to the aid of theology, especially when treating of the Mosaic
cosmogony, of the origin and antiquity of the human race, etc. Certain
devotees of modern experimental science, whose principles are built on
mere hypotheses, and who insist on our taking mere possibilities as
established facts, have declared a deadly war against revelation. It is
difficult to convince such men of their errors by appealing to pure
reason; for they are in a remarkable degree wanting in the logical
faculty. You can overcome them only by opposing facts to facts, and by
proving that their own pet studies contradict their theories. This
Father Mazzella has aimed at doing; and he supports his position by
bringing forward a mass of facts and disclaimers from the latest
writings of the ablest scientists. The style is clear, simple, and
straightforward—a most necessary quality in a book of the kind.
Difficult terms are always explained, and neither order nor precision
is ever sacrificed to a show of learning or rhetorical skill.
MODERN PHILOSOPHY, FROM DESCARTES TO SCHOPENHAUER AND HARTMANN. By
Francis Bowen, A.M., Alford Professor of Natural Religion and Moral
Philosophy in Harvard College. New York: Scribner, Armstrong & Co.
1877.
The preface of Prof. Bowen prepossesses us at once in his favor. “No
one,” says he, “can be an earnest student of philosophy without
arriving at definite convictions respecting the fundamental truths of
theology. In my own case, nearly forty years of diligent inquiry and
reflection concerning these truths have served only to enlarge and
confirm the convictions with which I began, and which are inculcated in
this book. Earnestly desiring to avoid prejudice on either side, and to
welcome evidence and argument from whatever source they might come,
without professional bias, and free from any external inducement to
teach one set of opinions rather than another, I have faithfully
studied most of what the philosophy of these modern times and the
science of our own day assume to teach. And the result is that I am now
more firmly convinced than ever that what has been justly called[89]
‘the dirt-philosophy’ of materialism and fatalism is baseless and
false. I accept with unhesitating conviction and belief the doctrine of
the being of one personal God, the creator and governor of the world,
and of one Lord Jesus Christ in whom ‘dwelleth all the fulness of the
Godhead bodily’; and I have found nothing whatever in the literature of
modern infidelity which, to my mind, casts even the slightest doubt
upon that belief.... Let me be permitted also to repeat the opinion,
which I ventured to express as far back as 1849, that the time seems to
have arrived for a more practical and immediate verification than the
world has ever yet witnessed of the great truth that the civilization
which is not based upon Christianity is big with the elements of its
own destruction” (pp. vi., vii.).
These are sound and wise words, which we welcome with peculiar pleasure
as emanating from a chair in Harvard University. The scope of _Modern
Philosophy_ is more restricted, as the author distinctly premises, than
the general title indicates. The authors whose systems are discussed
_ex professo_ are Descartes, Spinoza, Malebranche, Pascal, Leibnitz,
Berkeley, Kant, Schelling, Hegel, Schopenhauer, and Hartmann. There is
also a general discussion of those great topics of metaphysics, the
origin of ideas and the nature of the universals, of the freedom of the
will and of the system of positivism, with an exposition of the
relation of physical to metaphysical science. It is quite proper for
the learned professor to select a particular range in modern philosophy
for his lectures, but we respectfully submit that a less general title
would have been more accurately definitive of his real object, and that
he identifies too much the course of European thought with the
direction of certain classes of thinkers. The revival of the philosophy
of Aristotle and St. Thomas in modern times is certainly worthy of
notice, and is exercising a strong and decisive influence on modern
European thought. The questions of ideology and the universals can
hardly be adequately presented without consideration of their treatment
by the able modern expositors of scholastic philosophy. We do not agree
with Mr. Bowen in his estimate of Descartes, or in his general views of
the superiority of modern to ancient and mediæval philosophy. Neither
are we in accordance with his special views of ideology. Nevertheless,
we recognize a current of very sound and discriminating thought
throughout his whole course of argumentation, which tends always toward
the most rational and Christian direction, taking up the good and
positive elements which it meets with on the way, and rejecting their
contraries. The author seems to have a subtle intellectual and moral
affinity for the highest, most spiritual and ennobling ideas of the
great men of genius, both heathen and Christian. Plato, Malebranche,
and Leibnitz seem to be those with whom he is most in sympathy. His
most marked antipathy is shown for the degrading pessimism of
Schopenhauer. We feel sure, from the tone of his reasoning and the
quality of his sentiments, that he would find the greatest pleasure in
the perusal of the writings of such Catholic philosophers as Kleutgen,
San Severino, Liberatore, Stöckl, and perhaps more than all of Laforet,
on account of his Platonizing tendencies.
