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preciate his character. We cheerfully recommend the work to our readers, as, with one or two exceptions, the most interesting Life, for a Catholic, which has yet appeared in the new series of Sparks's American Biography.

8. — Chambers's Cyclopædia of English Literature: a Selection of the

Choicest Productions of English Authors, from the Earliest to the Present Time, connected by a Critical and Biographical History: Elegantly illustrated. Boston : Gould, Kendall, & Lincoln. Number I. 8vo. pp. 84. Price 25 cents.

We have not much to say of this work, for it is unnecessarily offensive to Catholics. Yet it is got up with a good deal of literary talent and taste. The edition of which the first number is before us is well printed on good paper, and the illustrations are neatly executed.

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9. — Scriptural Temperance. A Sermon, delivered in the Hollis Street Meet

ing-house, Boston, on Thanksgiving Day, November 26, 1846. By David Fosdick, Jr., Minister of Hoīlis Street Society. Published by Request. Boston : Clapp & Son. 1846. 8vo. pp. 26. The author of this sermon is a Unitarian minister, the successor of Mr. Pierpont as pastor of the Hollis Street Society in this city. With Mr. Fosdick we have no personal acquaintance, and, till we read this sermon, we knew not to which section of the Unitarian party he belonged, the Centre, the Right, or the Left. The sermon proves that he does not belong to the Mountain, and that he is far from being willing to acknowledge Mr. Theodore Parker for his leader. It is not to be expected that a sermon by a Unitarian minister will meet entirely our approbation ; but we have read this sermon with a good deal of interest and pleasure. It is able, and contains more sound sense and just thinking ihan we are accustomed to look for in Unitarian productions. With the main thought which runs through the sermon we heartily agree. Mr. Fosdick perceives the dangerous elements at work among us,-that principles are contended for and acted on which are incompatible, not only with Christianity, but with social order itself, - and that, unless something can be done to arrest the radical tendency which has become so strong of late, it will be necessary to give up, ere long, religion, society, and morals. His sermon may be regarded as the sign of a reaction in the Unitarian body against the tendency to no-WHITHER it has for some years been obeying, and of an effort to return to something which has, at least, the appearance of decency. There was a time when our Unitarians, in the human sense, were moral and respectable, when there was a certain sobriety in their views touching morals and society. But the younger generation of their ministers have lost the conservative spirit of their fathers, their moderation and decorum, and seem to be rushing headlong into the wildest radicalisms of the day, and to suppose that the

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more zealously they espouse every humbug that comes along, the more true will they prove to the Author of our religion.

Mr. Fosdick appears to be a man of soberer views, sounder judgment, and more just thought; but we must express our doubts whether he will meet with a very hearty response from any considerable number of his own denomination. He cannot arrest the tendency he deplores; for, after all, it is the legitimate tendency of Unitarianism itself, and one must either accept it, or cease to be a consistent Unitarian. Nevertheless, we thank Mr. Fosdick for his discourse, and hope it is the promise of an upward tendency in himself.

10. — The Goethean Hall, or the Anniversary of Goethe's Birthday, Au

gust 28, A. D. 1846, in Mercersburg. Chambersburg, Pa 1846. 8vo. pp. 47. This pamphlet is interesting, inasmuch as it relates to the movement that is in progress among the Reformed Germans in Pennsylvania,

a movement of which we shall say something at our earliest opportunity. It is rather amusing to find Luther and Calvin regarded as the successors of St. Bernard and St. Thomas.

11.— The Metropolitan Catholic Almanac and Laity's Directory for 1847.

Baltimore: F. Lucas, Jr.

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This almanac, for 1847, has appeared in due season, and is, as usual, filled with interesting maiter for the Catholic public. Every Catholic family, of course, will make it a point to procure it.

12. The Investigator and Advocate of Independence. Edited by Josiah

F. Polk. Monthly. Washington, D. C. December, 1846.

We quote the title of this rabid Presbyterian magazine, for the sake of saying to the conductors of the Anticatholic press who honor us with their attacks, that we do not hold ourselves bound to notice any attack, unless it comes in a separate work from a respectable source, or in a periodical not published oftener than our own; and, moreover, unless the matter alleged against us is entitled to consideration. The editor of the Investigator would do well to verify his facts, before reasoning from them. M. Chevalier, of whom he speaks, was no Catholic when he wrote his Letters on this country. He was a Saint-Simonian, and had been a Saint-Simonian missionary. What he is now we do not know. It is easy to make out a case, where one has the manufacturing of his facts and principles. By the way, the writers in the Anticatholic papers,

in general, have little difficulty in establishing their conclusions. There is one in this city who, it is said, has completely annihilated us, by means of a principle which permits him to reason as if a demonstrable truth and a private opinion were one and the same thing ; and therefore, if private judgment be insufficient to settle the question whether there are inhabitants in the moon, we can have no sufficient authority for saying there was such a man as Julius Cæsar, or that the three angles of a triangle are equal to two right angles. Rare men are these Anticatholic writers.

13.– A Selection of Songs and Ballads from Anglo-Irish Literature.

