however, demonstrates once again his scholarship and mastery of language, especially in the translations and paraphrases of ancient and modern classics that form part of the content.

AN UNKNOWN MASTER. By Joseph A. Murphy. Boston: The Pilot Publishing Company. $1.15.

The fourteen stories collected in this volume were originally published in The Boston Pilot; and they are reprinted in the present form, the author tells us, at the request of many readers. They evince some of the characteristics of fiction written for a weekly paper, but are decidedly above the average of such, and have sufficient merit to make their republication desirable. There is an unusual variety of subjects, of which none is hackneyed or commonplace, and they display imagination; Called as Aaron and The Lost Gospel being notable examples. A vigorous Catholic spirit pervades the whole collection, and it is generally some matter of Catholic feeling or teaching that constitutes the pivotal point of a story. The book may be recommended as suitable for general reading and distribution in every parish.

YONDER? By Rev. T. Gavan Duffy. New York: The DevinAdair Co. $1.25.

Every Catholic, young or old, ought to read this charming plea for the foreign missions. To heroic souls it will certainly make an effective appeal and be fruitful in vocations for the stirring life Yonder; in less zealous souls it will inspire generosity, and a quick unloosening of the purse strings; in indifferent souls it will arouse a spirit of zeal and love of God. Father Duffy describes in original and picturesque fashion the missionary's life in the Far East-his trials, his consolations, his needed virtues, his special patrons. We are all aware how low the funds of our foreign missionaries are at present on account of the war in Europe: America must make up the deficit. We commend the missionary's prayer to all our readers: "My God, if the work I am doing for You is Your work, put it into the hearts of others to support it. If not, cut off my work by any means You wish."

HISTORICAL RECORDS AND STUDIES. Edited by Charles G. Herbermann, LL.D. Volume IX. New York: The United States Catholic Historical Society.

The bulk of the present volume of Historical Records and Studies is devoted to Dr. Herbermann's sketch of the Sulpicians

in the United States. He records the lives of Bishops Flaget, David, Dubourg, Maréchal, Dubois, and Father Richard of Detroit, the only priest that ever sat in Congress, and gives a brief account of the early days of St. Mary's Seminary, Baltimore. Father Howlett contributes a paper on Father Badin of Kentucky, the proto-priest of the United States; Dr. Brann writes of the divorce of Madame Patterson Bonaparte; and Mr. Meehan relates some details of the career of Father Raffeiner, the pioneer missionary pastor among the German Catholics of New York, Brooklyn and Boston in the thirties. Some interesting letters conclude the volume-Bishop Fenwick's on the destruction of the Ursuline Convent of Boston, August 11, 1834; Archbishop Henni's on conditions in Milwaukee in 1851, and the Jesuit Father Ratkay's on the state of New Mexico in 1861.

CHINA. An Interpretation. By Rev. James W. Bashford. New York: The Abingdon Press. $2.50 net.

This attempt to interpret the Chinese people to themselves and to us is the fruit of twelve years residence in that country and of reading five hundred volumes dealing with things Chinese. The writer gives us a brief account of industrial, commercial, educational and political life in China; an estimate of its law, literature, philosophy and religion, together with its history down to the days of the Republic under Yuan Shih-kai.

Mr. Bashford writes enthusiastically of Chinese civilization and culture, and his defence is "that it is not wise for foreigners to enlarge upon the faults of neighboring nations." He is rightly indignant at the attempted overlordship of China by Japan, and prophesies Japan's ultimate defeat if she persist in her ambitious ideas of conquest. The old fable of a peaceful China disappears forever before the fact that in three thousand years of her history she has averaged one war, internal or external, every fifteen

years.

The book shows no grasp whatever of the missionary activity of the Catholic Church in China for centuries, though it mentions the Catholic orphanages for girls as being first in the field. But our Methodist missionary confidently declares that "the Catholic Church is doomed, because it holds that by some magical power of the keys or by some divine decree it is called to the leadership of the Christian world." Prophecies of this type have been made ever since the days of Luther.

INFANT BAPTISM HISTORICALLY CONSIDERED. By W. J. McGlothlin, D.D. Nashville, Tenn.: Sunday-School Board, Southern Baptist Convention. 50 cents.

The writer of the present volume is quite devoid of a sense of humor. If he possessed that saving sense, he would see the utter absurdity of tracing baptismal regeneration to a pagan origin, blaming infant baptism for all persecution and intolerance, and basing the rejection of the Catholic concept of baptism on the plea that it is unspiritual. His whole thesis is vitiated throughout by the false assumptions of Luther that the Bible is the one rule of faith, that a man is justified by faith alone, and that the efficacy of the sacraments must be ascribed solely to the faith of the one who receives them. The Scriptures afford not the slightest warrant for these heresies. The Bible points beyond itself to a divine, infallible teaching authority; it teaches with St. James "that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only" (James ii. 24); it represents the sacraments as efficacious means for the forgiveness of sins, and the imparting of the Holy Ghost with all His divine gifts (Acts ii. 38; xxii. 26; Rom. vi. 3, 4; 1 Cor. vi. 9-11).

