edition by a distinguished French professor is promised shortly. The author's text is from Ecclus. vii. 40: "Remember the last things, and thou shalt never sin." Though the volume be short, there is a wealth of reference in it to Scripture and to the Fathers, and much food for meditation. Death and the remembrance of it are first considered, and afterwards this abiding thought of death as an efficacious remedy against sin—the sin of pride, of envy, of wrath, of covetousness, of gluttony. All is done in such a philosophical and practical way as to form a volume of particular worth, of sterling merit, that will be of advantage to all who will read. Its size and its exceptional merit remind us of the old adage that precious goods come ofttimes in small packages.

7.-A most fitting companion volume to this of Blessed Thomas More is A Spiritual Consolation and other Treatises* by his fellow-martyr, Blessed John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester. Blessed Thomas More had but time to write on death alone of the four last things. Blessed John Fisher addressed his Spiritual Consolation to his sister Elizabeth, a Dominican nun at Dartford, in Kent, while he was imprisoned in the Tower, and it is both a regret and a warning as to the proper preparation for death. The words of his Spiritual Consolation have a peculiar value because they were written, one might say, in the presence of death. To possess their full fruit, the reader should follow the admonitions which the worthy author gives to his sister: "When you shall read this meditation devise in your mind, as near as you can, all the conditions of a man suddenly taken by death; never read this meditation but alone by yourself in a secret manner, and pray beforehand that the reading may work in your soul a good and virtuous life."

In like manner Bishop Fisher addressed to his sister the Ways to Perfect Religion. The foundation of the religious vocation, and that which makes all things in the religious life easy, is the love of Jesus Christ, and in the considerations that follow are put forth the reasons why that soul of the religious. The sermon on the ing description of the sufferings of our powerful plea for penance, and a fruitful meditation on the words of St. Francis: "Quis es tu et quis sum ego?" It is

love should fill the Passion is a touchLord, an eloquent,

*A Spiritual Consolation and other Treatises. By the Blessed Martyr John Fisher. Edited

not alone of great value in itself, but we may well judge from it the manner of preaching in pre-Reformation times, the ability of the orator and the intelligence of the hearers. The sermon here redounds to the praise of both, and from the context the bishop is evidently addressing the lowly as well as those in high places. Another significant point is that it abounds in Scriptural quotations. The sermon is remarkable for the beauty and depth of its thought, its simplicity and its power, its homely yet very timely and apt illustrations.

The volume will give evidence to the reader as to why Canon Mackey should say that "had he lived in happier times Blessed John Fisher would have been a St. Francis de Sales."

8. The story of how converts reach the church is perpetually interesting and for ever new. How often soever we hear a soul tell its pilgrim's tale of journeying from the home of its birth to the Holy Land of truth, we listen as if we had never heard such things before, surprised always by fresh revelations of the beauty, the heroism, and the glory that attend the wayfaring for faith. Accordingly we welcome joyfully the latest compilation of convert experiences. We have read it with many a rejoicing of heart and uplifting of soul, and we advise our readers to read it for the strengthening of their faith, the support of their hope, and the stimulating of their zeal. The little book puts in a striking way the manifold attractiveness of Catholicity. One seeker is won by the certainty of our sacraments; another by the church's power to produce saints; another because from childhood the Catholic Church had appealed to him as mysteriously beautiful and divinely true; and nearly all because of the Catholic idea of infallible authority in the teaching of faith.

But in a soul's progress to the church the heart has its agonies no less than the intellect its trials. The seeker must face a world of opposition. From friends who cannot understand; from the world which condemns without trying to understand; from fellow-workers in one's state of life who attribute the step to folly; and from those of one's own household who attribute it to ingratitude; from all sides, in a hundred different manifestations, come reproaches, scorn, and terrified appeals to the postulant who is knocking at the door of

the Catholic Church. Says one who contributes a chapter to the volume we are reviewing: "It is true, if I become a Catholic I shall lose my profession, my social standing, as well as nearly all my friends. I know not exactly how I shall live; above all, how I shall support my wife and child." Just here lies one of the most potent but unobtrusive arguments for the church. How wonderful it is that while the future convert is still outside the fold all these obstacles from family, friends, and society cause him inexpressible pain and agitation, but after he has been received, though they still may grieve him, do not take away from his perfect interior peace. In the one case they all but overwhelm him; in the other, he calmly walks over them like Peter upon the sea. Surely here if anywhere are to be seen the divine strength, the martyr-spirit, the power of loving God unselfishly, which can come only from on high. Indeed this argument, written into every page of this little book, is to our mind the most persuasive that these pages contain.