Mr. Bowen’s style is remarkably and elegantly classic. He throws a
literary charm and glow over his discussions and expositions of
abstruse ethical and metaphysical topics which we do not often find,
except in the works of Italian authors, although some who write in
English are beginning to cultivate this style, in which logical
severity is combined with rhetorical grace. No one could write with
more modesty and suavity of manner, or in a more calm and amiable
temper. We hope this truly excellent volume, in such contrast with the
common run of jejune and debasing trash which passes for science and
philosophy, will be very much read, especially in the neighborhood of
Boston, where it is sadly needed.
HISTORY OF THE SUPPRESSION OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS IN THE PORTUGUESE
DOMINIONS. By the Rev. Alfred Weld, S.J. London: Burns & Oates.
1877. (For sale by The Catholic Publication Society Co.)
This able work of Father Weld throws a flood of light on a very sad and
gloomy page of history. Never was the Society of Jesus so fearfully
tried and persecuted, and never did its virtues shine more
conspicuously, than in the period referred to by the author—that is,
during the twenty years preceding the entire suppression of the order
by Clement XIV. in 1773.
We behold its holy and self-sacrificing members spreading themselves
over the New as well as the Old World, making countless conquests for
Christ, bearing every hardship and danger in order to teach the truths
of faith to the most barbarous tribes and peoples, planting the
standard of the cross in the most distant regions, and watering the
seed of the Gospel by their blood. Wherever they went they gave
evidence, in their own persons, of the highest apostolic virtues.
God could not but bless the efforts of such disinterested and
self-sacrificing followers of his divine Son, and their labors were
crowned with astonishing success. Take, for example, the history of
their missions in Paraguay. No brighter or more cheering picture was
ever displayed to the world than the fatherly government of the Jesuits
over these poor children of the forest. Here civilization and religion
went hand in hand, and peace and prosperity reigned. But the very
success of the missionaries raised up against them powerful and bitter
enemies. The more saintly they were, the more envy they excited; the
more learned and influential, the more jealousy arose, until at last
their enemies vowed their destruction.
Chief among those enemies, and most powerful in his opposition, was
Carvalho, Marquis of Pombal, the chief minister of state under Joseph
I., King of Portugal. Having, by sycophancy, flattery, and deception,
made himself master of this weak sovereign, and always finding means to
prevent his evil designs from becoming known, he labored to destroy the
authority of the Holy See throughout the kingdom of Portugal, and to
establish, as nearly as possible, a national church. He saw that the
faithful Society of Jesus would be an insuperable obstacle in his way.
He accordingly determined on its destruction, or, if he could not
effect this, at least its expulsion from the Portuguese dominions.
Knowing the high esteem in which the learned body was held throughout
Europe by kings, princes, nobles, and people, and, above all, by each
succeeding Sovereign Pontiff, he made use of every means, and means
always the most malicious, in order to destroy the character and
influence of the Jesuits. There was no insinuation too low, no
instrument too vile, no slander too base, of which he did not make use
to effect their injury and ruin. He spread throughout Europe,
especially in the principal courts, the grossest libels (many of them
written by himself) against the society, and all under the hypocritical
plea of serving religion, law, and order. Every species of tyranny that
human malice, aided by a deeper malice, could invent or call into being
to injure the glorious institute founded by that great soldier of
Christ, St. Ignatius, Pombal exercised.
During his ministry nine thousand innocent persons, many of whom were
of the noblest families in the kingdom or ecclesiastics of the highest
character, were condemned either to prison or to death, without any
trial, and often without even knowing the cause for which they were
deprived of their life or liberty.
The sufferings of the poor Jesuits, many of whom had spent the chief
portion of their lives as apostles in South America and had been
brought back in chains to the dungeons of Portugal, were of the most
harrowing description. Not a few died in their wretched prisons, and
the few that survived at the end of eighteen years, when they were
released by order of the Queen, were but miserable wrecks of their
former selves.
