in France, since 1880, for encouraging the study of "Positive Theology" or "Hierography," and spreading the knowledge of its conclusions; as also how he has been aided by M. Paul Bert and others. The first and present occupant of the newly founded French chair is M. Albert Réville, of whom one has heard so much of recent months in the controversy in The Nineteenth Century, between himself, Mr. Gladstone, Professors Huxley, Drummond, and others. The writer also gives an account of the attempts made to surround the efforts of the Abbé Broglie with a cloud of insinuations and prejudices, and defends the Abbé both by direct contention, and by quoting the testimony of non-Catholic authorities to the high qualities and perfect competency of the Abbé, and by also a telling tu quoque against M. Gobilet d'Alviella. Lastly, there is a most interesting narrative of the efforts made by M. Réville at the College de France. The articles are valuable for the amount of interesting details which occur in the course of the historical narrative-itself of considerable value-and also for the excellent criticism of the works of Tiele, the Hibbert Lecturers and others. Father Van den Gheyn knows his brief too well and is withal too scholarly to exaggerate, and he gives this as his conviction :-"The history of religions, as it is taught by rationalists at Leyden, Brussels, Paris, Berlin, Geneva, London, has one object, avowed or hidden-viz., to the foundations of Christian revelation." sap The Antiquity of Man.-In an article in the July number, headed "L'Archéologie préhistorique et l'Antiquité de l'Homme," the Abbé Hamard, of the Rennes Oratory, takes into account and weighs the arguments of modern prehistoric writers in favour of the great antiquity of our race on this earth. The article is written with considerable knowledge of evidence, and in a judicial temper. On the one hand, the writer acknowledges that the date of man's appearance on earth is not absolutely settled by the Bible; this, however, is not an acknowledgment that the Bible has no chronological value in the matter. On the other hand, he protests against the assertions too often made in the name of science, when science in reality has nothing to show in proof. He groups the soi-disant proofs of the high antiquity of our race under five headings-orographic, geological, climacteric, zoological and industrial modifications. The first alone is dealt with in this number, and, the author deduces, in conclusion, that the modifications in the physical geography and outline of the globe since the beginning of the quarternary period in no way oblige us to enlarge the stretch of human chronology. The nature of the modifications within the historical epoch prevent us being surprised at what has taken place at a period which we are told was much more unsettled and stormy than our own-even Cæsar's description of the French coasts does not agree with the actual littoral. In the three numbers before us, M. Paul Allard continues his study of the persecution of Christians under Valerian. In the June number we may also note a contribution from the pen of M. Gairal, to the "Question Juive," now so keenly discussed in France. In the July issue we may note a very interesting sketch by Mgr. Ricard, headed "L'Abbé Maury, avant 1789," which is continued in August. Maury is lauded as a student, and there are many anecdotes of his early efforts as an orator, and much light thrown on the French clergy at the close of that eighteenth century. The August number gives in succession three articles which ought to be here named. "L'Apôtre S. Jean," by the Abbé Fillion, the Sulpitian Professor, is apparently a portion of the writer's Introduction to his forthcoming edition of the Gospel of S. John, in Lethielleux's Commentary; "La Croix chez les Chinois" is a reply to an article in the Revue d'Ethnographie, in which a writer strove to show that the Christian Cross was borrowed from Pagan China; and a pleasant article by the Count E. de Barthélemy, entitled "La reine Marie Leczinska d'après sa correspondance inédite," founded on the recently published "Lettres inédites" of the Queen, by M. V. des Diguères. (Paris: Champion.) Notes of Trabel and Exploration. India Revisited.*—Mr. Arnold's intimate acquaintance with India gives the impressions received by him during his recent journey a far higher value than those of ordinary travellers. True, he only visited the more accessible localities, whose wonders have been familiarized to us by the commonplace tourist's admiration; but we are well content to have the beauties of the Taj Mahal of Agra, and the Kutab Minar, of Delhi, called up once more before our mental vision in the reflected glory of a poet's mind. Still more interesting is his description of " the rose-red city of Jeypore, with its beautiful streets and fairy-like palaces," seeming as though flushed with a perennial glow of sunrise. The entire city [says the writer] is of one and the same tint—a delicate rosy-red, relieved with white. If a conqueror could dream of building a capital of rouge-royal marble or pink coral, this is how it would look. It is an interminable perspective of roseate house fronts, bathed by soft sunlight, nowhere ungraceful in style of building, and at many spots on either side of the way broken magnificently by stately fronts of palaces, and long lines of light pavilions, embellished with columns and cupolas, and enriched with floral or picturesque frescoes in all sorts of designs. The splendid street thus entered, runs on a perfect level from east to * "India Revisited." By Edwin Arnold, M.A., C.S.I. London: Trübner & Co. 1886. west more than two miles, always of the same grand breadth of one hundred and eleven feet, and so absolutely straight that throughout its entire length each house, each palace, each trader's shop, can be seen on either side, fading away in the long perspective of rose-red to the battlements of the far-off Mauck, or Ruby Gate. A gay and bustling crowd of citizens gives animation to the charming mise-en-scene, which