BOOK NOTICE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIX, Issue 34, 29 May 1891, Page 5

BOOK NOTICE.

Life of John Boyle O'Reilly. By James Jeffrey Roche. Together with Ins cjrnplete poems and speeches, edited by Mrs John Boyle O'Reilly. Introduction by his Eminerce James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore, New York : Cißsell Publishing Company. Mb James Jefpkey Roche, ia his preface to this work pleads the excuse of " scant leisure ' for the performance of the task he has accomplished. No excuse, however, is necessary. His task has been well and faithfully performed, and no one can justly return him for it anything but that which we a'l owe him — our heart- felt thanks. But what shall we say of John Boyle O'Reilly or of his life f A glance at the portrait that forms the frontispiecs of the book is sufficient to make us acquainted with the man, had we not known hiru intimately. Intellect, strength, and manliness, candour and honesty and love — all are written there so that he wbo runs may read. And, indeed, though we had ne\er personally met him aud knew him ouly at a distance, John Boyle O'Reilly seemed to U9 a most familiar friend. Was not his soul in all his utterances, — sincere, sterling, and kind, so that to read wLat he had written was to know the man? and to know him was necessarily to love him, " Who," asks Cardinal Gibbons in his preface, "can recall an outburst of grief so universal and so genuine as that evukeJ by his all too early an i sudden death "? And we can answer that for ourselves, remote though we were, the 6ad message came upon us with sometning of tae bitter cense of oersonal loss. But most interesting even to the ordinary readtr ehould be this book in which the sUry is told, simply and lovingly, of a life that formed a romance far more touching than many that have earned (or tLeir authors world-wide fame. Mr William O Brien has given us the comic side of the Fenian movement. Mr Roche, through the incidents he narrates, sh >ws us its tragic side. And we wish we could place this life in the hands of everyone who makes light of Irish suffering, or who represents, aud possibly believes in all sincerity, the Irish rebel to hi the most wicked and contemptible among the human race, It was co light caube that made John Boyle O'Reilly faithless to Lis undertakings as a British soldier — no light influence that turned towards vio'ent measures a man of such infinite tenderness, of such sublime forgiveness, such deep religious feeling, and of such all-embracing love and kindness of heart. In himself, in hiß whole disposition, in h s whole career, John Boyle O'Reilly vindicated the cause ol lieland, and proved its justice, nay, its sanctity. This book, then, is one that may be read and studied by the friends of Ireland to strengthen and confirm them in their faith and resolution, by the enemies of Ireland that they may become undeceived and converted to the truth, by all alike that they may learn how beautiful a thing human nature is, when it is revealed in the person of one who is clear and powerful of intellect, kind and loving of heart, firm and patient in suffering, and huinb'e, considerate, and unspoiled in prosperity and success. The b >ok, besides, is full of instruction and interesting information concerning important movements and stirring time?, both in the old world and the new. But of the poetry which it also contains — what Cardinal Gibbons says of the poet will be sufficient to make known to our readers its necessary character. " Few men," writes bis Emineuce, " have (elt so powerfolly the divinus afflatus of Poesy ; few natures have been so fitted

to give it worthy responte. As strong as it was delicate and tender, an sympathetic and tearful as it was bold, his soul was a harp of truest toi c, which felt the touch of tha ideal everywhere, and spontaneously breathed responsive music, joyous or mournful, vehement or soft. Such a nature needed an environment of romance, and romantic ndeed was his career throughout. In boyhood his imagination feruts oa the weird songs aod legends of tha Calt ; in youth his heart agonises over that saddest and strangest romance of all history— he wrongs and woes of his mother-land, that Niobe of nations; ia manhood, because he dared to; wish her free, he finds himself a doomed felon, an exiled convict m what he himself calls ' the netbi r world '; then bursting his prison bars, a hunted fugitive, reaching iae haven of this land of liberty penniless and unknown bat rising by the 6heer force of his genius>nd his worth, till the best and the noblest ia the couutry vie in doing honour to his name. With surroundings and a career like these, a man of his make could not but be a poet, and a poet he became of truest mould ; wooei to the summits of Parnassus by his love of thebeautifal, his fiery spirit was calmed on its Btilly heights, and grew into that poise and restfulness and eelf-3ontroi without which poetry would lack dignity and grace. No writer underst jod better than he that the face and form of Poetry to be beautiful must be tranquil, that violent movements rob her of her charm — that even in the tempest of her love or wrath her mien must breathe the comeliness and harmony of the Divine."— To these c cquent words of the Cardinal Archbishop of Baltimore it would be presumptuous of us to add. What we have said, therefore although we have not done full justice to our theme, must suffice to bring; under the notice of our readers the work we allude to.— lt well deserves a place at least on every Irish book-shelf.