form to the dogmatic position of Rome, that will amount to a surrender of the entire Anglican position. But this is a mistake of the first magnitude. For while, as we said above, it is only the few who appreciate the significance of dogma, although all benefit by it, where the shoe pinches with many is the plane of discipline not dogma. Matters of discipline touch us all round and strike us at once; and so far from changes in discipline making no difference, they would, in the eyes of the general run of men, make all the difference in the world; and it is here, we repeat, that Rome can change, that she has changed actually in the past, and might change therefore in the future. Discipline is, in fact, variously administered in different quarters of the world to-day, and there would be nothing impractical, therefore, in looking for modifications in that direction.

Those who believe that no sincere mind can resist the impact of sound logic will find it difficult to admit that any Anglican in good faith can read this weighty little volume and remain unconvinced. But Cardinal Newman, who knew human nature and had considerable experience in controversy, has told us that we may expect to convince men by mere logic when we have learned to shoot round corners. Nevertheless we may hope that the efforts of these earnest workers towards the realization of the Savior's prediction of one fold and one shepherd will, through the grace of God, be a helping hand to some souls struggling towards the light.

IN THE FOOTPRINTS OF
THE GOOD SHEPHERD.

In this volume the Convent of the Good Shepherd, of New York City, has a touching and approBy Katherine E. Conway. priate memorial of its jubilee, which will occur on October 2, 1907. No work of the Church, perhaps, appeals more widely and deeply to the sympathy of the world than that of the Good Shepherd nuns, who devote their lives, with what zeal and success need not be said, to the rescue of their fallen sisters. Probably no house of the order has grown more rapidly than that one which has found in Miss Conway a worthy historian. The New York foundation, she observes, was unique, in beginning with the toleration rather than the approval of the

In the Footprints of the Good Shepherd. New York, 1857-1907. By Katherine E. Conway. New York: Convent of the Good Shepherd.

chief ecclesiastical authority. Archbishop Hughes, for reasons that Miss Conway mentions, was unwilling to give the sisters permission to establish themselves within his jurisdiction. He did not expect that their labors would prove successful.

It was a charitable Protestant, after all, who spoke the decisive word which secured the introduction of the Nuns of the Good Shepherd into New York in 1857. "They will swamp us," said the Archbishop, "and the end will be failure." 'But, Archbishop," said Miss Foster (the Protestant lady), "would you consider the work a failure if but one grievous sin were prevented? The house in question would undoubtedly prevent many mortal sins. Would not this be to the honor of God, even though none of the inmates was thoroughly converted?" The Archbishop surrendered, and gave permission to start the House, though still regarding it as a doubtful experiment.

The experimental stage was soon over, and the order began at once to increase its personnel, to enlarge its house, and to give proofs of its efficiency that won for it friends of all kinds and of all persuasions. In the course of time it gained municipal and state recognition; and sent out sisters to establish convents, first in Boston, and later on in Brooklyn. Besides telling the story of the convent's growth, Miss Conway gives an interesting account of the rule of life practised by the Sisters, and their methods of treating their charges, with many touching illustrations of the divine efficacy of the Good Shepherd's power. We may hope that the successes of New York are but an earnest of what the noble daughters of Père Eudes are yet to do in America in their special field. For, as Miss Conway

says:

Many changes are before us, but of one thing we may be sure no matter how great our social and scientific progress, the sad old fashions of sin and sorrow and death will not pass away while time endures; and, while they last, there will be work for the Nuns of the Good Shepherd.

M. Marechal, who, in his previous

LAM MENAIS AND LAMAR- studies concerning the influence

TINE.

By Christian Marechal.

of Lammenais upon Sainte Beuve and Victor Hugo, has already shown a profound knowledge of

the course of ideas which agitated the deeper currents of re

ligious and politico religious thought in the early and middle decades of the last century in Europe, here undertakes to prove that, for more than twenty years, Lamartine drew almost all his inspiration on religious, philosophical, and social topics from Lammenais. The latter was the dominant influence which ruled and directed the author of the Harmonies, Méditations, La Politique Rationelle, Jocelyn, and the Voyage en Orient.

M. Marechal's method is thoroughly scientific and objective. He analyzes closely the published works and a good deal of private correspondence of the poet; he compares idea with idea; follows the development of Lamartine's political and religious tenets; and compares the data thus gathered with the writings. of Lamennais, to find that, to an astonishing extent, at least from the year 1817, Lamartine is but a reflection of Lamennais. Besides enjoying an exhibition (on an extended scale) of acute critical powers, the reader of this fine literary study will, unless he is already uncommonly well acquainted with these two writers, get a deeper insight into the minds of both and into. the intellectual struggles of the period.

BESIDE STILL WATERS.
By Benson.

