THE READER.

A Great Physician a Good Christian. (Laennec, sa Vie et son Oeuvre, par Dr. Henri Saintignon. Paris, J. B. Baillere et Fils, 19 Rue Hautefeuille.) Dr. Saintignon's life of Laennec brings out very clearly how much modern medicine owes to this genius for observation who, dying at the early age of forty-three, was yet able to give to the world a complete system of diagnosis of the diseases of the lungs. How perfect this system of his was may best be gathered from the fact that there is nothing of importance in the text-books of physical diagnosis at the present time which may not be found in Laennec's book, published seventy-five years ago. There are three unimportant signs that can be detected by the ear, which have been described since his death. These are the metallic tinkling of Trousseau, the pectoriloquy of Bacelli, and the signs of the very earliest stage of tuberculosis worked out by Prof. Grancher in quite recent years. It would seem almost impossible that one man should so dominate an important department of medicine for nearly the whole of the wonderful progress of the Nineteenth Century, yet this is just what Laennec has done.

The present volume also gives an excellent idea of Laennec's attitude towards the Church at a time when it was fashionable, especially for those interested in science, to be eminently rationalistic in their tendencies. When Pope Pius VII, practically a prisoner of Napoleon's, was in Paris, he was surprised one day to have a request for an audience from a group of young physicians and medical students. What," said the Pope, "are there then physicians in France who are still believers?" He twitted them a little on the fact when they came, but Laennec and his friends were very proud and very glad to take the opportunity to express their religious feelings and at the same time to pay their sympathetic respects to the Sovereign Pontiff whose trials had been the source of so much sorrow to them. As a model of how faithful to all his religious sentiments and duties a supremely great physician and original thinker in science may be, this book deserves to be translated for the benefit of the lesser minds who pose as agnostics.

Adolescence, Its Psychology and Its Relation to Physiology, Anthropology, Sociology, Sex, Crime, Religion and Education. By G. Stanley Hall, Ph.D., LL.D., President of Clark University and Profesor of Psychology and Pedagogy. Volume II. D. Appleton & Co., 1904, New York.

It is only too often the custom for the scientific writer of the modern day to be humorous at the lack of balance in the scholars of the middle ages, their waste of time over dialectics, the uncritical state of mind with which as writers they gathered everything related, however distantly, to their subjects, and, without duly weighing its significance, compiled it into huge folios in which they so delighted. Some of those who are too familiar with the work of the mediæval period, and their number, we are glad to say, is growing in recent years, to indulge in such a partial view of its great scholarly achievements, are inclined to doubt if, when the balance is struck between the contributions of such a century for instance as the thirteenth and that of the nineteenth, the

later generation shall prove so immensely superior to those of seven centuries ago, as many of the popular writers on science, who fortunately have the ear of the public, would quite have us believe. Over against the time wasted on dialectics by the students medieval, may well be placed our expenditure in intellectual energy in mere technics. Scientific journals are crowded with articles on technique,-technique that is utterly out of date after a few short years and that corresponds to nothing so closely as the despised sharpening of wits over dialectics in scholastic days. Nor are our books unamenable to the criticism that they are compiled without the true critical spirit, and that many things are admitted into them which are of but trifling importance or of only passing significance. This is true, not only for books, in which padding is deliberately used, but also not infrequently for such as are supposed to be the fruit of the genuine scientific spirit. The two volumes of the present work, consisting of some 1,200 pages, with regard to adolesence is a striking example of how many comparatively insignificant details, how much poorly assimilated, sometimes utterly undigested, material may be incorporated into a work that comes from the hand of a man who, while the head of one of our great modern technical universities, is acknowledged to be one of our great educators. It is no wonder that present-day education is such a maze that no one can find the key to it since this is an example of the thinking of one of its most looked-to leaders.

There is no doubt of the distinct value of a large amount of the information that Dr. Hall has so sedulously gathered into his work, but the form in which that information is cast is unfortunate. Its author's reputation as an educator will place the volume as an authority on the shelves of many teachers in this country. The contents will influence their teaching just in proportion to their admiration for Dr. Hall, rather than from any critical gleaning of truth out of this mass of facts. It seems especially unfortunate, then, that an exaggerated devotion to the theory of evolution should be the striking feature of the work. Dr. Hall talks as calmly and as glibly of our arboreal ancestors as if the proof of the descent of man from tree-dwelling forefathers were already in the hands of all of those who know anything about science. His supreme prostration before what one cannot help but think of as a dogma of evolution is such that for him the liking of children for water and for play along the seashore is complete evidence of their paludic ancestry. After all, it is a little bit hard to conceive of the sea-dweller and the tree dweller among our forefathers.