On the day of the queen’s coronation, May 13, 1777, Francis da Silva,
Judge of the Supreme Court, pronounced his memorable address, in which
he thus denounces, in the name of the whole nation, the tyranny from
which they were just freed: “The blood is still flowing from the wounds
with which the heart of Portugal has been pierced by the unlimited and
blind despotism from which we have just ceased to suffer. He (Pombal)
was the systematic enemy of humanity, of religion, of liberty, of
merit, and of virtue. He filled the prisons and the fortresses with the
flower of the kingdom. He harassed the public with vexations and
reduced it to misery. He destroyed all respect for the pontifical and
episcopal authority; he debased the nobility, corrupted morals,
perverted legislation, and governed the state with a sceptre of iron,
in the vilest and most brutal manner that has ever been seen in the
world.”
All the machinations of this politician are laid bare, and his
miserable agents in this fearful persecution exposed to view, in this
work of Father Weld. He does not ask us to take for granted his simple
declarations, but fortifies every position which he takes by the
clearest and most undeniable proofs. He has had access to authentic
documents, which he has put to the best use. His style is clear and
forcible, and in the arguments which he uses and the proofs with which
he sustains them he gives us a noble, just, and triumphant vindication
of the great society of which he is a member.
In reading this work we could not but call to mind the prophecy of St.
Ignatius that “the heritage of the Passion should never fail the
society”—“A prophecy,” says the Protestant writer Stewart Rose,
“fulfilled up to this time; for they (the Jesuits) are still, as for
three hundred years past, indefatigable in the saving of souls,
perversely misrepresented and stupidly misunderstood.”
ANTAR AND ZARA, AND OTHER POEMS, MEDITATIVE AND LYRICAL. By Aubrey De
Vere.
THE FALL OF RORA, AND OTHER POEMS, MEDITATIVE AND LYRICAL. By the same.
London: Henry S. King & Co. 1877. (For sale by The Catholic
Publication Society Co.)
These two volumes “comprise the author’s secular poetry previous to the
‘Legends of St. Patrick’ (1872), together with many poems composed
before that date, though not published.” “His religious poems will be
collected later in a separate volume.”
_Antar and Zara_, with many shorter pieces, first appeared in the pages
of THE CATHOLIC WORLD. It was in those pages that the writer made Mr.
De Vere’s acquaintance; and not a few of our readers, probably, are
indebted to the same source for their introduction to the great
Catholic poet of the day. To such it will be a welcome surprise, as it
is to us, to find his cultured muse so prolific. The variety of themes,
too, within these volumes affords a frequent ramble “to fresh fields
and pastures new.” The poet himself has travelled. With Byron, he has
“stood on the Alps,” and pondered in the “City of the Soul,” and basked
in the “eternal summer” that “yet gilds the Isles of Greece.” At home,
again, he has sung Erin’s glories and woes as though he had taken down
the old Bardic harp from “Tara’s walls.”
As a poet, however, he shows the influence of two other great masters
than Byron and Moore—though some of his Irish ballads remind us of the
latter. He is chiefly a disciple of Wordsworth, while he has studied to
good purpose the scholarly verse of Tennyson. With most imitators of
Tennyson the classic perfections of the Laureate are turned to mere
affectations. Not so with Mr. De Vere, who is equally a scholar
himself. This scholarly taste, indeed, would have prevented him, we are
sure, from adopting Wordsworth’s theory of poetic diction, even had
Tennyson never arisen to recall English poetry from the loose,
inaccurate style into which his great predecessors, with the exception
of Coleridge, had thrown so much splendid thought.
This conviction of ours regarding the combined influence of Tennyson
and Wordsworth on our author’s poetry is confirmed by the discovery
that _Antar and Zara_ is dedicated to the former by “his friend”; and,
again, of the sonnet “Composed at Rydal, September, 1860,” with the two
following sonnets “To Wordsworth, on Visiting the Duddon.” _Antar and
Zara_, particularly in the shorter metre of _Zara’s_ “song,” is
eminently Tennysonian. For example:
“He culled me grapes—the vintager;
In turn, for song the old man prayed:
I glanced around; but none was near:
With veil drawn tighter, I obeyed.
“‘Were I a vine, and he were heaven,
That vine would spread a vernal leaf
To meet the beams of morn and even,
And think the April day too brief.
