Talk About New Books [pp. 891-897]

TALK ABOUT NVEW Booxs.
3.-THE SPIRITUAL LIFE.*
There is something very charming in the clear, simple, and
direct treatment of the inner processes of the soul's conversion
and perfection, given to the English public in this new volume
on the spiritual life. It is very simple, yet at the same time
it is masterful. Like a skilful surgeon, with no flourish of trum pets or any great ado, the author sets to work with the keen,
sharp spiritual scalpel to dissect the various conditions of mind
and states of soul, laying bare one after the other the spiritual
states, and all the time the reader feels that he is looking on
and following a master, one who has made the spiritual life the
subject of his most intimate study.
Many people nowadays are quite satisfied with themselves
if they are able to keep the Commandments, and as a consequence never strive for anything more. These same people
will say that it is hard enough to keep the Commandments,
never for a moment thinking that it is so hard simply because
they never strive to do a little more.
We would recommend for just this class of people the study
of the spiritual life, and as a text-book we know of none more
charming, simple, and direct than this work that Father Donovan has given us.
4.-THE STUDY OF PASTORAL THEOLOGY.t
This book is one of three volumes comprised in a treatise
on Pastoral Theology which has run into its ninth edition within a very short while in Germany. It is not merely a translation from the German, but is rather an adaptation, putting aside
what was purely local in the original book and introducing the
advices and recommendations of the Baltimore Councils. The
English language has been singularly devoid of professional
treatises on Pastoral Theology, and in the curriculum of studies
in the seminary its place has been filled by some lectures by a
professor; yet when we consider the importance of the field it
covers, nothing less than the cure of souls in the external order,
* A Treatise of Spiri-tual Lzfe, leading man by an easy and clear method from the commencement of conversion to the very summit of sanctity. Translated from the Latin of
Monsignor C. J. Morozzo by Rev. D. A. Donovan, O.Cist. Poplar Bluff, Mo.
t The Priest in the Pulpit: A Manual of Homiletics and Catechetics. Adapted from
the German of Rev. Ignaz Schwech, O.S.B., by Rev. Boniface Luebbermann, Professor at
Mount St. Mary's Seminary, Cincinnati. WVith a Preface by Most Rev. William H. Elder,
D.D., Archbishop of Cincinnati. New York, Cincinnati, and Chicago: Benziger Bros.
896