mately conquered. In some respects James Watt reminds the reader of Josiah Wedgwood, and there is so much external similarity between them as consists in the fact that each was sickly and backward in childhood and youth, and that the apprenticeship of each was deferred, from that cause. Watt lived in a more intellectual atmosphere, and suffered less from absence of sympathy, though the aid of poor Scotch professors could not take a material form. Every step from his apprenticeship to a mathematical instrument-maker, to his discovery of the model of one of the unfortunate Newcomen's fire-engines, an event which decided the bent of his genius, and determined his future career, is made interesting by the clear and realizing style of his biographer; but the narrative gains in attraction at the point at which Watt makes his first great discovery-the "separate condenser." The simple manner in which all important suggestions came to him, the patience with which he utilized them, worked them out, and persevered in improving them under every kind of discouragement and mechanical difficulty, for he could get no workmen but ordinary tinmen and blacksmiths, are most remarkable. The domestic aspect of the picture is also full of interest, and is ably handled by the biographer. When the light dawned at length on the long night of misfortune, and Watt was taken into partnership with Mr. Boulton, the owner of the extensive works near Birmingham, known as the Soho manufactory, money, position, and skilled labour, were at his command, and his invention, properly carried out, rapidly became famous. Mr. Boulton is quite a secondary personage, in comparison with James Watt; but he is made the most of by Mr. Smiles, and he supplies a good deal of the anecdote with which the book is pleasantly enlivened, and gives occasion for some admirable and welcome sketches of society, late in the last century. Venerabilis Servi Dei Bartholomæi a Maetylibus Archiepiscopi Bracarensis, ex Ordine Prædicatorum Compendium Spiritualis Doctrinæ ex Variis Sanctorum Patrum Sententiis Magna ex Parte Collectum Denuo. Edidit DR. JOSEPHUS FESSLER, Episcopus Myssnus, J.P. New York: Charles & Nicolas Benziger. 1864. THE " HE Venerable Bartholomew of the Martyrs, Archbishop of Braga, stands in the foremost rank among the illustrious Dominicans of the sixteenth century. He was the disciple of S. Louis Bertrand, and the teacher of S. Charles, to whom he dedicated his treatise, entitled "Stimulus Pastorum," which has been lately republished by the editor of the reprint now before us, from whose preface we learn that the great Archbishop of Milan held both these works in such high estimation as to cause them frequently to be read at his table. The "Compendium Spiritualis Doctrinæ consists principally of selections from the ascetical and mystical writings of S. Bernard, S. Bonaventure and Gerson, systematically arranged so as to lead the soul step by step, by the mortification of the passions, the practice of virtues, and the use of the various degrees of mental prayer, to the most intimate union with God. It has been now reprinted by Bishop Fessler, in the hope, as he tells us, "that it will prove very profitable to many readers and especially to priests." De Imitatione Sacri Cordis Jesu. Libri Quatuor. Auctore P. J. ARNOLDI, S. J. Editio Emendata. New York: Charles & Superioribus Approbantibus. Nicolas Benziger. 1864. WE hope that ere long some father of the Society of Jesus will give us an English version of this most beautiful and spiritual book, which in its depth and simplicity reminds us at every page of the "Imitation" of Thos. à Kempis. To say that it can bear a comparison with a work which is accounted, by the consent of Christendom, to stand second only to Holy Scripture, is the strongest testimony which can be borne to its value, both as a help to devotion and a manual for every stage of the spiritual life. Of all the books which we have seen on the Devotion to the Sacred Heart, this is in our judgment at once the most solidly practical and the most deeply and fervently devotional, while at the same time it contains a complete and systematic course of instruction on Christian doctrine. It is divided (like the "Imitation") into four books, consisting of dialogues between the Disciple and his Divine Master; the subject of the first being the purification of the soul; of the second and third, its illumination by the contemplation of the active and suffering life of Jesus; of the fourth, its union with Him in the mystery of the Holy Eucharist. To each book is prefixed an introduction, containing directions for its use and warnings against the especial dangers besetting that stage of the spiritual life to which it relates. THE DUBLIN REVIEW. APRIL, 1866. ART. I.-ROME THE CIVILIZER OF NATIONS. 1. Le Parfum de Rome. Gaume Frères. 1862. Par LOUIS VEUILLOT. 3me edition. Paris: 2. Rome et la Civilisation. Par EUGENE MAHON DE MONAGHAN. Paris: Charles Douniol. 1863. THE HE useful little work which stands at the head of this article, by M. Mahon de Monaghan (whose name would, perhaps, be more correctly printed M. MacMahon de Monaghan), may be regarded as a supplement to the more important volume of the Abbé Balmez. "The study of Church history in its relations with civilization," he told us, "is still incomplete;" and the writer before us seems to have taken this as a hint, and to have conceived the laudable plan of pursuing further some of the Spanish divine's arguments, and strengthening them by new illustrations gathered from history. "Le Parfum de Rome" is a work of another description, but bearing on the same subject. It consists of many discursive reflections on Rome, as the residence of the Vicar of Christ, and is full of point, brilliancy, and humour. When a Catholic, who has enjoyed the advantage of a good education, and is accustomed to habits of reflection, arrives for the first time