Boston : Patrick Donahoe. 1846. 16mo.

pp. 164.

This appears to be a very judicious selection of songs, adapted to favorite Irish airs. The songs are chiefly from Erin's favorite bard, Thoinas Moore, who, though he has written much that must be condemned by the moralist, has yet roused the world to a sense of the wrongs inflicted on his countrymen, and by his Irish Melodies has well earned the title of patriot. As a poet, he has proved that our language in melody and liquid sweetness, in the hands of a master, is not surpassed by any modern language, not even by the Italian. What would, then, have been his song, if he had sung in native Irish, – the mothertongue of music and eloquence ?

14. – The One Progressive Principle. By G. T. Headly. Delivered

before the Literary Societies of the University of Vermont, August, 1846. New York: John S. Taylor. 1846. 8vo. pp. 32. We notice this address out of regard to the literary societies before which it was delivered, and the university with which they are connected. Of Mr. Headly we do not think much. He is a sort of male sentimentalist, and has more show than substance. His “one progressive principle” is mere moonshine, and his reading of history is all in his eye. The principle of progress cannot be itself progressive, but must be immovable, and the author's slightest error is that of mistaking the effect for the cause. We go as far as any man in defence of liberty, but we are yet to be convinced that the progress of liberty is to be measured by the destruction of its guaranties. Democracy and liberty are not necessarily coincident, nor is the will of the people always wise or just. What we want, whatever the form of the government, are safeguards for liberty in the shape of checks on power. Absolute governments are always an evil, and the wisdom of the statesman consists in the adoption of methods for their limitation.

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We send out here the first number of our new series, with the compliments of the season to all our old friends, and to all the new friends it may find or make. As for enemies, being ourselves an enemy to no one, we take it for granted that we have none. The new series will follow in the track of the former, since the first volume. We enter upon the third year of our Catholic life, with the same heart and hope we did upon the first. We have made no important discoveries since, and have not been so fortunate as to get any new kink or crotchet in our head. The time has gone by that was set for our relapse into Protestantism, and as it has done so without our relapsing, we trust that the public will make up their minds to let us live and die a Catholic. We find ourselves very well satisfied with the Church, and with our Catholic friends; and ask nothing but the boon, -- and it is a great one, - to be permitted to devote what may remain to us of life and strength to the cause of the Church. Would that we had known the Church earlier ! from many a pang would it have saved us. The world is too poor to pay the price of one hour of Catholic life.

In conducting our Review, we aim to speak freely, plainly, directly; but we do not aim to trample on any one's feelings, or gratuitously to offend the most delicate sensibility. We cannot always commend; we are obliged sometimes to censure; but our readers need not suppose that to censure is more to our taste than to commend. We aim to make our Review Catholic, and as little unworthy of the Catholic community as in our power. Would, both for their sake and for ours, that it were less unworthy still! but we can do no more than we can; and Almighty God can, if he choose, make even a weak instrument mighty for good, and the most powerful, without his blessing, is only an instrument of evil. All rests with him, and on him alone should any of us place reliance.

Some of the Journals which have kindly noticed us seem to have inferred, that we intended to enlarge our Review this year to the size of the Dublin Review. Such has not been our intention, but we hope before a great while we may do it. We are not yet prepared, for we are not as yet sure of assistance enough from contributors to enable us, to do it. Such as it is, we send it forth to the public, and may they receive it with the indulgence with which they have heretofore been in the habit of receiving our well-meant efforts. If it tend in any degree to direct the attention of our countrymen to the great questions it discusses, or if, under God, it becomes instrumental in leading one soul to faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, as manifest in his Church, our labors will be amply rewarded.

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BROWNSON'S

QUARTERLY REVIEW.

APRIL, 1847.

Art. I. - The Two Brothers ; or, Why are you a Prot

estant ? — Continued.

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V. PROTESTANT controversialists are well hit off in Lessing's Fable of the Poodle and Greyhound. 66. How our race is degenerated in this country!' said one day a far-travelled poodle to his friend the greyhound. “In those distant regions which men call the Indies, there is still the genuine breed of hounds, - hounds, my brother, (you will not believe it, and yet I have seen it with my own eyes,) who do not fear to attack the lion and grapple with him.' 'Do they overcome him?' asked the prudent greyhound. Overcome him ! Why as to that I cannot exactly say ; but only think, a lion attacked !' But,' continued the greyhound, if these boasted hounds of yours do not overcome the lion when they attack him, they are no better than we, but a great deal more stupid.'” Only think, the Church attacked ! Attack her boldly, with or without success, and you are sure of the admiration of all — the poodles.

When the infamous Danton was asked by what means the pitiable minority he headed were able to maintain their Reign of Terror and paralyze the millions opposed to them, he answered, — “ By audacity, audacity, AUDACITY.” Protestant leaders understand very well the advantages of audacity, and that, if one is only bold and unprincipled enough to throw out grave charges against the purest and noblest cause which ever existed, he will not fail of multitudes to credit him. Groundless objections, if not susceptible of an easy or a popular refutation, are as much to their purpose as any. They serve to NEW SERIES. VOL. I. NO. II.

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