With such ideas of revelation, it is not to be wondered that the meetings of "gentlemanly" Quakerism are sometimes like the following:

86 Travelling through South Wales, we were told one Sabbath morning that there was a Friends' meeting held in the house of a Friend, and that it was according to law, a registered place of worship. We resolved to attend it, and went there; it was a gentleman's comfortable house, surrounded by a small well-kept lawn and gardens. The owner, his wife, and brother, constituted the usual assembly. We were cordially welcomed at the door, as an acceptable addition to the meeting. The drawing-room, a very elegant apartment, light, cheerful, and decorated with numerous articles of taste and vertu, was the meeting-room. The lady retired for a few moments, and returned with her Friend's bonnet and shawl on, her husband then slipped down stairs, and came back with his hat on. Then we all sat down, and dropped into silence.' It had not continued five minutes, when the owner of the house got fidgetty, and jumping up, said, 'I do not think we can manage a silent meeting well. Shall I read a chapter in the Bible?' We all assented, and he laid on the beautifully inlaid table a magnificent copy of the Holy Scriptures, from which he read two chapters and a psalm; a two-minutes' pause succeeded, and then he turned round on his chair, and gravely shook hands with me. Meeting was over, and we began to chat; he insisted we should remain and dine with him, as he said Friends always did when they attended that meeting. And his wife proposed a walk, which we all enjoyed very much; the day was fine, and the scenery quite new to me; the mountain-air invigorating, and our companions intelligent and exceedingly agreeable. The lady laughingly told me that she always put on her bonnet, and her husband his hat, when sitting in their drawing-room-their make-believe meeting-house, on first-days-but,' said she, it would not feel like a Friends' meeting unless we had on those appendages of our Society.' She told me that her husband had subscribed several hundred pounds for the building of a large church, which was quite near them; that she often thought it would be more sensible to go there to worship; that the minister was a valued friend of theirs, and that they could not see any thing wrong in the service of the Church; but that, as it would expose them to so much annoyance from the Society, they kept on the old way; sitting silent first with hat and bonnet on, for the name of the thing, and then reading the Bible for edification.'

Besides abundance of other stories of a similar complexion, the ex-Quakeress makes other and still heavier charges against her former associates; whether they are true or not, we cannot say. In her preface she positively asserts the rigorous truth of her whole book, and protests that if "Friends" assert that she has even coloured her pictures too highly, she will publish

her own name, with the exact names of all parties concerned, with the place and time of each circumstance. Whether they will venture to call on her to fulfil her threat time will shew.

SHORT NOTICES.

Dr. Pagani's Life of Dr. Gentili (Richardsons) is one of the most interesting books which has for some time past issued from the English Catholic press. The memory of Dr. Gentili will long be held in grateful and affectionate remembrance, in connexion with the present eventful epoch in the history of Catholicism in England. So rapid, indeed, have been the changes which have taken place in certain details of our religious practices, that it is already difficult to believe that to Dr. Gentili is owing the first regular introduction of public spiritual retreats in our great towns and cities. For the same reason also, it is not easy to estimate the precise degree of general influence which the presence and labours of Dr. Gentili exercised amongst us. Whatever, however, be the precise judgment of the future historian, it is certain that a most distinguished position in the missionary band must be ever assigned to the subject of this memoir.

Dr. Pagani has executed his task-by no means an easy onewith much judgment and skill, and has succeeded in presenting a life-like portrait, not a little attractive. His work is a biography, and not an indiscriminate eulogy; and few readers will rise from it without a warm admiration and hearty respect for the singular genuineness and single-mindedness of Father Gentili, and a deep veneration for him as a Christian and a missionary priest. The specimens which are given of his powers as a spiritual guide, in a short selection from his letters, will bear comparison with the writings of some of the most celebrated of ascetic authors. The biographer may be further congratulated on his free and idiomatic use of the English language, barring some occasional blemishes, which might easily be corrected in a second edition. We should also suggest the omission of the greater number of the letters and "testimonials," as the biographer terms them, which are printed at the termination of the volume.