No mediæval speculator in metaphysics ever allowed a favorite theory to carry him any farther into the realm of the purely imaginary than does Dr. Hall whenever he is able to find or to make the opportunity of introducing something with regard to the recapitulation theory. At a time when biologists the world over are beginning to realize how little there is in the expression that the history of the being recapitulates the history of the race, Dr. Hall writes his book with this constantly as a background on which all the periods and peculiarities of adolesence may be brought into high relief. Trifles light as air become proofs of irrefragable potency, apparently under the magic influence of the hypnotic mood which comes over the believer in evolution descanting on his favorite topic. Many of Dr. Hall's reviewers have called attention to the ludicrous extent to which he has carried so many of his ideas in this matter. We are only on the threshold of our knowledge of evolution and it seems especially unfortunate that the teachers of the young should be indoctrinated with what are as yet false inpressions as to the

conclusions of scientists, just because an authoritative educator has an uncontrollable fad in that direction.

The Light of Faith. By the Hon. Frank McGloin. Herder, St. Louis, Mo.. $1.00.

This is quite a noteworthy book. It is a defense of Christianity by a layman; and a very able one at that. The circumstances which called for its publication are most complimentary to the author and very suggestive of what well-informed men of the world can do in spreading the truth. Many people of New Orleans of various religious denominations united in a request to the learned Judge to address them publicly on the great questions which are so agitating the world to-day. "Dear Sir," they wrote, "The undersigned, belonging to various Christian denominations, considering the frequent attacks in public prints and elsewhere upon Christian Truth, and knowing you to be informed upon these grave issues and capable of presenting them from our Christian standpoint, join in requesting you to deliver, at times and places to be fixed by yourself, a course of, say, three public lectures upon such cardinal and generally accepted Christian Truths as you may select. The proceeds, if any, above expenses you might apply to such charitable purposes as may seem to you best." Then follow the names, most of which are not suggestive of Catholic belongings.

The Judge accepted the invitation. Lectures on "God," "The Mystery of Life; Belief and Unbelief" were given in quick succession between May 3 and May 10, 1892. They might well be repeated again. They are now in book form and are published with the imprimatur of the Archbishop of St. Louis

It is a refreshing book. The subjects are met quickly, fairly and honestly. It makes excellent and profitable reading, and the eloquent and vivid style of the speaker makes it most attractive and enjoyable.

No doubt it will be gratifying to the learned Judge to see, as no doubt he did, that Haeckel, whom he handles in very vigorous fashion, has only the other night admitted that in the matter of evolution man is to be excluded, and that the Catholic view of the doctrine ought to be taught in the schools of Germany. What a revolution! Darwinism, that was going to blot out Christianity, is now a discredited delusion as far as man is concerned.

Not all can handle these serious matters in the masterly fashion of Judge McGloin, but is it not true that many of our professional men can, if they wish, bring the light into the minds of many around them? It is often a subject of wonder to people outside the Church that their acquaintances are so dumb in matters of religion. They often ascribe it to inability to defend their faith.

The Boy and the Outlaw. By Thomas J. L. McManus. The Grafton Press, N. Y.

This is a new venture by a new adventurer in the literary field. It deals. with John Brown's raid at Harpers Ferry. The "boy" is Clay Angel, one of the poor white trash of Virginia; the "outlaw" is a fanatical preaching mulatto who had followed Brown. Clay conceals the outlaw, who was escaping from the militia, thus unwittingly running the risk of being shot. The writer is very graphic at times, as for instance in the scenes between Squire Bailey and the negroes, and the tramp of the improvised militia along the tow-path to capture Brown; but he has not yet the trick of story-telling. The occurrences are continually halted by descriptions of persons or places to such an

extent that one almost forgets the current of events. Thus the "outlaw" is safely stowed in the lime-kiln and the boy goes off to procure food for him when suddenly two whole chapters intervene which are crowded with irrelevant happenings. The characters are well portrayed; many of them rough, uncouth and brutal, but as the writer was an eyewitness of the events no doubt they are true to life. The story ends with the suicide of the outlawed mulatto and the escape of the "boy" north with a fugitive slave. The boy rapidly, altogether too rapidly, acquires an education and writes a wonderful letter to his mother; meantime the other son in California sends a big check and the poor white trash are in affluence.

A Girl's Ideal. By Rose Mulholland. Benziger, N. Y.

