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ductive of much very important service; yet, as it illustrates in a very marked manner what we consider to be the disadvantages of the biographical method, we may perhaps be allowed to dwell somewhat at length upon the subject.

No one, we venture to say, who takes up this beautiful book-say, for instance, during his quarter of an hour for spiritual reading-but will find it rather a distraction than a help, in some respects a positive hindrance to his purpose. He has only a few minutes at his disposal, during which he hopes to take in enough of solid spiritual food to sustain his soul during the struggles and weariness of the day. What does he find? Page after page of beautiful writing and often of minute description, the very charm of which carries his thoughts far away from the Saints' heroic virtue, and even from his own soul, the nourishment of which is the sole object for which he has taken up the book. The style is so attractive that he stops to admire it, perhaps even reads a passage or two aloud, in order that the sweet sound of the melody may fall upon his ears. It is so picturesque, that it is suggestive of many thoughts-all beautiful in themselves, but charming the mind far away from the main object in view. The human interest,-and it is so great that we ourselves confess that we could hardly lay down the book till we had finished it,-prevails to such an extent over the saintly elementalthough of course this is never altogether absent-that the reader becomes absorbed in the story rather than in the sanctity of the Saint; and when the time for spiritual reading is over, and he lays down the book, he finds that, after all, however much his mind has been entertained and delighted, his soul has not been fed with the bread of the strong, which he stands so much in need of for the nourishment of his spiritual life. He opens the book, we will say, at chapter xi., and his eyes fall on the following striking passage (p. 96):

"It would read more like some fairy story than a record of real life were we to follow the little Baroness de Thorens through the first year of marriage in the old Castle de Sales. It is wonderful that, with all the pictures we possess of possible heroines in poetry and prose, no painter has tried his hand upon the actual beauty of this extraordinary and touching scene. Nothing could be depicted more full of grace and charm than the figures of this young Bernard, bright-faced and golden-haired, with his large, transparent blue eyes, and his girl-haroness, with her richly-coloured young face, sweet with its modest gravity and a kind of peaceful responsibility. We can imagine her sitting at work either in the long galleries or antique chambers of the castle, with their high coved ceilings and deep windows with stained glass, or kneeling in the quaint oratory, roofed with blue and sown with stars; or again, wandering with her chivalrous husband among the exquisite valleys, gazing with rapt delight upon the mountains bathed in rose-coloured and purple light, or gathering primroses and violets from the rich spring carpet, which at the time of their coming home spread under the hoary oaks and pines."

Now what will be the ejaculations which this beautiful passage, so full of purely human interest, will call forth from the reader, except such as these: What a perfect picture!" "How I should like to see it made the subject of a painting!" What will be the practical resolution taken after reading it,

except, perhaps, at once to form the plan of a summer tour, in order to gaze at the mountains bathed in rose-coloured and purple light, and to stand under the hoary oaks and pines rising above the silvery lake of Annecy? Surely it would be a mistake to call the reading of a saint's life, written in this way, "spiritual reading." Nor are we, we think, in any way unfair in quoting the above passage, for the life of S. Jane Frances is literally full of similar picturesque descriptions. To us it seems that for lives of the saints designed for spiritual reading, the advice of S. Francis de Sales with regard to the ecclesiastical music of his holy daughters of the Visitation should be followed, of which we are told (p. 109) that it was his earnest desire that "the natural pleasure (taken in it) should be sweetly, gradually, and without violence checked and pruned, and never be allowed to stifle the growth of grace," and that therefore the office tones should have no beauty to recommend them. We do not, of course, say that the natural pleasure we must all feel in such descriptions as that given above stifles the growth of grace in the soul; but we do say that it distracts the mind from the true object, and deprives the soul of the true fruit of spiritual reading, just as beautiful figured music, although under certain restrictions it has its own work to do in the Church of God, would be both a disturbance and a hindrance to the worship of religious communities who have to sing the Divine Office or the Office of our Lady, much in the same way as spiritual books ought to be read, but of course in a less degree,-pausatim, and with reflection.

