Volume 5 — Original. New Publications.

We know nothing of the writer of these works, save the works themselves, and even them we know only in the translations before us. The last-named volume reads more like an original work in English than the others. Mrs. Chapman Coleman and her daughters appear not to have learned the proper use of shall and will, and make now and then the same sort of blunder the Frenchman did when he fell into the river and exclaimed: "I will be drowned, and nobody shall help me out." The use of shall and will is a little arbitrary in English. Shall in the first person simply foretells, in the second and third persons it commands; will in the first person promises or expresses a determination or resolution, in the second and third persons it simply foretells. The same rule applies to should and would. The Scotch, Irish, and most foreigners are very apt to reverse the rule, as do some New-Yorkers and most western writers and speakers.

These works themselves are too historical for romances, and too romantic for histories. Unless one is exceedingly familiar with the real history of the times, one never knows whether he is reading history or only romance. The historical predominates in them, and most people will read them as histories rather than romances, and thus imbibe many erroneous views of real persons and events. The Empress Maria Theresa is praised enough and more than enough, so far as words go, both as a woman and as a sovereign, but she is, after all, represented very untruthfully as weak, sentimental, permitting her ministers to persuade her to adopt measures to which she is conscientiously opposed, and really ruinous to the empire. She is arbitrary, despotic, and the slave of her confessor. The author even repeats the silly story that Kaunitz persuaded her, in order to further his policy, to write an autograph letter to Madame Pompadour, the mistress of Louis XV., and to praise her for her virtue and modesty, a story invented, it is said, by Frederick the Great. The béte noir of the writer is the clergy, and alike whether Catholic or Protestant. The author sympathizes from first to last with Joseph II.; thinks the Josephine reforms or pretended reforms very just, very wise in themselves, but that the people were too ignorant and superstitious to appreciate them. From first to last humanity takes precedence of God and the state of the church. The great divinity the author worships is the mutual love of man and woman, and the greatest evil that afflicts humanity, or at least princes and princesses, is that they cannot follow the inclinations of their own heart, but must sacrifice their affections to the demands of state policy.

Joseph II. is a great favorite with the author, but Frederick the Great is her hero. He is always great, noble, wise, just, with a most loving heart, which he sacrifices to the necessities of state. No censure is breathed against his infamous conduct in invading and taking possession of Silesia, without even a color of right, and without even the formality of declaring war against Austria, and while Austria, unsuspicious of any invasion, is wholly unprepared to resist it, and embarrassed by a disputed succession. He was successful, and in our times success is proof of right. Frederick was utterly without principle, without faith of any sort, a philosophe, corresponded with Voltaire, invited him to his court, and even paid him a salary, and detested the clergy, and therefore was a fitting idol of our modern liberals and humanitarians, and worshippers of FORCE like Carlyle.

Joseph the Second, we are inclined to believe, was sincere, and really wished to benefit the nation committed to his charge, and he gave proof of it in revoking most of the changes he attempted, and dying as a Christian. He was vain and ambitious, and was led astray by the philosophy of his times, and his unprincipled minister, Prince Kaunitz, a legacy from his mother. He, like all the philosophers of the eighteenth century, understood nothing of the laws of continuity, and supposed anything he decided to be for the good of his people, however contrary to all their most deeply cherished convictions and their most inveterate habits, could be forced upon them by power, and should be received with grateful hearts. Two things he appears to never have known, that despotism cannot found liberty, and that power must, if it would make people happy, suffer them to be happy in their own. There was, in the eighteenth century, with the European rulers and the upper classes much sincere and active benevolence—a real and earnest desire to lighten the burdens of government and ameliorate the condition of the people; and no one can read these volumes, with sufficient knowledge to distinguish what in them is history from what is mere romance, without being persuaded that real reforms would have gone much further, and European society would have been far in advance of what it now is, if the revolution of 1789 had never been attempted. All that was true in the so-called principles of 1789 was favorably accepted by nearly all European statesmen and sovereigns who were laboring peaceably and earnestly to develop and apply it. The statesmen and sovereigns, unhappily, had utterly false and mischievous views of the relation of the church to the state, and imagined that the only way to reform society was to begin by subjecting the spiritual to the temporal; but they went in this direction not so far as went the old French revolution. Indeed, the great lesson of history is that the attempt to effect real social reforms by raising the people against legitimate authority, whether civil or ecclesiastical, always turns out a failure. Some good may be gained on one side, but is sure to be more than overbalanced by the evils effected on another side.

