as a form of religion gradually evolved out of crude primitive superstitions. The whole of Chapter II is devoted to this question. In the following chapter he shows how Christianity itself is viewed by some radical minds as but a transitory stage to the still higher plane of irreligion. Chapter IV treats of the numerous religious systems that are cropping up at the present day, some of them anti-Christian, others tending indirectly to weaken Christian faith. Chapter V sets forth the more radical teachings of Protestant scholars, so called Neo-Protestantism. His exposé of their rash pronouncements on fundamental questions of faith and morals shows how far they have drifted away from early Protestant belief. Chapter VI on so-called Neo-Catholicism, Old Style, is more interesting historically than apposite to the main theme, treating as it does of the radical views of a handful of Catholic scholars of the eighteenth century. More to the point is Chapter VII, in which under the title, Modern Neo-Catholicism, the author reprobates much that is rash and subversive of Catholic principles along with not a little that is compatible with progressive Catholic orthodoxy.

In the last three chapters he shows that if Catholicism is to be preserved in its integrity, there is no compromise possible between it and the world of modern radical thought, which will hear nothing of a supernatural order, nothing of divine positive law, which even calls in question the personality of God. He concludes that our duty is to give up all attempts to bring Catholic doctrine into harmony with modern ideas, and to stand unswervingly by the authoritative teaching of the Church as expressed in papal utterances and decrees of the congregations. We should eschew all modern notions that do not enjoy the approval of the Church at large and the sanction of tradition.

Such in brief is the scope of this book, which, in great measure, finds confirmation in the recent important utterance of the Holy See on the tenets of modernism. In its making, the author has brought to notice a vast amount of modern religious literature. Whether he has thoroughly digested it all may be questioned. It is hardly fair, for example, to treat Ruskin as if he were an antiChristian, trying to substitute for Christianity the religion of beauty (p. 130). The American reader is amused to find among the founders of new religions, Professor Peabody, advocate of the Religion of the Educated Man (p. 156). Again, the Christian. Endeavor is classed by the author with the Salvation Army as one

of the new-fangled systems aiming at the complete laicizing of the Christian religion.

The book is to be commended in so far as it anticipates the late encyclical in sounding the note of warning against uncatholic teachings within the very pale of the Church. But it fails in going further than the encyclical in its condemnation. If there is a Neo-Catholicism in the bad sense that is drifting from Catholic moorings, there is also an advanced Catholicism in the good sense, far outnumbering the other, that is none the less true to sound Catholic principles because it is progressive. Of this the author has nothing to say. He condemns en bloc all views put forth by Catholic scholars that disturb in the least the calm of traditional religious thought. No loyal Catholic will deny that such views sometimes prove to be dangerous innovations, subversive of faith, and hence worthy of condemnation. But, then, there are others that rest on a truly scientific basis and have the approval of Catholic scholars of unquestioned orthodoxy, among them, members of the very order to which Fr. Weiss has the honor to belong. That the Holy See is not hostile to such genuine additions to human knowledge may be gathered from the late encyclical, in which the intention is announced of establishing at Rome an institute of higher learning for the furtherance of progressive studies in every department of knowledge under the guidance and teaching of Catholic truth.

CHARLES F. AIKEN.

Die Katholische Moral, Von V. Cathrein, S. J. Freiburg, Herder, 1907. 8vo, 545 pp.

Father Cathrein is one of the most prolific writers of the present day belonging to the Jesuit order. He is the author of a dozen or more works bearing on questions of morals and of law. His works are deservedly popular. He has an eye for the living problems of the times. He knows how to present his subject clearly and forcibly. He writes in an attractive, readable style. These characteristics are not wanting in his latest work on Catholic Ethics. The title, indeed, has not the extensiveness that the contents of the book seem to call for. Only the last half is devoted to Catholic teaching on morals. The other half is an apologetic treatise, popular, yet solid and instructive, on the foundations of Catholic belief. The author begins by treating of

the origin, nature, and end of man, refuting the materialistic view that man is simply and solely the product of blind evolution from a primitive animalcule spontaneously generated, and proving him to be animated with a soul, spiritual and immortal, responsible for his conduct by reason of his freedom of will. After giving the popular proofs for the existence and personality of God, and setting forth man's true relation to his Creator, he passes to the consideration of the Christian religion, proving its supernatural character from its wonderful life, and from the divinity of its Founder, Jesus Christ. Then follows the demonstration of the identity of the Roman Catholic Church with the authoritative, infallible Church established by Christ to perpetuate his teaching.