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None but an Irishwoman could have written this story. It is bright, fanciful, almost rollicking and sometimes impossible in its fancies and situations. A girl who is American, French and Irish all combined, gets a legacy from an old uncle who had struck oil" somewhere in Pennsylvania. Or rather, she didn't get it. She was to get it in case she would marry a certain McMurrough, whom she had never seen. In case she didn't consent she was to have money galore for twelve years; in case he consented he was to get it then. In case she did, and he didn't, or they both did or if some other bewildering complication ensued, which the dazed reader must study out, then something else was to happen. Probably the average maid will delight in unravelling this skein. Of course she didn't accept, but takes the profit of the oil wells for twelve years, and then starts out to travel, first consulting a solicitor in New York where there are no solicitors. We find her in Italy and France, and finally in Ireland, where she scatters her money in true Irish fashion; buys up an old poplin mill to revive Irish industries for the sentimental reason that her French ancestor had owned the mill in former days; purchases old estates and especially Castle O'Flaherty, and has a glorious time generally. Finally the discarded unknown arrives on the scene, love making begins, and just as she is about to marry him the wells in America stop gushing. Meantime McMurrough, who is a doctor, discovers a microbe that makes him famous, and determines to marry the beggared heiress. After he has been brought to this proper degree of heroism, the oil wells gush again and all is well.

Socialism and Christianity. By the Rt. Rev. William Stang, D.D. Benziger, N. Y. $1.00.

This is a most welcome contribution to the literature on Socialism and will strengthen considerably the authority of Bishop Stang on the Board of Civic Federation, of which he is already a most distinguished member. It is a bright attractive book and teems with information on the very important subject of which he treats. There is a notable benevolence in it towards the workingman, a candid acknowledgement of the hardships under which he is laboring, but at the same time a fearless arraignment of the evils of the doctrine which is so full of menace to society. His book will be read with interest and the information it furnished of the efforts of Bishop Ketteler and his successors in Germany to save the working classes from their enemies will be read with interest by many in the Socialist ranks who perhaps have never heard of these friends of theirs. Apart from the erudition on economic matters which it displays throughout, attention might be called to the extremely beautiful character of the preface, in which he sketches the work to which he

has set himself. After discussing the questions of Public Ownership, Capital and Labor, Strikes, Women in. Factories, there is an illuminative chapter on the social order before the Reformation, and much useful information is given about the ancient guilds, agricultural life, etc., followed by a sketch of conditions after the great religious upheaval. The book ought to be widely read.

BOOKS RECEIVED.

La Patrie de St. Jean Baptiste. par le P. B. Meistermann, O. F. M. A Picard, Paris.

Federation of Churches. Vol. III. 11 Broadway, New York.

Proclamation of H. M. Victor Emmanuel III. Tipografia Nazionale, Rome. Eighty-sixth Annual Report of the New York Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb.

Dodge's Advanced Geography. Rand McNally & Co.

The Old Family Doctor. By Henry C. Brainerd, M.D. Arthur Clark Co., Cleveland, O.

Juvenile Round Table. Second Series. Benziger, New York, $1.00.

Jubilee Gems. By the Sisters of the Visitation, Brooklyn. Christian Press Association, New York.

Cyr's Dramatic First Reader. By Ellen Cyr. Ginn & Co., New York.

LITERARY NOTES.

Admirers of Tolstoy will be saddened by hearing Kipling dub him a faker, whose longing to push his ideas to their ultimate catastrophe is just like a Hindoo ascetic."

La Revue de l'Art Chretien, which is published in Brussels, after commending the MESSENGER in the most flattering terms, pays it the additional compliment of translating the greater part of Mr. Poole's article on the Liverpool Cathedral which appeared in our February number.

Andrew D. White, in his essay on "Thomasius" in the April Atlantic, furnishes some information which, if uttered by a Catholic, would evoke a howl of execration. Thus: “Even before Melancthon sunk into his grave he was dismayed at seeing Lutheranism stiffen into dogmas and formulas, and heartbroken at a persecution by Protestants even more bitter than anything he had ever experienced from Catholics. Still later when the terrible Thirty Years' War was showing the results of Protestant bigotry and want of unity, leading court preachers thundered from the pulpit: to unite with Calvinists is against God and conscience and nothing less than to do homage to the founder of the Calvinistic monstrosity Satan himself. The greatest German philosopher of the century, Leibnitz, was declared to be worse than an atheist. Galileo's announcements were received by ruling Protestant ecclesiastics with distrust and hostility. Bad as was seventeenth century pedantry in France, England, Italy and Spain, each of these countries had a literature of which thinking men could be proud, and a language in which its most learned men were glad to write. Not so in Germany. The language of learned Germans had become mainly a jargon; their learning owlish; their principal business disputation. The same spirit was seen in the whole political and civil administration. The Thirty Years' War had left the country in a fearful state; the population of