As purely literary works, these historical romances possess a high degree of merit, and prove that the writer has rare powers of description and analysis. They read like the genuine histories, and from them alone it is impossible to say where the real history ends and the romance begins, so completely is the verisimilitude maintained throughout. If, as we are told, they are the production of a female pen, as they bear indubitable evidence of being, they are truly remarkable productions. The characters introduced are all, or nearly all, historical, and if not all or always faithfully reproduced, they are presented without any violence to the generally received history of the two courts described. There is a little too much German sentimentality in them, if faithfully translated, to suit our taste, and more than we believe is usually to be found in imperial or royal courts; and the liaisons of princes are treated with too much lenity, if not downright approbation, to have a good moral effect; but they indicate a rare mastery of the subjects they treat, and intellectual powers of a very high order. They are by no means faultless, and their spirit and tone are pagan rather than Christian; but they who are familiar with the history of the two courts described, and are accustomed to master the works they read instead of being mastered by them, may read them even with profit.

Lectures On Christian Unity, delivered in St. Ann's Church, Eighth Street, during the season of Advent, 1866, with an appendix on the condition of the Anglican Communion, and of the Eastern Churches. By the Rev. Thomas S. Preston, Pastor of St. Ann's Church and Chancellor of the diocese. 12mo, pp. 264. New-York: D. & J. Sadlier & Co.

Father Preston's style is natural, earnest, and direct. He is too anxious to impress truth on the minds of his readers to load his pages with rhetorical ornaments; too resolute in his opinions to hesitate at the most downright and unmistakable expression of them. His ideas are clear, and therefore his style has the two chief requisites of all good writing, clearness and simplicity. It has also the beauty which invariably radiates from a devout heart. Love of God, love of the Blessed Virgin and the saints, love of the holy church and all her teachings and her ways, illuminate every chapter with the light of an unaffected piety. And like the majority of really devout controversialists, he writes without rancor or bitterness. "No true Catholic," he says, "can be intemperate in speech, much less in heart. .... When we speak of the claims of our religion or announce our doctrines and urge them upon men, it is not to advance our own opinions so much as to benefit mankind, and promote their best happiness, temporal and spiritual. We feel that the church answers the very questions which are agitating their souls; that it responds to the wants of their spiritual being, now unsatisfied; that it is the only and the divine barrier to infidelity so fast increasing among us. ... It is in this spirit that these lectures are begun, with the earnest desire for truth, and a comprehensive charity for all who differ from us."

The first of the four lectures comprised in this volume proves from reason, Scripture, and the writings of the primitive fathers the necessity of unity among all who profess the Christian faith. The second shows how impossible it is of attainment under the theory of Protestantism, which holds that everything concerning faith and salvation must be left to the private judgment of each individual, and that no external authority has power to bind the conscience or compel the obedience of believing men. There can be no unity of belief unless there be an admitted standard of truth; and under the Protestant theory such a standard cannot be found. There is no church which can be such an authority, for, according to the doctrines of all the reformed bodies, a church has no authority except that given to it by the members. As then the members are not infallible, the church cannot be. The Bible cannot be the authority; for history shows that the Scriptures, subjected to private interpretation, have never been able to effect any agreement whatever; and, moreover, it is practically impossible to prove either the authenticity or inspiration of the sacred books without falling back upon the authority of the church. The objections to setting up the consent of the majority or the opinions of antiquity as a standard of doctrine are likewise exposed with clearness, though very briefly. The third lecture is devoted to an examination of the claims of Protestantism to represent the Church of Christ, and a survey of the present condition and history of the principal reformed bodies. In lecture the fourth the claims of the Catholic Church upon the obedience of mankind are summarized with beautiful lucidity and eloquence.

An appendix of 100 pages contains an interesting and valuable note on the position of the Anglican churches, and some welcome information respecting the church union movement, from which it is hardly necessary to say that Father Preston expects no good. Neither is he so sanguine of happy results from the ritualistic movement as a writer in a recent number of this magazine; but of these, as of all other matters, he speaks with his accustomed charity. A second part of the appendix gives an account of the present position of the Eastern churches.

We regard this as the best work Father Preston has written, and we earnestly join in the hope he expresses in his modest preface, that it "may reach some minds who are seeking the truth, and lead them to the haven of rest."

Lectures on doctrines of the Catholic Church are a powerful means of conversion to the faith. Never were the public better disposed to inquire, and more ready to listen to the claims of the church, than at present, and, wherever lectures of this character have been given, their fruits have been found more abundant than was anticipated.

The Life Of St. Dominic And A Sketch Of The Dominican Order. With an introduction by the most Rev. J. S. Alemany, D.D., Archbishop of San Francisco. P. O'Shea, 27 Barclay street.