“‘Were he I love a cloud, not heaven,
That leaf would spread and drink the rain;
Warm summer shower and dews of even
Alike would take, and think them gain.
“‘It would not shrink from wintry rime
Or echoes of the thunder-shock,
But watch the advancing vintage-time,
And meet it, reddening on the rock.’”
And again:
“Dear tasks are mine that make the weeks
Too swift in passing, not too slow:
I nurse the rose on faded cheeks,
Bring solace to the homes of woe.
“I hear our vesper anthems swell;
I track the steps of Fast and Feast;
I read old legends treasured well
Of Machabean chief or priest.
“I hear on heights of song and psalm
The storm of God careering by;
Beside His Deep, for ever calm,
I kneel in caves of Prophecy.
“O Eastern Book! It cannot change!
Of books beside, the type, the mould—
It stands like yon Carmelian range
By _our_ Elias trod of old!”
Here are the sonnets:
“COMPOSED AT RYDAL,
“SEPT, 1860.
“The last great man by manlier times bequeathed
To these our noisy and self-boasting days
In this green valley rested, trod these ways,
With deep calm breast this air inspiring breathed.
True bard, because true man, his brow he wreathed
With wild-flowers only, singing Nature’s praise;
But Nature turn’d, and crown’d him with her bays,
And said, ‘Be thou _my_ Laureate.’ Wisdom sheathed
In song love-humble; contemplations high,
That built like larks their nests upon the ground;
Insight and vision; sympathies profound,
That spann’d the total of humanity:
These were the gifts which God pour’d forth at large
On men through him; and he was faithful to his charge.”
“TO WORDSWORTH, ON VISITING THE DUDDON.
I.
“So long as Duddon, ’twixt his cloud-girt walls
Thridding the woody chambers of the hills,
Warbles from vaulted grot and pebbled halls
Welcome or farewell to the meadow rills;
So long as linnets pipe glad madrigals
Near that brown nook the laborer whistling tills,
Or the late-reddening apple forms and falls
‘Mid dewy brakes the autumnal red-breast thrills;
So long, last poet of the great old race,
Shall thy broad song through England’s bosom roll.
A river singing anthems in its place,
And be to later England as a soul.
Glory to Him who made thee, and increase,
To them that hear thy word, of love and peace!”
II.
“When first that precinct sacrosanct I trod
Autumn was there, but Autumn just begun;
Fronting the portals of a sinking sun,
The queen of quietude in vapor stood,
Her sceptre o’er the dimly-crimsoned wood
Resting in light. The year’s great work was done;
Summer had vanish’d, and repinings none
Troubled the pulse of thoughtful gratitude.
Wordsworth! the autumn of our English song
Art thou: ’twas thine our vesper psalms to sing:
Chaucer sang matins; sweet his note and strong;
His singing-robe the green, white garb of Spring:
Thou like the dying year art rightly stoled—
Pontific purple and dark vest of gold.”
Wordsworth was a giant at the sonnet. His sonnets are, in our judgment,
by far his best productions, and those in which his theory of diction
jars one least. We congratulate Mr. De Vere on following in the
master’s footsteps by cultivating the sonnet, and without the defects
of the leader. We are also proud to see him disregard the Petrarchian
sonnet as the only correct type—a form in which the English language
would be sadly monotonous, were it never allowed to vary the order of
rhymes, particularly in the minor system. Surely our language has every
right to a sonnet of its own—and that flexible.
We will only add that the objections commonly made to Mr. De Vere’s
poetry—to wit, that it is elaborate and requires much thought—are of no
weight against his mission as a poet. He aims, we presume, at
interesting the cultured few rather than the uncultured many. A poet’s
highest function is, we say, to teach. And a true Catholic poet, like
our author, can reach intelligences, both within and without the
church, through doors at which “divine philosophy” in dull, prosaic
garb must knock in vain.
SADLIER’S ELEMENTARY HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. By a Teacher of
History. New York: William H. Sadlier. 1877.
This is a very pleasing and useful little manual for children. It
presents the chief events of the history of this country in the form of
question and answer, giving a prominence much needed to the great part
which Catholics have played in the struggles of the Republic, and its
material and social development. The plan was well conceived, and has
been well executed. It is the last work of the enterprising and
much-lamented young Catholic publisher who was so suddenly carried off
at the opening of what promised to be a most useful and honorable
career.
