REVIEW.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 37, 11 January 1895, Page 4

REVIEW.

Australasian Catholic Record : A quarterly publication under ecclesiastical sanction. Published at St Mary's Oathedral, Sydney, N.S.W. This quarterly published under tbe imprimatur of Cardinal Moran, who iB also one of tbe contributors to its pages, explains in a preface — headed by its motto, Pro Ecclesia Dei, its taison d"etre — that is, the application of the unerring principles of Divine truth to " illustrate the important questions bearing upon religion, and social order, and moral progress, which engage the serious thoughts of enlightened men at tbe present day." Tbe Record takes np the sword against irreligion, immorality and anarchy, and, with the guidance of the Pope, is confident of promoting the best interests of tbe Church. But why does our new contemporary hesitate as to aspiring towards what is highest ? Modesty is certainly becoming. Still a due appreciation of self is quite allowable — and is it not trite that the world takes men at their own valuation ?— as it may also take magaiines. Goethe's plan for improving the race, besides, was to speak of them as better than they were. We do not s°e why results as lofty as any attained by any other publication should not in due time be found in our contemporary 'a pages — and surely a publioation that numbers among its contributors a scholar so illustrious as the CardinalArchbishop of Sydney, or a scientist of the standing of the Bey J. Milne Curran, need not, at least in the long run, fall short in the matter of original research. To the deprecatory profession referred to we take decided exception. The task undertaken by our contemporary of preserving important ecclesiastical documents, whether local or emanating from Borne and tbe Holy See — as well as of recording the details of Catholic missions— will, no doubt, be faithfully and|nsef ully performed . From our contemporary's dealings with science, too, in its various forms, we may expect mnch that is good. We fear, meantime, that the aspirations expressed with regard to Christian unity are more sanguine than tbe state of the case justifies. The authority of Cardinal Manning, which our contemporary quotes, is, indeed, great, and we should differ from it only with many reservations and with infinite respect. But it was twenty-five yean ago that Cardinal Manning saw tbe advance of Bitualism with pleasure, and, inasmuch as it denoted a departure from the older forms of error and a disposition on the part of sincere men to seek for something better, it might so be looked upon. More ; many, if not moßt, of those who bad entered the Catholic Church from the ranks of Anglican High Churchmen, had begun their religious life as extreme members of the Evangelical party, and for that party Bitualism might be regarded as tbe pedagogue to lead to Christ. But for a generation brought up In Bitualism there seems to us no Buch hope, There is less in it to repel ; there is more to deceive. As to its approach to Catholic truth is it any nearer than that of some other schismatical creeds— than that of the Busso-Greek Church f How soulless and barren that Church is we know from many sources, from none more certainly than, for instance, incidentally from that dreary revelation of unsatisfied, illused, intellect, tbe Journal of Marie Bashkirtaeff. We very mnch fear that the assumed desire for nnity is a fruitless hope on tbe one side, if not a vain conceit on the other. Bat we must agree with our contemporary that there is no nobler cause than that undertaken by it, tbe defence of the Divine truths of Christ, in which we must wish it success. Tbe article that immediately follows the preface is written by the Bight Bey Dr Delany, Coadjutor Bishop of Hobart, and is entitled " The Catholic Church her own Witness." In this article the writer contends that the Catholic Church, apart from all other considerations, "as a substantive organic phenomenon is so unique and so real that she demands an explanation of her existence unique and real." The writer argues that the corporate bodies of which tbe world is made up rest each on something real. The political order, for example, however various may be its developments, rests on the aptitudes and yearnings of the citizen with which every child is born, In like manner man is naturally religious. But in thn life the natural guide of man is reason. Hence inequalities in tbe intellect lead to different forms. " Tbe religious principle is within man but the light is bis dim finite reason." The consequence is that in all religions, except one, there is variance and uncertainty. The Catholic alone listens to the words of a living teacher and submits his intellect without demur to the lessons he receives. The Catholic philosopher, indeed, to his own instruction and edification, and the benefit of others, studies the Church's authority and the doctrines Bhe teaches, but not with the intention of adding to tbe fulness of his assent to these doctrines, or of strengthening his hold on them. The writer holds " that tbe quality of tbe assent of faith is itself sufficiently unique and real to prove the existence of a vital principle quite unique and real." Tbe Church, moreover, binds us not only with respect to the past but with respect to the future — not only as to what she has defined and deoieed, but to what she shall define and decree — and her authority is placed in the bands of one man. Alluding to the proclamation made by the Catholic world of their belief in tbe infallible truth of the Pope's em cathedra declarations, the right rev writer says :—" la this act

