New Publications [pp. 852-860]

vNew Publications.
children of the saint shall shout with him in
rapturous voice before the Eternal Throne."
LEGENDS OF THE WARS IN IRELAND.
By Robert Dwyer Joyce, M.D. I vol.
I2mo, pp. 352. Boston: James Camp bell. I868.
This handsome little volume is, we be lieve, the first contribution of Dr. Joyce
to Irish-American literature since his
arrival in this country. We have read
several of his sketches, years ago, in the
Irish periodicals, and one of them, the
"Building of Mourne," appeared in one
of the first numbers of this magazine.
The stories Dr. Joyce has collated in
this volume are told in an easy, racy
style, and make pleasant reading for a
winter's evening. They please us better
than the majority of the sketches and
stories about Ireland which have fre quently appeared here and in England,
as they are, with a few exceptions, free
from that exaggeration of plot and detail
which take away the moral effect of too
many of the so-called legends. The
book contains the following stories: A
Batch of Legends; The Master of Lis finry; The Fair Maid of Killarney; An
Eye for an Eye; The Rose of Drimmagh; The House of Lisbloom; The
White Knight's Present; The First and
Last Lords of Firmoy, The Chase from
the Hostel; The Whitethorn Tree
The White Lady of Basna; The Bridal
Ring; The Little Battle of Bottle Hill.
VERSES ON VARIOUS OCCASIONS. By
John Henry Newman, D.D. London:
Burns, Oates & Co. For sale at the
Catholic Publication House.
Dr. Newman has conferred a longexpected favor upon many friends in
the collection and publication of his
poems under the present form. Those
who have known and honored his course
will appreciate the thoughtfulness which
prompted him to subjoin the dates of
their composition, as also the names
of places where they were written.
To such also those poems will, of
course, be of the greater interest, which
are, in fact, the sighs of his troubled
heart as God led him step by step to ward the church. These were composed
between I830 and I833, and make up a
large part of the volume. In the Apolo gia we get an insight into the trials of
his mind, as he faithfully held fast to
truth, and fought for it, even against his
own, for conscience' sake. Here we
look into his heart, and witness the com munion of his spirit with God. Dr. New man had many to doubt the sincerity of
his course, the purity of his motives, and
the singleness of his purpose. Who
can read these spoken thoughts, spoken
rather to God than to man, and doubt him
still? We cannot refrain from tran scribing one already well known, which
is remarkable for the expression it con veys of the deep emotions of his soul
at a time when his mind was torn with
anxious doubt concerning the truth of
Anglicanism. He felt, as most con verts feel in their journey to the Home
of Faith and Truth, that they are on the
way to a promised land, led by the cloud
of desolation that God raises in the
desert, and yet know not where that
Home is nor of what sort or fashioning
it may be. The poem we allude to is
entitled,
"THE PILLAR OF THE CLOUD.
"Lead, Kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom,
Lead thou me on!
ThIe night is dark, and I am far from home Lead thou me on
Keep thou my feet; I do not ask to see
The distant scene-one step enoughl for me.
"I was not ever thus, nor prayed that thou
Shouldst lead me on,
I loved to choose and see my path; but now
Lead thou me on!
I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears,
Pride ruled my will; remember not past years.
"So long thy power hath blest me, sure it still
Will lead me on,
O'er moor and fen, o'er crag and torrent, till
The night is gone:
And with the morn those angel faces smile
Which I have loved long since and lost awhile."
We think some one has said-and if
not, we say it ourselves-that the next
difficult thing to writing a book is to
give it a name. What every one has not
failed to notice, who is conversant with
the sermons of Dr. Newman, we find
equally true of these poems, the felicity
of his choice of titles. It is the touch
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