ered in the Cathedral of Westminster. In five discourses, which are apologetic in tenor, he treats of the use and abuse of ritual, the soul of ritual, the language of ritual, the centre of ritual, and the development of ritual. The ordinary objections of nonCatholics against the elaborate ceremonies of the Church and the display of material wealth in religious worship are taken up in the sermon on "The Soul of Ritual." Father Proctor also answers those who, in their revolt against excessive externalism in religion, would go to the opposite extreme, and deprive religion of the aid which it receives from symbolic embodiment of internal acts and dispositions. The last address is a reply to the prevalent contention that in all things the early Church ought to be the rule of the Church to-day: "It was so, or it was not so, in primitive Christian times, in Apostolic days, so should it be now."

Father Proctor replies by showing that the principle of development applies to the whole life of the Church. "As there

is development in doctrine, development in worship, there must be development in ritual, the Church's expression of doctrine and cult; there must be development in our attitude towards the developed truth, i. e., in our rites and ceremonies."

A logic-chopping critic might be tempted to object that Father Proctor's line of argument proves too much. Sometimes it could be prolonged logically towards the conclusion that the law of development ought to prevent any permanent fixation of ritual at all. Yet in ritual as in dogma, though less rigorously, the Church insists on conformity to ancient tradition. "Truth expands as a tree; so consequently does ritual. Doctrine makes progress, not by change in substance, but by accidental development-so must ceremonial. As Christianity enters more deeply into the hearts, the lives, the minds of men, so it develops greater outward pomp, more exterior worship, more ceremonious demonstration of faith, hope, and love." This principle alone can scarcely account for the development of the ritual of the Mass, without any corresponding doctrinal development; from the simple primitive rite to the elaborate form of subsequent times. It is scarcely fair, however, to expect from an orator the dialectical exactitude of a theological treatise.

* Ritual in Catholic Worship. Sermons Preached in Westminster Cathedral during the Lent of 1904. By the Very Rev. Father Proctor. New York: Benziger Brothers.

VOL. LXXXVI.-35

A handy, compendious, and accurate little manual of ceremonies proper for ordinary parochial needs is the translation of the German handbook of Father Ganns, S.J. The translation has been carefully made by one Jesuit, and edited by another, a sufficient guarantee that the book is faithful to approved authorities.

When, in 1906, Pius X. beatified BLESSED JULIE BILLIART. the foundress of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur,† it was rightly interpreted as another mark of the Holy Father's zeal for the teaching of catechism. For Blessed Julie Billiart's life was signalized by a marvelous devotion to that office. Born in 1751, she was only seven years old when she began to gather her little companions around her to teach them the catechism. At the age of twenty-three she became a helpless invalid; and for years she gathered around her bed the little ones of the village to give them religious instruction.

Through her subsequent life, almost to the end, pass the baleful storms of the French Revolution. During the early days she was the chief instrument in preserving religion in and around her native village, where a schismatical priest was in possession. Once she barely escaped from a disorderly rabble, who had invaded her home to kill the "dévote," by being carried, helpless as she was, downstairs and placed in a cart by her friends, and secretly conveyed to a place of safety. Her institute, the Congregation of Notre Dame, was launched during the period of peace established by Bonaparte. Her first houses, situated in Flanders and near the French frontier, suffered sadly during the frequent campaigns which swept across that quarter of Europe in the later Napoleonic wars.

Sisters from Gembloux, Fleurus, Jumet, and other towns were frequently obliged to flee to Namur, where they were comparatively safe from military violence. Fugitives in the disastrous flight from Waterloo invaded the Convent of Fleurus. At Jumet a Prussian officer took up his quarters in the convent, and protected the Sisters from annoyance. The Sisters of Gembloux suffered from the French.

*Handbook of Ceremonies for Priests and Seminarians. By J. F. Müller, S.J. Translated by A. Ganns, S.J. St. Louis: B. Herder.

*The Life of the Blessed Julie Billiart. By a Member of the Sisters of Notre Dame. New York: Benziger Brothers.

After twenty-two years of helpless suffering the use of her limbs was miraculously restored to Julie. During a mission at Amiens, Father Enfantin, a member of the Fathers of the Faith, who highly esteemed Julie's work, and knowing that she could do more for God's glory if she had the use of her limbs, said to her: "I am beginning to-day a novena to the Sacred Heart for a person in whom I am interested. Will you join ?" Julie, unsuspecting, promised to join. On the following Friday, after the erection of the mission cross, Father Enfantin suddenly came to Julie, who was sitting in her chair, and said: "Mother, if you have any faith, take one step in honor of the Heart of Jesus." Julie rose and took the required step-the first for twenty-two years. "Take another." She obeyed. "Take a third." Again she obeyed, remarking that she felt able to continue. "No, that will do. Sit down." And Father Enfantin went away, forbidding her to tell the sisters what had happened. The cure was permanent. The biography continues:

The sisters had already retired for the night and noticed nothing, for, in spite of her infirmities, Julie needed no help to undress, but slipped on to her low couch from a chair of the same height. For three days she kept her cure a secret, maintaining her self-control so far that she remained seated when, on the following Sunday, the public procession of the Blessed Sacrament passed her door. On the last day of the novena Father Enfantin gave her leave to publish the fact. Julie prolonged her thanksgiving after Mass, while the sisters went down to breakfast. The little orphans, with their mistress, were in the adjoining room, with a glass door looking on the staircase. Suddenly one of the youngest of them gave a scream. "Look, Ma Mère is walking downstairs!'

The closing chapter of this excellent piece of biography, in which the story of a modern valiant woman, whose life was one of wonderful activity and true sanctity, is told with good sense and literary ability, contains a modest account of the successes which have attended the labors of her children. Among these successes is that which the work of the Sisters of Notre Dame has achieved in America. "For sixty-three years they have helped the bishops and pastors of the United States to solve the difficult problem of equipping and maintaining Catholic schools absolutely dependent on voluntary support, yet in no

wise inferior to the State schools financed at the public expense. Their success in educational matters may be gauged from the fact that Julie's American daughters have been selected by the hierarchy to open Trinity College in connection with the Catholic University at Washington." The latest foreign expansion of the order has been in the Transvaal, whither some English Sisters settled last year; and already the political struggle going on there now threatens to involve their suppression.

HISTORY OF COMMERCE.
By Day.

A sense for scientific completeness, probably, induced the author of this text-book for beginners in economics to start ab ovo, by sketching the conditions of trade, or all that we know about them, as they existed in the Mesopotamian Valley and along the banks of the Nile, in the days before Joseph. But the author is obviously conscious that the student has but little valuable information to gain from our scanty knowledge of the commerce of these ancient times or of the subsequent ages of early Greece and Rome. For he disposes of all these periods in about thirty pages, out of a total of over six hundred, and begins his serious work in Part II., devoted to Mediæval Com

merce.

This part, covering from about the year 1000 to 1500, is a brief but suggestive sketch of the medieval commercial and industrial world. The story of the rise and expansion of commercial Europe, till it assumes the huge proportions which belong to it in the nineteenth century, makes a large demand on the writer's powers of lucid statement, method, and condensation. Up to the beginning of the last century, the history is little more than a bare outline. But from that date commerce of the various European countries, especially of England and Germany, is treated with rich detail, and the salient factors brought out in bold relief. One hundred and fifty pages are given to the history of the commercial growth of the United States; but, except so far as it is incidentally noted in relation to this country, South America is ignored. The part played by the introduction of railways, and manufacturing machinery, the cultivation of cotton, mining, and shipping receive sufficient atten

* A History of Commerce. By Clive Day, Ph.D. New York: Longmans, Green & Co.

tion, but the same can scarcely be said of the agricultural expansion since 1835.

To keep so large a subject, however, within the reasonable limits of a text-book, means that some things had to be unduly crowded, or even crowded out. A work of this kind, in the production of which the author has had but little help from similar attempts by predecessors in the endeavor, cannot be expected to attain anything like perfection before it reaches a second or a third, or even a fourth edition, a success to which this one will, no doubt, attain. There are numerous special bibliographies attached to the various divisions, and a large general list of works at the end. To every chapter is added a list of questions well adapted to stimulate the pupil to the cultivation of reflection and personal research.

PATROLOGY.

Students of early church history and patrology will welcome the appearance of another volume of the series of early texts and documents which is being issued under the editorship of MM. Hemmer and Lejay. The present number * contains the Didaché, or Doctrine of the Apostles, and the Epistle of Barnabas. The Greek text is accompanied by a French version, critical notes, and references. M. Hemmer has furnished an erudite, critical introduction to the Didaché, while M. Ogier has written one for the Epistle. The introduction, tables, critical and explanatory notes, place a scholarly knowledge of these two valuable documents of Christian origins within easy grasp of the industrious student.

SOME RECENT VERSE.

Much depth of feeling and much delicate beauty of thought have gone into the making of Miss Logue's brief poems. "The Quiet Hour "t-happily named for its suggestion of solitude and veiled twilight memories fraught with tenderness and pain-is a creditable addition to contemporary Catholic verse. There are signs of immaturity in the little volume, but none the less it has sincere artistic purpose. And in more than one poem Miss Logue has undeniably touched

* Les Pères Apostoliques. I. Doctrine des Apotres. Épitre de Barnabé. Hemmer, Ogier et

Laurent. Paris: Picard et Fils.

The Quiet Hour. And Other Verses. By Emily Logue. Philadelphia: Peter Reilly; Dublin: Browne & Nolan.