of Catholic faith we have revaaled to us an interior disposition of mind throughout the Catholic world which is specifically different from the mental habits that hold together telleg quelles all the associations of men upon the face of the earth." The writer ■trengtbens his conclusion by pointing out tbe results produced by the disposition of mind in question. He claims that there is a peculiar opportuneness to study this line of argument now when many earnest minds outside the Church are bewildered by a multitude of theories. The article, which is vtry carefully and ably written, and with much clearness and force of style as well as of reasoning, proposes a road to Borne, which, if not pointed out for the first time, would seem, at leaßt, hardly as yet well tr )dden. The right rev writer may possibly lay just claim to an original strain of thought as well as to boldness and candour— which, indeed are excellent qualities. To profit by his argument would, perhaps, require a depth of mind not commonly to be found, bu< it is easy to fancy that the superficial would lightly regard it. To a slip of the pen we may probably attribute an admission made by ihe writer that the Catholic Church has in the non-Catholic bo lies "halfBiaten"; •« well t« his ascribing to such bodies under any circumstances, in their spiritual aspect, a " true vitality." Wesleyanism, no doubt, may floorieh more than Anglicanism, but where does the "true vitality "show itself? The writer, too, had spoken of the branches lopped off. While we are in the critical vein, again, we feel inclined to call to account a writer so richly endowed with treasure from the "well of English undefiled," as Dr Delany for fishing in a tnrbid source for, if not for coining, such a word as "amissible." The article, neverthtless.on the whole is exce leotly written and, though possibly caviare to the vulgar, admirable in matter as in argument. The Cardinal Archbishop of Sydney contributes the first portion of an article headed " The Sisters of Mercy and the Catholic Chaplains during the Crimean War." His Eminence gives a graphic description of the services rendered by the Sisters of Mercy and the need that there was for the work done by them. To those of us who personally remember the war the article will recall the distress and indignation that th° events and

the foundation of the mission was celebrated, Archbishop Redwood opening the festivities by inaugurating at L» Conception a memorial statue of the Blessed Virgin. The Rev J. Milne Curran F.G.8., contributes aa article entitled "Australian Gold- Fields." Here we have the experience of the adventurous pioneer and the practical man-of -science combined— the whole forming a chapter of intense interest. A subject commonplace and dry in itself takes liveliness, and even beauty, from the touch of a rarely gifted pea. The Rev O O'Connell 8.J., in « The Ascent of Man," criticises with ability and learning the Lowell lectures of Prof-Rsor Drummond, a book, says the reviewer, that produced a conviction that w s " not conviction but persuasion, because it was produced not by Logic but by Rhetoric " The Very Rev P.A. Slattery, in "The Cradle »nd the Cross," gives some personal memories of the Holy Land— matter always of interest to the Catholic reader, and all the more so when recalled as picturesquely and feelingly as in the present instance. The Right Key Monsignor O'Brien, D.D., in "The Church and Hypnotism," gives the first part of a keen and able examination into a question of great current importance. An article ot which the authorship is not stated, tellingly reviews, also in a first instalment, tbe condition of tbe Catholics of Ireland under the penal laws. The ecclesiastical docrj. ments given are the Encyclical on the Rosary and the Decree on Church Mns.c. There are besid.s "Liturgical Questions," and " Cont-mporary Literature " Tbe periodical in a word is well filled with ar.icles of great ability, and general interest. Even in its deepest investigations or argument it is free from heaviness. It is well printed and in every respect neatly turned out. la one or two instances, nevertheless, a printer's error that might as well have been corrected is to be found. Thus in Dr Delany'a article one sentence is turned into nonsense, and another is made to throw doubts on the writer's employment of his singulars and plurals. But this perhaps is to cavil. The misprints are apparent. If the Australasian Catholic Record fulfils the promise of its first number, as we may safely conclude it will, it will be not only a credit to the Church in these3oloni.B,butav*luibleaWitiontoCatholiclitera'nreeverywherß

conditions narrated spread throughout the United Kingdom The band of the rates sacer, nevertbelese, was necessary to give to tbe Catholic Sisters the meed of fame so devotedly and arduously earned by them. In the world at large, at the time, the chief, almost the Bole, credit of the relief afforded by the accounts of the tender care bestowed in the hospitals on the wounded and sick soldiers was given to another, and, if we understand aright, such even now remains the case ;-a noble woman, no doubt, and one of whom bardly any degree of praise could be too high, who herself was ready to acknowledge her full itdebtedne 88 . Stronger or more affect.ng testimony could scarcely be expressed in the English language than that for example, contained in these sentences, quoted by the Cardinal •- •• My love and gratitude will be yours wherever you go Ido not presume to give you any tribute but my tears." Without robbing Florence Nightingale of her due the writer vividly places Woie his readers the merits of the Sisters of Mercy. The writer necessarily deals with much that is painful, much also that is grave and pathetic But his peH is not without its lighter touches. "We have maoy of the Connaugbt Rangers and tbe 18 b Royal Irish, and wild brave fallows they are," writes one of the nuns. Again, who can with-hold his sympathy from the Protestant chaplain as a reward for whose kindness to them the Sisters washed his neck-ties 7 « a process performed under difficulties, for the teapot filled with boiling water had to do duty as a smoothing iron." The great interest of the subject dealt with in this instalment and the masterly manner of its treatment will make its readers impatient for the next in which the part played by the Catholic chaplains is to be narrated' The Very Rev A. Aubrey S.M., Superior of the Marist Fathers in Australia, contributes an article on « Missionary Results in New Ca!e donia." In this we are given a well-painted picture of the terrible state of things fonnd in the island by the first missionaries one of whom was Father Viard, afterwards Bishop of Wellington ' Canni balism in a form than which none could be worse or more revolting prevailed there-and alone, and at the mercy of such a people the misslonaries-more than 12,000 miles from their native land were left. Need we, par exemple, wonder at what is related of the bravery of those fathers of the Order who passed through the Maori war? The writer contrasts the dangerous and difficult beginnings with tbe nappy results seen last year when the 50th anniversary of