is backed by mountains rising nobly to the pure blue sky, almost every peak of them covered with some commanding fort or fantastic pleasure-house. Two main roadways of the same rosy colour from end to end, and each of them as wide as the great central street, cross it at right angles, forming at the points of bisection two spacious piazzas, called the "Amber Chauk," and the "Ruby Chauk," These subordinate thoroughfares are each a mile and a quarter long, and have the same picturesque roseate lines of dwellings and shops, broken in a similar fashion by buildings of the strangest fancy and most elaborate ornamentation. It is true that the lovely pink flush which thus clothes the entire visible city is only a wash of colour laid upon the chunam, with which the rough masonry of the structures has been covered, but it beautifies the face of the capital almost as much as if Jeypore were really constructed of rose-tinted alabaster. This unique "City of Victory," founded in 1728, is the capital of Rajputana, the home of the most interesting and chivalrous race in India. Of them, and all his other dark-skinned fellow-subjects, Mr. Arnold writes with a sympathy, which though rare among English travellers, might be expected from the author of "The Light of Asia." 66 Progress of the Transcaspian Railway.-Merv, the old Queen of the World," is now in direct steam communication with Europe, the railway thither having been opened for traffic on July 14. A thousand Turcoman horsemen, headed by Colonel Alikhanoff, met the first train which reached their remote oasis, bearing Generals Aunenkoff and Komaroff, with other minor officials. The line is being rapidly pushed on to Bokhara and Samarcand, stations and distances being already accurately known for the entire distance of 1335 versts, or 890 miles. There will be altogether sixty-three stations, extending from Michaelovsk on the Caspian, across the deserts and oases of the Transcaspian Steppes, over the Oxus and through the Bokharian territory beyond it, to Samarcand in the heart of Russian Turkestan, and it will be possible to traverse this vast tract of Central Asia in a day, or a day and a half. The first considerable oasis reached, after leaving the Caspian, is that of Akhal Teke, with the celebrated fortress or entrenched camp of Geok Tepe as its capital; the second, that of the Tejend or lower Heri Rud, 628 versts from the Caspian; the third, that of Merv, about 100 versts farther east. Thence, for some 250 versts, the line traverses steppe and desert to Chardjui on the Oxus, which it will cross by a wooden bridge. A shorter route might have been taken by this portion of the line, reducing its entire length from 890 to 800 miles, but the Bokharian Government, whose territory is entered at the Oxus, did not consider it would be so serviceable to the country. After traversing 300 versts of the Khan's dominions, the line enters Russian Turkestan, through which it runs to Samarcand, its terminal point. This and Askabad are its principal stations, but lodging-houses for travellers are being built at several others as well, where shelter, though not of the most luxurious kind, will be obtainable. The trains are timed to run twenty versts (somewhat less than fourteen miles an hour), and in case of war, as many as twelve may be run in the day. Water and Fuel Supply. The supply of water has been one of the difficulties to be overcome, and it has been met in various ways. At Michaelovsk, Nobel's apparatus for distilling fresh from salt water is in use; artesian wells have been successfully bored at many points, and at others large cisterns have been constructed, to be supplied either by pipe lines or by water trains. Only liquid fuel will be burned, and this will be furnished in abundance by petroleum sources in the Transcaspian, already connected with the main line by a short branch. No English traveller will be allowed to travel on the line without special permission, as it is entirely under official control. Provincial Rivalries.-The extension of the line of Central Asian communication by way of the Caspian, places the newly opened territories under the control of the Government of the Caucasus, which thus supplants that of Turkestan as the pioneer of Russian progress and annexation. Hence, the officials connected with the latter province have been violently hostile to the railway scheme, and General Tchernaieff, ex-Governor General of Turkestan, has especially signalized himself by his opposition to General Annenkoff, its chief promoter. As the former went the length of writing, in April last, a letter to the Novoe Vremya, asserting that it would take two years to transport 200,000 men by the new line, he was removed from his place at the Military Council Board, and finally sent into retreat by Imperial decree, thus terminating a brilliant career in failure and disgrace. (Times, July 26, 1886.) Reclamation of part of the Merv Oasis.-Other improvements follow on the track of the railway, and the Russian Government have sanctioned the scheme of the engineer, M. Poklevsky Kozell, for the restoration of the dam of Sultan Beg on the Murghab above Merv, destroyed by Shah Murad, of Bokhara, nearly a century ago. The estimated expense is 233,000 roubles, an outlay which it is hoped to recover by the cultivation of cotton on the reclaimed land. Volcanic Eruption in New Zealand.-Details received of the terrific outburst of Mount Tarawera in the North Island of New Zealand on June 11 last, show the catastrophe to have been even more violent and destructive than the first telegraphic accounts indicated. Mount Tarawera, a curious truncated mass 2000 feet high, standing on the lake of the same name, in the great volcanic district of the Hot Lakes, suddenly burst into eruption, and as in the case of all long extinct or quiescent volcanoes, inaugurated its new phase of activity by a vast discharge of ashes, mud, cinders, and other volcanic débris. In this, and in many of its features, the eruption resembled that to which Pompeii and Herculaneum owed |