A SONNET FOR MARCH

WHEN blow the winds of March, there comes to me
A dream of far-off years in Holy Land.

There 'mid the hills, I see two figures stand;
A grey-haired man who worketh patiently,
And by his side a Boy-oh, who is He?
Had ever mortal child a mien so grand?
And see! He holds a hammer in His hand
And to the old man turns inquiringly.

What doth He seek to know? Is not this Child
The Uncreated Wisdom, by Whose might
The suns revolve, the stars their courses keep?
Yes, this is He, Boy Jesus, meek and mild,
And holy Joseph turns to guide aright
His little hands. O mystery wondrous deep!

MARY CORBETT.

INTERCHANGE

I ASKED the mountain : "Why art thou so dark?"
The mountain answered: Ask the passing cloud!
I asked the mighty sea, that thundered loud,
"Why art thou changeful?" And it bade me mark
The interchanging sky, now bright, now stark,

And stiff as corpse within its coffin shroud.
I asked the weeping sky: Why hath it bowed
So low, it stifles even the singing lark.

And the sky answered: Ask the valleys low

Whence fog, and mists, and clouds and rain arise.
But I stopped there. My reason could not range
Effect and Cause in one fair, cosmic flow.

I read within the Iris of its eyes-
Nature is but eternal interchange.

P. A. S.

NOTES ON NEW BOOKS

1. Folia Fugitiva: Leaves from the Log-Book of St. Erconwald's Deanery. Edited by the Rev. W. H. Cologan. London R. & T. Washbourne. (Price 5s. net.)

The priests of a deanery in Essex have been in the habit of meeting in conference every month, going beyond their obligations; and on these occasions one of them reads on some ecclesiastical subject a paper which his brethren discuss. This extremely interesting volume is made up of eighteen of these papers, Monsignor Crook contributing six, the editor five, the late Bishop Bellord, Dr. Adrian Fortescue, the Rev. Thomas Gerrard, Rev. Edward Watson, and Rev. Thomas O'Hagan one each. Most of the subjects and the treatment of them will be found pleasant and profitable to clerical readers. Some items would please the general reader, such as the account of the historic old convent of New Hall.

2. The Goud of Divine Love. From the Latin of St. Bonaventure. London R. &. T. Washbourne. (Price 3s. 6d.)

The title page is much more communicative than we have allowed it to be. It gives the original name Stimulus Divini Amoris, adding that it was written in Latin by the Seraphical Doctor, St. Bonaventure; but the editor's preface tells us that Brother James of Milan, about the year 1300, compiled it from St. Bonaventure's writings. Brother Lewis Augustine translated it about 1640; and now, as it was hardly to be found outside the British Museum, the Rev. W. A. Philipson, of the archdiocese of Westminster, has edited it and revised it for publication, changing some obsolete or objectionable words. It is, with all its quaintness, full of piety and unction, urging all the motives for loving God, beginning with the Passion, and therefore furnishing very appropriate spiritual reading for the present season.

3. The holy prelate mentioned in the first paragraph, Dr. Bellord, formerly Bishop of Gibraltar, bequeathed to the Sisters of Mercy, Callan, Co. Kilkenny, the copyright of his two volumes of Meditations on Christian Dogma. The Sisters have issued a new edition, the sale of which is for the benefit of the Missionary School attached to the convent for the training of postulants for convents in missionary countries. Cardinal Moran, Archbishop Bourne of Westminster, the Bishop of Halifax, and Dr. Casartelli, Bishop of Salford, have borne

in writing the strongest testimony to the singular worth and solidity of these Meditations. We quote the opinion of Dr. Brownrigg, Bishop of Ossory :

"From a constant use for some years back of Dr. Bellord's Meditations on Christian Dogma, I feel pleasure in stating that I consider it a most ennobling and elevating work, and that, if read through and meditated on often, it cannot fail to excite our admiration, love, and respect for the great dogmas of our holy faith, while at the same time stirring us up to better, holier, and purer lives. I consider the work unique in the exquisite aptness of its language and explanations of the abstruse mysteries of our faith."

The Sisters of Mercy, Callan, will send the Meditations, post free, for 7s. 6d.

4. Dr. William Stang, Bishop of Fall River in the United States, who e death has just been announced, was formerly professor of theology at Louvain. The summary of moral theology that he then proposed to the students, is now published through Benziger, under the title of Medulla Fundamentalis Theologiae Moralis. It is brief, clear, well-arranged, and admirably printed. The price is four shillings net.

5. In announcing the retirement of General Kelly Kenny from the Army, the newspapers spoke of him as one of the very few soldiers of his rank whose reputation had not suffered in the miserable Boer War. Another Irishman who showed in the same connexion knowledge and courage where others showed the opposite, is Sir William Butler. The author of The Great Lone Land is still as skilful and brave with the pen as he has ever shown himself to be with the sword. Burns & Oates have brought out a new edition of Red Cloud, a Tale of the Great Prairie, price three shillings and sixpence. For us the first chapter at home in Kerry is the most interesting; but boys, for whom chiefly it was written, will find the interest growing more and more intense with every new adventure in the unexplored wilds of Canada.