in Rome, he is usually overwhelmed by the multitude of objects offered to his attention, and requires time to select, arrange, and analyse them. The light is too vivid, the colours are too varied, the perfume is too strong. Two thousand years, richly laden with historic events, crowd his memory; the united glories of the past and the present kindle his imagination; the sublime mysteries of religion, marvellously localized, exercise his faith; long galleries thronged with the rarest productions of art court his gaze, and a Presence peculiar to the spot, which he feels, but cannot yet define, completes his pleasing bewilderment in heart and brain. By degrees the tumult of thought subsides, and order begins to rise out of chaotic beauty. The traveller is resolved VOL. VI. NO. XII. [New Series.] X to render his sensations precise, and he asks himself emphatically, "Whence springs the resistless charm of Rome? Wherein does the true glory of Rome consist? What is this nameless Presence that mantles all things with divinity? Where does the Shekinah reside?" Then, more and more clearly, the voice of Rome herself is heard in reply: "This is the home of the Vicar of Christ, the throne of the Fisherman, the seat of that long line of Pontiffs who, like a chain of gold, bind our erring globe to Emmanuel's footstool. This garden is fertilized by the blood of Peter and Paul, and of thirty Popes: hence all its amazing produce; hence its exquisite fragrance and perennial bloom. These are the head-quarters of the Commander-in-Chief of the Church militant; and Christ himself is present here in the person of His Viceroy, promulgating a law above all human laws, inflexible, uniform, merciful, and strict. He diffuses this grateful perfume; He colours every object with rainbow tints; He sheds this dazzling light which causes Rome to shine like a gem with a myriad fascets. The Lord loveth the gates of Rome more than of old he loved the gates of Zion; He lives in the solemn utterances of His High Priest, and speaks by him as of old He spoke by the Urim and Thummim that sparkled on Aaron's breast. Here He so multiplies sacraments, that all you see becomes sacramental; and here you find, in the Father of the faithful, the most perfect representation of your Incarnate God, and the most certain pledge of His resurrection.” If the peculiar presence of Christ thus hallows Christian Rome, it cannot be matter of surprise that she also should be an enigma to the world, and have a twofold character; that she should be one thing to the eye and another to the mind; one thing to Gibbon and Goethe,* and another thing altogether to Chateaubriand and Schlegel; that she should have her seasons of gloom and jubilee, of persecution and triumph; should require in each to be interpreted by faith; and that every page of her history should share in this double aspect. Thus Rome resembles Christ; and in this resemblance lies her glory and her strength. Other glories she has which do not directly come from Him. She had them of old before He came; the inroad of barbaric hordes, age after age, could not trample them out, and they endure abundantly to this day. These the world understands; these she extols with ceaseless praises, and sends her children from every clime in troops to do homage at their ancient shrines. The worldling, enamoured of these, exclaims, * “Parfum de Rome,” p. 7. O Rome! my country! city of the soul! The orphans of the heart must turn to thee, But the orphan who turns to her as Byron did, remains an orphan. Rome is no mother to him, and he finds no father in the Patriarch who rules there. To the devout Catholic she is the mother of arts and sciences as truly as the Pope is the father of the Christian family. She is, and has been for eighteen hundred years, the centre of true civilization, because she is the central depository of the Faith. From her, as from a fountain, the streams of salvation have flowed through all lands, and, having the promise both of this life and that which is to come, they have indirectly produced a large amount of material well-being, and also an infinity of artistic and scientific results. Rome civilizes as Christ civilized, by sowing the seeds of civilization. She does not aim directly at material wellbeing; she does not any more than He teach astronomy or dynamics; she propounds no system of induction; she invents neither printing-press, steam-engines, nor telegraphs; but she so raises man above the brute, curbs his passions, improves his understanding, instils into him principles of duty, and a sense of responsibility, so hallows his ambition and kindles his desire for the good of his kind and the progress of humanity, that, under her influence, he acquires insensibly an aptitude even for the successful pursuit of physical science, such as no other teacher could impart. He looks abroad into the spacious field of nature, and finds in every star and in every drop of dew an unfathomable depth of creative design. His heart quickens the energies of his brain, and he says, smiling, "My Father made them all; He made them that I may, .to the best of my feeble powers, investigate and classify them, and that He may be glorified in science as in religion." He rises to higher 'studies than those of physical science; he looks within, and analyzes his complex nature. He sees that human minds in the aggregate are capable of indefinite development as time goes on, and he concludes that, as the works of nature can be investigated to the glory of the Creator, so may the mind of man be developed to the glory of its Redeemer-be trained in philosophy, and exercised also in the application of science to the wants and usages of social life. Thus, to his apprehension, the links are clear which connect Rome-the centre of civilization-with matters which appear at first sight absolutely distinct from religion, with sewing-machines and * "Childe Harold," Canto iv. |