• We may seem to have been pointing a moral at Miss Bowles's expense, for she does not profess to have written her work as a provision for spiritual reading. Again, therefore, we will say that such lives as that which she has written are especially valuable at the present time, and we know none more so than the one before us. As helping to correct the corrupt influence of the literature of the day, and as encouraging a pure and healthy taste in the place of so much that is sentimental and enervating, as well as making known this great Saint to many who would never read about her in any other way, it will be of incalculable benefit; in hours of recreation, above all in the refectories of our religious houses, convents, and colleges, it will be most warmly welcomed; nay, it will even importantly assist its readers in knowing those depths of the Saint's soul which cannot adequately be exhibited, except in some life framed on a different type. We are most anxious that we should not be thought to be desirous of discouraging biographical lives in their own proper place. It was to prevent this misconception that we repeated, over and over again in our April number, even at the risk of wearying our readers, that such lives were most important. But we contended then, and still contend, that what we have called the Italian or "hagiological" method, should not be allowed to fall into disuse, because of all methods it is the best adapted for the nourishment of the soul, inasmuch as it is founded on the actual results of the Saint's heroic lives, as brought to light and established in the Processes of Canonization,-results for which alone the Church now honours them upon her altars. We freely confess, that apart from spiritual reading, the biographical method has many advantages which might render it preferable to any other method; but if the Lives of

the Saints are to form, as they ought to form, a most important part of spiritual reading, the place of which no other spiritual works, even those of Rodriguez or Scaramelli, can supply; if, according to F. Faber, all masters of the spiritual life tell us that the Lives of the Saints should be read slowly, pausatim, and a little at a time, then surely the style of the Processes is more suitable than the biographical method, which from its human interest is almost incompatible with spiritual reading in its strict sense.

We dwell at length upon this point, because we fear, notwithstanding all our efforts in our April article to prevent misunderstanding, a much valued contemporary, from whom we always differ with pain, and whose opinion on such points we should always wish to treat with the greatest respect, has in his last number, while noticing the very work before us, somewhat misunderstood the arguments on which the advocates of the Italian method would wish to rest their position. Far be it from us to run down any style of life which can do good to souls. The boundaries of the Church of God are wide, the wants of men's souls are many, and our mother's heart is large. All styles of Saints' lives are good, all are useful. Writing in April we said: "By all means let us have Lives of the Saints of as great literary merit as possible, written from different points of view,-biographical, historical, psychological, intellectual,--all these are good and useful." Surely, then, we could not be understood as running down the biographical method when we added: "But if we have at heart the growth of our people in holiness, do not let us lightly set aside or undervalue a method consecrated by the wisdom of past generations, which the foresight of our first Cardinal Archbishop inaugurated in the midst of us, and for which F, Faber so earnestly contended." Who could say, for example, that the intellectual life of S. Thomas of Aquin, as written by F. Vaughan, was not greatly needed in England; yet if we should contend that a life in which the heroic sanctity of the Saint should be more definitely brought forward still remains to be written in English, could we be said in any way to be running down F. Vaughan's admirable life? If not, then in contending for the necessity of "hagiological" as well as biographical lives, we can in no way be said to be running down the latter. To us it seems that in England, at the present moment, there is greater danger of the former being altogether superseded.

Our contemporary has also taken exception to the use of the term "hagiological" in reference to the Italian method. For our own part, we have made use of the term partly for the sake of convenience, as opposed to "biographical," the inner life of the Saint being more prominently set forward in the one case, the outer life in the other, but much more because, as canonization has to do with the results of heroism, and not with historical or biographical interest, or with natural character; so the method which treats of those results seems to us more worthy of having applied to it the term "hagiological," than that which deals more prominently with characteristics of the Saints, that had nothing to do with placing them on the altars of the Church. Hagiology, of course, may be taken in a wide sense; but in the common language of the Church it bears, as we take it, a distinct and definite meaning, namely, the science of holiness as studied in the lives of the Saints and servants of God.

There is yet one other remark of our contemporary upon which we can hardly refrain from saying a word. F. Faber, it is said, the great advocate for the Italian method, was also the author of "All for Jesus," and of those other spiritual works by which his name will hereafter be chiefly known. "These books," it is further remarked, "were meant, we suppose, for spiritual reading, as well as for other purposes, and we can hardly help smiling when we compare their attractiveness, their popular character, their absence of technical arrangements, their general brilliancy and discursiveness, with the series of Lives which he seems almost to have rejoiced in making comparatively stiff and ungainly." Now we suppose F. Faber would have been the very last to wish his own spiritual writings to supersede the more methodical spiritual works which have treated of the science of holiness. He wrote to popularize dogma and spirituality, and to make men read about the doctrine of the Church, and the spiritual life, with which they would never become acquainted in any other way. We feel sure he believed-and his own attractiveness as a writer adds weight to his belief-that a far higher kind of spiritual benefit would be derived from reading, under due circumstances such Saints' lives as those which he edited, than could be obtained by the most constant study of such religious books as those which he wrote. The latter in his judgment, we are confident, would have achieved one of their very highest ends, so far as they might stimulate their readers to make due use of the former.