Those who have enjoyed the charm of From a College Window, with sweet spirit, lofty thought, and exquisite tenderness expressed in limpid, delightful English, will find a similar treat in Mr. Benson's present work. It is cast in the form of a biography of an educated Englishman who prefers the things of the mind and the joys of the simple life to the more boisterous pleasures of society or the prizes of public life. Mr. Benson is an amiable Christian stoic, deeply tinged with a moral idealism. As he narrates the development of the life of his fictitious hero, Hugh Neville, he descants upon the experiences and problems of life in a vein of gentle optimism tinged with a shade of melancholy, never acute enough to pass into sorrow. The philosophy of the book is fairly summed up in a passage towards the end when Hugh, from a spot dear to his youth, is casting a retrospective glance over his path:

The thought of the long intervening years came back to

Lammenais and Lamartine. Par Christian Marechal. Paris: Bloud et Cie.

+ Beside Still Waters. By Arthur Christopher Benson. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.

Hugh with a sense of wonder and gratitude. He had half expected then, he remembered, that some great experience would perhaps come to him, and lift him out of his shadowed thoughts, his vain regrets. That great experience had not befallen him, but how far more wisely and tenderly he had been dealt with instead! Experience had been lavished upon him; he had gained interest, he had practised activity, and he had found patience and hope by the way. He knew no more than he knew then of the great and dim design that lay behind the world, and now he hardly desired to know. He had been led, he had been guided, with a perfect tenderness and a deliberate love. . . A great sense of tranquillity and peace settled down upon his spirit. He cast himself in an utter dependence upon the mighty will of the Father; and in that calm of thought his little cares, and they were many, faded like wreaths of steam cast abroad upon the air. To be sincere and loving and quiet, that was the ineffable secret; not to scheme for fame, or influence, or even for usefulness; to receive, as in a channel, the strength and sweetness of God.

As one reading Mr. Benson's pages feels the deep religious earnestness of the man, one wonders what the power of his pen would be if to him had come the crowning grace which has been vouchsafed to his brother.

THOMAS A KEMPIS.

Lovers of the Imitation will be well repaid by a study of Mr. De Montmorency's fine, scholarly work. As the title implies, he is a staunch advocate of the A Kempis authorship. He treats the vexed question extensively, if not exhaustively. He dismisses Gerson, abbot of Vercelli, as a mere myth; and, though he acknowledges that some of the arguments in favor of the claims of the Chancellor Gersen are perplexing, he ultimately rejects them. The claims of Walter Hilton he considers more plausible, and subjects them to searching and acute literary and documentary criticism. But in the end he decides for the monk of Mount St. Agnes of Wincesheim. The first section of the book is a description of the age in which A Kempis lived. This historic sketch is bold and full. The part of it which is devoted to depicting the external

* Thomas à Kempis: His Age and Book. With 22 Illustrations. By J. E. G. De Montmorency. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.

conditions of ecclesiastical life, and the prominent figures of the secular side of the Church, gives so much prominence to the fruits of human frailty, and deals so liberally in dark colors. and shades, when describing many ecclesiastical potentates, that the picture becomes somewhat false.

But this is, to a great extent, counterbalanced by the appreciative manner in which the spiritual, invisible life of the period is related. The author endeavors to trace the influence of the line of mystics who were the highest manifestation of that life, of which the Imitation is the classic expression. Believing that the mystic movement was carried to its height in England, he dwells markedly upon the names of Richard Rolle of Hampole, Walter Hilton, and their fellow-countrymen. But his national preferences do not prevent him from treating worthily the German mystics too. Unfortunately, we cannot say as much of his impartiality when his religious prepossessions come into play. For they have led him to believe in the existence of a rivalry, if not an incompatibility, between the mystical movement and the visible organization, and to see in the Protestant Reformation the culmination of the mystical tendency. He admits, however, that "the author felt nothing of the Reform movement so busily at work in his time. No touch of Wicklivism, no taint of Lollardy appears in the little books."

It might be argued, too, we think, that in analyzing the genesis and development of mysticism he has, at some periods, assigned too much importance to philosophic doctrines and influences which were chiefly academic and intellectual. The chapter on various manuscripts and editions of the Imitation is full of interest, which is enhanced by numerous photogravures of famous texts and manuscripts. The analysis of the literary structure, too, in which all the quotations from and allusions to sacred and profane authors are marked, besides being interesting, are evidence that the study of the Imitation has been for Mr. De Montmorency a labor of love.

For one service, too, we must thank him. It is his refutation. of the charge of selfishness made, in virulent language, against the spirit of the Imitation by Dean Milman, in his History of Latin Christianity. "There is," writes the Anglican dean, "no love of man in the book: of feeding the hungry, of clothing the naked, of visiting the prisoner, even of preaching there is profound, total silence. The world is dead to the votary of