Theological and Literary Intelligence [pp. 424-427]

1872.] THEOLOGICAL AND LITERARY INTELLIGENCE. 427
Father A. J. A. Gratry, the eloquent philosopher, member of the French
Academy since 1867, died in Switzerland Feb. 5, at the age of 67. Of his
recent controversy on the question of Infallibility, we have elsewhere spoken
He wrote on ~Ae Kmowledge of God, 2 vols.; Knowledge of tke Soul, 2 vols.;
Logic, 2 vols.; Morals and the Law of History; Commentary on Mat thew, 2
vols; ~`ke Philoso~hy of the Credo; The Sorhists and Criticism; Jesus Chris4
a Reply to Renan; Letters on Religion, etc.`Philosophically he may be classed
among the higher Mystics. He revived the Order of the Oratorians of the
Immaculate Conception.
HOLLAND AND BELGIUM.
The Rague Society for the Defence of the Christian Religion. in its last
Programme, announces the following subjects for its prize competition:
1. The Influence of Philosophical Systems on Christian Theology in Holland, since the Reformation. 2. On the Right of Freedom of Conscience,
its Grounds and Consequences. 3. Jesuitism in its Relation to Primitive
Christian Principles, to the Roman Catholic Church, etc. 4. Socialism in
its Relation to Christianity. 5. Confessionalism in the Dutch Reformed
Church. The prize for the best treatise on each topic is 400 guilders.
The Tyler Theological Society of Haarlem proposes the following
fl~emes: 1. The Doctrine of the New Testament on the Prh~itive Constitution of the Christian ~hurch also its Changes and Modifications in
History. 2 The Value of Statistics in Relatiou to Moral Facts and Moral
Science. The prize is a golden medal of 400 guilders.
The Essays on Ihe Political History of the Last Centerie.~, y M. Jules Van
Pi'aet, Minister of the Household of the King of Belgium, took the prize
last year in the quinquennial competition of National History. "Never,
before in Belgian literature has history been treated with so much breadth
of character, and at the same time with such fine and delicate analysis,"
says the Athenaum.
The Genies of Peace is another Belgic work on political science by Chs.
Potvin. M. Quetelet, in a volume entitled Antkropometry, "endeavors to
prove, by a study of the proportions of the human body in different races
his favorite idea of the constancy of all the phenomena of the physical and
social life of man," continuing his "Social Physics."
C. Broere, a Roman Catholic Professor in Holland, wrote in The Catholic
a series of essays on the Return of Hago Grotius to the Catholic Faith, which
ii ave been translated into German (Treves, 1871): the author died in 1860.
This, says the Lit. Centraiblatt, is the only work of any importance on Grotius since Luden's monograph, 1806. But its title is misleading. Grotius
had an ideal church in mind, reformed and truly catholic, with its centre
in Rome; and for this he was sharply attacked hy the Reformed Orthodoxy.
A new edition of the works of Grotius has been for some time in preparation by H. C. Rogge of Leyden.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
The third volume of Dr. Hodge's "System of Theology" is passing
rapidly through the press. It is having a large circulation both here and
in Great Britain.