ANCIENT HISTORY. From the French of Rev. Father Gazeau, S.J. Revised
and corrected, with questions at the end of each chapter. By a pupil
of the Sisters of Notre Dame. First American edition. New York: The
Catholic Publication Society Co. 1877.
This is another and useful addition to the Catholic Publication
Society’s educational series. It is a very interesting, clear, and
comprehensive history, embracing the chief powers and peoples of
ancient times, and ending with the death of Alexander the Great and the
division of his empire. The questions at the end of each chapter form
an improved feature on the original, and the translation runs as
smoothly as could be desired.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE
CATHOLIC WORLD.
VOL. XXVI., No. 154.—JANUARY, 1878.
BETWEEN THE YEARS.
1877–1878.
_Rogate, quæ ad pacem sunt, Jerusalem: et abundantia diligentibus
te._—Ps. cxxi.
I.
Old with its sorrow, weary with the load
Of angry strife and murderous thought of wrong
It hath with such sad patience borne so long,
The year draws near the judgment-seat of God.
Signed at its birth with Heaven’s holiest name,
Blessed with the chrism of self-sacrifice,
It brought men gifts of more than royal price;
Asked in return a pure and generous fame;
Life’s book it opened at a clean white page—
Whereon fell not the shadow of a stain—
Set in man’s hand a consecrated pen
Whose script should be the future’s heritage.
Lo! we have written; shall we dare to see
The closed book opened in eternity?
II.
_Jesu, Redemptor!_ at thy feet we kneel,
Who burn the tapers round the dying year;
Rest we beseech for him that lieth here,
And on the blotted page thy mercy’s seal.
Through this dark night we wait with hope the day,
Ready the handmaid of thy grace to greet
Who hear the rhythm of her strong, young feet—
The fair New Year, advancing swift this way.
Jesus, most patient, does thy morning break?
Shall she we wait for, with thy Spirit’s breath
Stir to new life a world that slumbereth?
Shall last year’s thorns to fleecy blossom wake?
Cometh thy kingdom? Shall thy will be done,
And Calvary’s shade be lost in Thabor’s sun?
III.
To thee we look, O Jesus, our true light!
With eyes, tear-dimmed, that, straining, gaze along
The future’s ways the past o’ershades with wrong;
That dread the glitter of this earthly night,
Where every star is rivet of a cross.
Still in the light of Child-blessed Bethlehem
We feel the portent of Jerusalem,
We hear the echoes of sad Rama’s loss.
In thee we trust, and in her, crucified,
Our holy mother Rome, thy spouse divine,
In whose dear face eternal light doth shine,
In whose maimed hands thy perfect gifts abide.
In thee we rest, who know the future thine;
Shape thou our deeds unto thy will divine.
Copyright: Rev. I. T. HECKER. 1878.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHRISTIANITY AS AN HISTORICAL RELIGION.[90]
The doctrine of natural development or evolution may be apprehended and
presented in theoretical form under two diverse phases or aspects. One
of these resembles the old scholastic theory of the eduction of forms
from the potentiality of matter. The indeterminate something which is
almost nothing takes on all kinds of specific determinations, which
chase away and supplant one another, each one vanishing into
nothingness like a melody when the harp-strings cease to vibrate. The
animal soul, the highest of these determining principles, is only one
of the evanescent forms, depending for existence on the body it
animates, becoming extinct, like a sound or the trace of a bird in the
air, as soon as death takes place. So, in the theory of pure natural
evolution, history, polity, ethics, theology, science, educe themselves
from the potential, determinable substratum of humanity, without
efficient or final causes, in evanescent forms; and their animating
spirit is no more than an _anima belluina_.
The other theory may be likewise illustrated from the same philosophy,
comparing it with the doctrine of the rational soul, immediately
created, self-subsisting, entering into composition with body but not
immersed in it; like a swimmer in water, with head and shoulders above
the surface; animating matter, but dominating over it and subordinating
it to serve by its development and life the higher end of the spirit,
which reaches beyond the temporal and sensible toward infinity and
eternity. Thus all human development—though it is nature which is
developed, though natural processes subserve its evolution, and its
history is the history of human events, acts, thoughts, polities,
religions—is informed and dominated by a superhuman, a divine spirit,
power, action, for a supra-mundane end.