We can assure our readers that we write in no narrow spirit, with no wish to exclude any kind of life, with no desire to cripple the efforts of others who are trying to work for God's glory in the way which seems to them best, but simply and solely from a deep conviction of the immense importance of Saints' lives written upon the method which we have been advocating. Far then from running down biographical lives, to which we wish all success, we are but pleading for that other, and as we believe higher, method which has given so much spiritual nourishment to so many souls, that it may not be altogether set aside or forgotten. To us it seems, that "the life of a Saint on paper is the most perfect for all spiritual uses, when it represents, as far as may be, in its effect and influence on others," not so much "the life of the same Saint as it influenced those who saw and knew most of him while upon the earth," as the life which influenced the Church of God in declaring him to have reached the level of heroic sanctity, and therefore to be worthy of a place upon the altars of her Lord.

We have only to add that the materials for the biography of S. Jane F. de Chantal are stated to have been chiefly taken from two French works, Les deux Filles de Ste. Chantal, and the Abbé Bougaud's Histoire de Ste. Chantal, et des Origines de la Visitation.

English Church Defence Tracts, Nos. 1, 2, 3. London: Rivingtons.

NOT

OT the least benefit, accruing from the Vatican Definition, has been the cessation of that frivolous and shallow talk about corporate reunion with Rome, which at one time was in fashion with Dr. Pusey's friends. This talk produced a very undesirable result with certain excellently-intentioned but not clear-sighted Catholics, by inducing them to labour, in the supposed interests of charity, to pare down and minimize the Church's doctrines. We have ourselves always thought—and have often expressed our reasons for thinking—that one minimizing Catholic may easily inflict greater injury on the Church, than a hundred men of equal ability could do who assail her from without; according to the proverbial contrast, between open enemies and traitors (however unintentionally traitors) in the camp. Now, thank God, all this coquetting with heresy is necessarily at an end; and we are glad to see that the Tracts before us assume towards Catholics the one reasonable attitude of Anglicans, uncompromising hostility. At the same time this position of public hostility (if we may so call it) affords no defence for the personal imputations, which here meet us at every turn; and which culminate in the denunciation of S. Alphonsus and "Jesuit casuistry," wherewith the first tract concludes. One learns to be surprised at nothing: otherwise one would be transfixed with amazement that an admirer of Dr. Pusey-with the notorious "Eirenicon" fresh in his memory-should twit his opponents with being "unscrupulous in assertion" and "culpably careless as to the grounds of their statements."

Again we have read with much pleasure some remarks in the third Tract. It is of great importance, we quite agree, that inquirers should fully understand, how wide and how profound is the intellectual submission required from every Catholic. Doubtless there are two or three overstatements on this head: to talk e.g. about "the pitiless energy of a Spanish inquisitor" is very misplaced rhetoric (p. 7); and to call the "Cùm ex Apostolatûs officio" a dogmatic definition, is to trifle with a serious subject. But then on the other side there are actually passages, which might be more vividly coloured. We cannot admit (p. 10) that no utterance is ex cathedrâ which is not, in point of form, "addressed to all Christians"; nor can we admit the implication of the first Tract (p. 8) that S. Leo's Dogmatic Letter was not, on Vatican principles, an ex cathedrâ Act. As to the remarks on Pope Honorius (tr. 3, p. 10), and on what is ridiculously called the "qualifying clause" of Florence (tr. 1, p. 9)—these show that their writer has not even given himself the trouble to look at recent controversial literature.

Perhaps the most singular circumstance connected with these "English Church Defence Tracts" is, that they do not contain one syllable of ❝defence" of the "English Church." The second, indeed, upholds the validity of Anglican ordinations; but supposing its whole argument were conceded, it would only follow that the English Establishment possesses one charac

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