The necessity of baptism due to original sin and the Lord's commandment (John iii. 5; Eph. ii. 3) makes infant baptism imperative, and the texts that speak of baptism as "a washing, a laver of regeneration and the renovation of the Holy Ghost' certainly suppose it (1 Cor. vi. 11; Titus iii. 5). The difficulty brought forward by Dr. McGlothlin from the fact of faith and repentance being required in adults has no weight whatever. The Catholic Church demands and has always demanded both from her adult converts, but no one believes, therefore, that she ought to deny infant baptism.

The author's discussion of infant baptism in the first five centuries is remarkable for its prejudice and its inaccuracy. If St. Irenæus in his Adversus Hareses speaks of "Christ coming to save all who are born anew to God through Him, infants, little ones, boys, youths and aged persons," the author declares that the text does not even allude to baptism; if Origen in his commentary on Romans asserts explicitly that infant baptism is an apostolic tradition, he sets his witness aside as not infallible; if St. Cyprian and the sixty-six Bishops of the Council of Carthage in 252 “all judge that the mercy and grace of God should be denied to no human being at any time from the moment of his birth," in answer to those who would defer baptism until the child is eight days

old, he declares this "an unevangelical innovation," although St. Augustine said in the fourth century that "Cyprian made no new decree, but maintained most firmly the faith of the Church." The author falsely asserts St. Jerome does not treat the subject of baptism, whereas he does in more than one passage, for example, "Tell me why infants are baptized? That their sins may be forgiven them in baptism" (Dialogue against the Pelagians, 3, 18). Without the slightest warrant he makes St. Augustine the first advocate of infant baptism, and calls him "a word juggler of confused opinions," because he was Catholic enough to teach that faith was an infused virtue which the Holy Spirit imparted to an infant in baptism.

The doctor's prophecies are on a par with his knowledge of the past. He hopes for "a tremendous outburst of anti-pedobaptist sentiment on the continent of Europe" after the war.

ESSAYS ON CATHOLIC LIFE. By Thomas O'Hagan. Baltimore: John Murphy Co. 75 cents.

We are indebted to the fruitful pen of Dr. O'Hagan for a new and very agreeable volume of essays dealing with varied aspects of Catholic life and literature. The subjects, which range all the way from "Religious Home Training," or "A Week in Rome" to "The Function of Poetry," are treated in a popular and practical manner which should appeal to a large circle of readers. The essay "On the Catholic Element in English Poetry," while purposely fragmentary, is full of valuable suggestions for the student. And the pages treating of "Catholic Journalists and Journalism," with its arraignment of the non-reading Catholic public and its plea for well-equipped and decently-paid writers, is worth the consideration of all who have at heart a worthy Catholic press in this country.

THE FALCONER OF GOD AND OTHER POEMS. By William Rose Benét. New Haven: Yale University Press. $1.00. Readers of contemporary poetry can scarcely be unfamiliar with the name of William Rose Benét. But as Mr. Benét has been exceedingly various both in the matter and the manner of his verse, it is only when confronted by a complete volume such as the present that one feels challenged to attempt any real appraisal of his work. At that, the appraisal must remain tentative, for Mr. Benét seems still a poet who has not wholly found himself. The title poem of the present little book is picturesque after the fashion of the Pre

Raphaelites; but many a reader will feel that the poet has struck a stronger and surer note in that most simple and modern poem, "A Street Mother." Musically, there are echoes in his stanzas of many songsters from Thomas Hood to Francis Thompson, with hints of a more personal music yet to come. And through moods. and emotions of as great variety, one perceives a pervading wistfulness in Mr. Benét's work: a yearning after mountain-top ideals and the brave adventures of earth with a vague and self-distrustful mysticism.

DRAMATIC POEMS, SONGS AND SONNETS. By Donald Rob

ertson. Chicago: Seymour, Daughaday & Co. $1.00.

Mr. Robertson has brought together here a graceful and varied collection of " occasional" verses-modest lyrics of very sincere sentiment and worthy purpose. The volume is particularly noticeable as an example of simple but really beautiful bookmaking.

PROBATION. By Maria Longworth Storer. St. Louis: B. Herder. $1.00 net.

It is not often that a novel dealing with divorce can be unreservedly commended, but this one has achieved just such merit. It will enlist the sympathy and hold the interest of its readers.

The characters are well drawn. Goritzski in his eyrie of Greifenstein, with his true-hearted retainers seems like a bit of life out of medieval days; but the most melancholy part of the tale is the evidence of deterioration which meets one in some of the best characters; so difficult is it to keep oneself "unspotted from the world." Constant living amid corruption seems to dull the edge of our finer feelings, until we come to condone the evil which we hear and see. Grafton's calm acceptance of divorce, even while keeping himself above its horrors, is to the real Catholic astounding as well as saddening. It is a surrender to the forces of sin, a victory of wrong over the eternal forces of right. But the serene calm of La Bardi in her inflexible fidelity to the law of God reminds one of the peak of the Jungfrau, so beautifully described by the author.

LIFE OF GEORGE WASHINGTON. By Very Rev. James

O'Boyle. New York: Longmans, Green & Co. $1.00 net. Father O'Boyle has drawn an excellent portrait of Washington the man, the patriot, the General, the President. He rightly considers him as the greatest man America ever produced.