6. We have often complained of books coming just a little late for some feast or season for which they were specially appropriate. This is not the case with a work published by Messrs. Gill & Son, O'Connell Street, Dublin, for the Rev. W. M'Loughlin, who gives as his address Mount Melleray Abbey, near Cappoquin, Co. Waterford. Not only at Passiontide, however, but at all times we may read with profit The Crucifix the Most Wonderful Book in the World. The lessons taught by our Divine Redeemer are here summarised very effectively,

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with much earnestness and simplicity. The publishers assure us that the book has been printed and bound in Ireland." At that rate we never need go outside Ireland for excellent printing and binding.

7. Longmans, Green & Co., Paternoster Row, London, have issued at the net price of half-a-crown a third revised edition of The Old Riddle and the Newest Answer, by Father John Gerard, S.J., F.L.S. The reputation of this work for brilliancy and solidity is well established, and its diffusion is a blessing in these days when the dogmatism of pseudo-science is so rampant. For such a volume of three hundred pages so finely printed and bound, half-a-crown is a very moderate price.

8. Benziger Brothers of New York, Cincinnati and Chicago, have published in two large and thick volumes, Meditations for the use of the Secular Clergy, from the French of Father Chaignon, S.J., by Dr. De Goesbriand, Bishop of Burlington, in the United States. We think that any priest who has an opportunity of examining these two stately volumes will be anxious to become their possessor, even though the price is fixed at eighteen shillings net. The Bishop of Burlington, in his quite too brief preface, mentions that Father Chaignon's chief employment for thirty years was the conducting of retreats for priests. He was born in 1791, entered the Jesuit novitiate in 1819, and died in 1883. The present work has gone through some twenty editions in their original French, and has been translated into several European languages. It has contributed and will contribute to the sanctification of thousands of priestly souls, on whom depends the salvation of so many millions of souls.

9. The second quarterly part (October, November, December, 1906) has appeared of Roman Documents and Decrees: a Collection of Apostolical Letters and Encyclicals, etc., and Decrees of the various Roman Congregations, edited by the Rev. David Dunford. It is sent post free for four shillings a year, which we advise our reverend readers to send at once to the publishers, R. & T. Washbourne, Paternoster Row, London. The size of the page, etc., has been chosen very judiciously for binding, and the volumes of the series will be well worth binding.

10. Messrs. Burns and Oates have brought out in a very pleasant form a new edition, price 3s. 6d., of Mrs. Innes Browne's Honour without Renown, which is a successful continuation of her first tale, Three Daughters of the United Kingdom. They have also issued a new and enlarged edition of Mr. John Carroll's Drawing of Foliage, Flowers and Fruit. There are twenty-four VOL. XXXV.-No. 405.

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reproductions of photographs from nature, and forty examples of "Floriated Design." The price is only half-a-crown.

II. A Tuscan Penitent: the Life and Legend of St. Margaret of Cortona. By Father Cuthbert, of the Order of St. Francis, Capuchin. London: Burns and Oates. (Price 4s. 6d. net).

This neat volume consists of two parts. Father Cuthbert tells, in seventy out of three hundred pages, the story of the Penitent of Cortona in the modern style, critical and chronological; and then he gives the legend of the saint as told with much unction and simplicity by a contemporary Franciscan, Fra Giunta. Our contemporary places very aptly on the lips of St. Margaret that word of the repentant queen in Idylls of the King, "I must not scorn myself; He loves me still."

12. St. Joseph: Leaves from Father Faber. Collected and arranged by the Hon. Alison Stourton. London: R. & T. Washbourne. (Price Is.)

The saintly and brilliant founder of the London Oratory was tenderly devoted to St. Joseph. Miss Stourton has gathered from his writings, especially Bethlehem, the passages concerning the Foster-father of our Divine Redeemer. The dedication is For several Josephines. This holy booklet is just in time for March, the month of St. Joseph.

13. The Catholic Truth Society of London has reprinted in a penny pamphlet, under the title of Plain Words on Church and State in France, two admirable articles which appeared in the Saturday Review for August 18th and December 15th, 1906. "They show the view of the present crisis which is taken by a clear-headed and fair-minded non-Catholic journal.' The Chicago namesake of that parent Society publishes The Religious Crisis in France by Mr. William J. Onahan, who condenses into sixteen pages the history and present aspects of the struggle that is going on in France.

14. Perhaps we have already called attention to a novel French school book, or rather a novel method of teaching French -Word Pictures in Rhyme: Causeries Rimées), by S. Christine Boyd, late Inspector in Modern Languages and Oral Examiner in French for the Civil Service in Natal. It is published by Mr. John Murray, the great publisher of Albermarle Street, London, finely printed, and with many amusing illustrations. Some who have put into practice the method here described report excellent results.

15. Messrs. Burns and Oates announce an interesting booklet for St. Patrick's Day-the life of the saint told in verse for children by Katharine Tynan with pictures by L. D. Symington. We hope the painter will prove himself equal to