This is not a reprint of F. Lacordaire's Life, but an original biography, accompanied by a history of the Dominican order brought down to the present day. It is from the pen of an anonymous English author, and resembles the best works of the modern school of English Catholic writers in the care and elegance with which it has been prepared. No one could have introduced it more suitably to the American public than the illustrious Archbishop of San Francisco, who is himself one of the brightest ornaments of the Dominican order in modern times. It is the history of a great man and of a great order, given in a moderate compass and an attractive style, and, of course, well worth the perusal of every intelligent reader, whether Catholic or Protestant.

The Journal Of Maurice De Guérin. With an Essay by Matthew Arnold, and a Memoir by Saint-Beuve. Edited by G. S. Trebutien. Translated by Edward Thornton Fisher. 12mo. pp. 153. New York, Leypoldt & Hoyt. 1867.

Our readers, already so familiar with the character and writings of Eugénie de Guérin from the frequent notices they have received, especially of her Journal and Letters, will be glad to know that this journal of her so much loved brother Maurice has been brought before the public.

In perusing the charming journal and mournful letters of Eugénie our curiosity must needs be awakened to know more of her gifted brother, of whom these pages of love speak so constantly. We have only to say that in this volume that curiosity may be satisfied. Our readers will see depicted the efforts of a soul vainly striving to find God outside of God in the worship of nature, and at last returning, wearied and disappointed, like the prodigal son to his father's home and embrace. Maurice de Guérin, who had fallen away into heartless and godless pantheism, died kissing the crucifix.

"The Catholic Publication Society" announces an American edition of a book just published in London: "The Clergy and the Pulpit, in their relations to the People," M. l'Abbé Mallois, chaplain to Napoleon III.

Books Received.

From Hon. W. H. Seward, Secretary of State. Washington, D. C, Diplomatic Correspondence, relating to Foreign Affairs for 1865. Parts I., II., and III.; also Part IV., being an appendix to the other three parts, containing letters and documents with reference to the assassination of President Lincoln, and the attempted assassination of Secretary Seward, with extracts from the press of Europe, and letters from public communities, of condolence and sympathy, inspired by inspired by these events. 8vo.

From Kelly & Piet. Baltimore, Md, Devotion to the Holy Guardian Angels, in the form of Considerations, Prayers, etc. Translated from the Italian of Rev. P. de Mattel. S. J. 32mo. pp. 229. Price 50 cts.

From P. O'Shea, New York. The Life of St. Dominic and a Sketch of the Dominican Order, with an introduction by Most Rev. J. S. Alemany, D.D. 1 vol. 12mo. pp. 370. Price $1.50.—The Gentle Skeptics; or, Essays and Conversations of a Country Justice on the Authenticity in Truthfulness of the Old Testament Records. By Rev. C. Walworth. New edition, revised. 1 vol. 12mo. Price $1.50.

From Ruttenberg & Co., Newberg, New York. An Address in behalf of Universal Education with Religious Toleration. By the Hon. J. Monell. Pamphlet.

From Lawrence Kehoe, New York. Three Phases of Christian Love. By Lady Herbert, of Lea. 1 vol. 12mo. pp. 315. Price $1.50

From Dayton Ohio, we have received two pamphlets namely: The Divinity of Christ, a sermon preached in the Holy Trinity Church, Dayton, Ohio, at the conclusion of the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ; St. Antony: Alban Butler and Local Gossip of the Dayton Journal. By X.

From D. & J. Sadlier & Co., New. York, Lectures on Christian unity, delivered in St. Ann's Church, New York, during the season of Advent, 1866, with an Appendix on the condition of the Anglican Communion, etc. By Thomas S. Preston, Pastor of St. Ann's Church. 1 vol. 12mo. pp. 264. Price $1.50—The Christian armed against the Seductions of the World, etc. Translated from the Italian by Father Ignatius Spencer. 1 vol. 18mo. pp. 320, 50 cts.—Devotion to St. Joseph By Rev. Father Joseph Anthony Patrignani, S. J. Translated from the French. 1 vol. 12mo. pp. 360. Price the 63 cts.—Fourth Annual Report of the Society for the Protection of the Destitute.

From the author. Reconstruction of the Union., in a letter to Hon. E. D. Morgan. U. S. Senator from New York, from Judge Edmonds. New York American News Co. 8vo. Pamphlet, pp. 89.

From John Murphy & Co., Baltimore. Manual of the Lives of the Popes, from St. Peter to Pius IX. By John Charles Earle, B.A. 1 vol. 12mo. pp. 332. Price $1.25.