Such is the introduction to the subject proper, which he treats in eleven chapters; 1) the supernatural end of man and its frustration by sin; 2) the natural law; 3) faith, hope and charity; 4) divine worship; 5) duties to fellow-men; 6) duties to self; 7) marriage and the Christian family; 8) the religious state; 9) objections against Catholic moral teaching; 10) religion and morality; 11) conscience. Under these headings a goodly number of moral questions of great importance come up for consideration, and are treated with a due regard to present conditions. Particular care is given to the refutation of current objections against Catholic ethics, as for example that it runs counter to man's moral autonomy and stunts the growth of character; that it develops a life of formalism, immersed in external works of piety; that it fosters antagonism to modern culture and recommends a selfish flight from the world; that its chief encouragement to right conduct is the selfish motive of future rewards.

It is a book that will do much good, and will be widely read by the cultivated laity in Germany.

CHARLES F. AIKEN.

Christliche Apologetik, Von Dr. Simon Weber. Freiburg, Herder, 1907. 8vo, 347 pp.

The author of this work occupies the chair of Apologetics in the University of Freiburg in Baden, where he has taught with success for a number of years. He has already given proof of his aptitude and zeal for theological study by the publication of his well received volumes, die katholische Kirche in Armenien, and Evangelium und Arbeit. The numerous favorable notices that his

new work on Apologetics is receiving show that the scholarly worth of his former productions is being happily maintained.

Like every complete treatise on Apologetics, Dr. Weber's book deals with three main questions, Religion and the grounds of theistic belief, Revelation and the grounds of Christian belief, and the Church and the grounds of Catholic belief. These main heads. he designates as the Theory of Religion, the Theory of Revelation, and the Theory of the Church. Aiming at a compendium suited for serious study, he has chosen to expound the varied subjectmatter gathered under these three heads, not in a free, popular style, but with the strict, logical succinctness of a treatise on philosophical principles. It is compact, solid, expressing the maximum of thought in brief, unadorned language. It is a book for study, not for after-dinner reading.

The compendious character of the book has led the author to pass over subjects that, while often treated by apologists, do not strictly belong to the sphere of Apologetics. Thus he has nothing to say, and rightly too, of inspiration of Holy Scripture, nothing of the analysis of faith. On the other hand, he has wisely seen fit to incorporate into his work questions that have acquired importance from recent developments in certain fields of modern study,— questions that have not yet been sufficiently recognized by many Catholic apologists. Thus the treatment in the Theory of Religion of subjects such as the chief historic religions, the nature, origin and primitive form of religion, serves to give the work an up-todate appearance that tells to its advantage. Some readers, however, might desire a larger amount of information than he offers in his survey of the chief religions of the world. His exposition lacks the fulness needed to convey a comprehensive notion of these respective systems. Again, many readers will be pleased to see that in the second part of his work, the Theory of Revelation, he has devoted nearly thirty pages to a refutation of the tendency-, myth-, accommodation-, syncretism-, and development-theories, which have been employed to weaken the historic reality of the supernatural element in the Bible. As a supplement to this, a few pages on the authenticity of the main New Testament sources for the study of Christian Revelation might well have been added. Its importance is patent, and its appropriateness can hardly be questioned, although its thorough study forms part of New Testament Introduction.

In the third part, the author gives a solid presentation of the

Roman Catholic claims, under the four heads of the Origin of the Church, the End of the Church, the Divinity of the Catholic Church, and the Reliability of the Church as the divinely appointed transmitter of revelation.

In the treatment of these numerous and varied questions, the author has given proof of a patient scholarship combined with prudent conservatism. To encourage further investigation on the part of his readers, he has enriched each minor division with an indication of important literature bearing on the subject discussed.

The Apologetics of Dr. Weber will take an honorable place among the works of this kind that have come from German Catholic scholars.

CHARLES F. AIKEN.

La Chiesa e lo Stato in Francia durante la rivoluzione (17891799). By Mgr. Adolfo Giobbio, Rome. Pustet, 1905. 80. pp. xvi, 408.

In four chapters Monsignore Giobbio describes the course of the French Revolution in so far as it affected the Catholic Church in France. These chapters correspond to as many periods, the Assemblée Nationale Constituante (5 May, 1789-30 Sept., 1791), the Assemblée Législative (1 Oct. 1791-30 Sept., 1792), the Convention Nationale (21 Sept., 1792-26 Oct., 1795), and the Directoire (30 Oct., 1795-9 Nov., 1709). Month by month and almost day by day the narrative follows the hostile temper and violent measures of the popular representatives until the decade closed with the apparently total ruin of the once proud and flourishing Church of France. The work is based throughout on original materials, e. g. the proces-verbaux of the national parliaments, the secret archives of the Holy See, the correspondence of Napoleon, the official reports of the Moniteur, also on the memoirs of Talleyrand and of Barras, and those of Mgr. de Salomon, Picot's ecclesiastical annals of the period, Sciout's histories of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy and of the Directory, Sicard's account of the French bishops during the Revolution, etc. In the absence of a good account in English by some Catholic writer, this work is worthy of translation.