There are many ludicrous things in these brief histories, especially with regard to High Anglicanism in its sad posture of trying to embrace everything Roman and at the same time to hold fast to a truly Protestant independence of Rome. Thus, Dom Bede Camm tells us that the sin of schism comes on like seasickness on one's way across the Channel from the Continent; for it is a Ritualistic contribution to Moral Theology to maintain that whereas it is a duty for Anglicans in Europe to attend Roman Catholic service in the absence of their own, it would be a grievous sin of schism to do the selfsame thing in England. And another great leader of Anglicanism, consulted by a co-religionist in doubt as to his position, solemnly advised his petitioner to fight against his doubts and say the Rosary! Still another cautious churchman permitted a fellow-believer to say the Rosary, but cautioned him against saying it on his knees! If said standing, the danger of Romanism would presumably be averted.

Miss Swift's paper we think the most interesting of all. We shall not now describe it, but assure our readers that this book is worth getting, merely for the charming essay which tells how a Salvation Army brigadier was led to a Dominican cloister.

to build up a formal argument for the church, but it is fan tastic and pitiably weak. In conclusion we congratulate the Irish Catholic Truth Society on bringing out such a volume. It will do great good.

*

9.-Granted a little sympathy, a willingness to think with the author, a not too great aversion for Catholic truth and Catholic practices, a not too strong prejudice for Protestantism, and this little book, Back to Rome, will prove very acceptable to those outside the church. The writer throws together many of the attractions of Catholic life and truth, presenting them in very pleasant language. The reading is easy, the style is agreeable, the quotations-they are numerous-are to the point, and the thought is not seldom either new or newly presented.

For instance, here is an idea that deserves place in many a solider discussion of the spiritual difficulties of modern society. We take it from the letter on Confession:

"You may smile at what must, at first sight, appear a very eccentric and startling idea, but I am thoroughly convinced that those wretched and weary-looking persons who are supposed to be suffering from 'nerves,' who fly from one place to another for change of air and change of scene, are, as a matter of fact, morally and not physically ill, and that what they want is not bodily but spiritual treatment. Their souls are diseased and out of sorts, and they will never recover until they have discovered what is really amiss with them. My impression is, that confession and absolution would cure many of them."

Many illuminating thoughts such as these, whether of the author's own or from the minds of the illustrious men who are generously quoted, are to be found in this book. "Scrutator" has also done us the service of taking up and clearing away a great many of the lighter matters that go so far in hindering non-Catholics from really coming to the central points in the claims of the church. Catholics will enjoy the volume; non-Catholics, if, as we said in the beginning, they can bring to the reading of it a little sympathy with the church, will surely profit by it, and it may easily be that by this means the modest volume may, in not a few cases, justify its title-Back to Rome.

*Back to Rome. A series of private letters, etc., addressed to an Anglican Clergyman, by "Scrutator." St. Louis: B. Herder.

10 This little work purports to be a translation into modern musical notation of the "Ordinary of the Mass," according to the Solesmes edition of the Graduale.

The chief obstacles to the spread of Plain Chant are, first, the peculiar notation in which it is written; and second, that the notation when mastered gives no indication whatever of the pitch at which the music is to be sung. As those to whose lot it falls to teach Plain-Chant are generally musicians who have been brought up exclusively on the ordinary notation of music, it follows that any attempt to teach such persons Plain-Chant must be made through the medium with which they are acquainted. Modern notation deals with the absolute pitch of sounds; by which is meant, that each line or space of the musical staff represents one musical sound, which is called after one of the first seven letters of the alphabet. The musician has also learned that each of the keys of his instrument is also called by one of the same seven letters, and that when he sees a note on a line or space, all he has to do is to strike the key which has the same name as the note on the staff. Though modern music recognizes only two scales, the major and the minor, yet there are with regard to position on the staff fifteen different ways of writing either scale, and consequently of any melody written in that scale.

The notation of Plain-Chant deals only with the relative pitch of sounds; which means that each note on the staff has a certain fixed relation with a note whose name is fixed by a clef. There are two of these clefs, called the "do" and "fa" clefs. If we take the do and the fa clefs to mean C and F respectively, we will find that some of the melodies are too high for our singers and others are too low. The shape of a note in either notation gives an idea of its duration. The notes in Plain- Chant have no absolute duration; they depend entirely upon the syllables to which they are sung. The notes in modern notation have an absolute duration; thus, a white note without a stem has exactly twice the duration of a white note with a stem, and a black note with a mark across its stem has exactly half the duration of a black note which has no mark across its stem. As the modern musician has been schooled through the whole of his musical life into giving

Kyriale seu Ordinarium Missarum in recentioris music notulas translatum. Rome