The Catholic Florist (Richardsons) is a little work at once graceful and religious in idea, and satisfactory in execution. It furnishes a large variety of hints for the cultivation and use of flowers for the altar and other Catholic purposes, illustrated with a copious and well-chosen selection of verses. For the sake of its author, and for its own merits, we shall be glad to see it in extensive circulation. An interesting preface is prefixed by Mr. Oakeley, bringing out the Christian uses of flowers with his accustomed delicacy of perception and happiness of style. The popular "Protestantising" of the names

of many flowers, Mr. Oakeley has, however, somewhat exaggerated. From a list he gives of old Catholic names, which he believes to be now abolished, we could name several with which we have been familiar in the mouths of Protestants for the last five and twenty or thirty years. The change, we suspect, has been quite as much through the prevailing taste for Latin names as from an anti-Catholic spirit; as we heard the other day of a country clown near an agricultural college in Gloucestershire saying to a stranger, "We used to call this here Flint, but now we calls it Zoilex" (Silex).

The first volume of a translation of Didron's Christian Iconography has appeared in one of Mr. Bohn's now numerous "libraries,” with faithful transcripts of the many illustrations of the original work. The book is curious and instructive in a high degree, and exhibits the history of Christian art as an expression of religious doctrine and feeling, from the earliest times till the sixteenth century. The author's acquirements are far above those of ordinary artistic and ecclesiological antiquarians, and his knowledge of the particular branch of religious history (for so it may certainly be called) of which he treats is wonderfully extensive. We do not, of course, pledge ourselves to an agreement with all his views; but the book may be strongly recommended as of very great value, and full of interesting information even to the general reader. The cuts are well executed, and the price moderate. The whole will be completed in two volumes.

Cecile; or, the Pervert, by the author of "Rockingham" (Colburn), is a clever one-volume novel, shewing up the absurdities of the late "papal aggression" furor. The author possesses considerable skill in the delicate delineation of character, and there is hardly a personage in his story who is not, as we say, well done. Cecile herself, a Cathclic, is made, it is true, to talk occasionally not a little nonsense by way of Catholic doctrine; but with this drawback, the story is as lively and truthful a sketch as ordinary fiction usually presents. Its fault lies in the conduct of its conclusion, which is huddled up in a most hasty and awkward fashion.

Whoever may be the author of The Excellence of Melody and The Music of the Ancients (Richardsons), he manifestly knows more of the idea of music than of the reality. His pamphlet is a collection of scraps from old and out-of-the-way authors, and his moral is, that it is immoral to sing in parts.

The translation of Father Seraphin's Reflections on the Passion (Dolman) will be acceptable to many of our readers. The author is one of the most distinguished Italian Fathers of the Apostolical Passionists, and his meditations have attained a well-deserved popularity in his own country. They form a complete series of subjects for daily use, characterised by that devout love for our Blessed Lord, and reverent study of the every detail of His adorable sufferings, which is the Christian's greatest happiness.

Miss Agnes Stewart, a lady alreadyfavourably known as the author of several Catholic tales, has published, partly by subscription, a set of stories on the Sacraments, under the title of The Seven Lights of the Sanctuary (Richardsons). They will add to her previous reputation; and we trust she may find their sale fully adequate to their merits. A few particulars of Miss Stewart's history some time ago appeared in the Tablet, and those who remember them will gladly join with us in recommending her little volume to their friends.

Mamma's Stories (Richardsons) are a series of stories from the Bible, for very young children. They are well told, and will be found very useful.

We are glad to see a well-executed translation of Fenelon's admirable Sacred Reflections for Every Day of the Month, with other meditations, &c., by a Priest of the Institute of Charity (Richardsons); and trust that the translator may be encouraged to fulfil the intention he expresses of publishing a further and larger selection from Fenelon's correspondence.

Mr. Langdon's translation of Father Lacordaire's celebrated Conferences in the Cathedral of Notre Dame (Richardsons) will form three handsome volumes. Their rare merit is well known.

We call the attention of our readers to Wetzer and Welte's Kirchen - Lexicon, or Encyclopædia of Catholic theology and its auxiliary sciences, seventy-six numbers of which have reached us. The contributors, being upwards of a hundred in number, include almost all the most distinguished German Catholic theologians. It has the approbation of the Archbishop of Freiburg, Breisgau, where it is published, and is to be finished in eight volumes octavo. The present is really a second edition; and as it only commenced in 1850, there is every reason to expect it will be speedily completed. Its articles have all the writers' names affixed, and appear to us, where we have consulted them, to combine sound theology with a critical spirit. The matter is compressed, the type and paper good; and the whole work appears likely to be acceptable-to the student for its references, as well as to the general reader for its convenient arrangement.

Two more excellent Tracts, The Religion of Catholics the Worship of Jesus, and Devotion to Saints and Angels, have been added to the Clifton Tracts.

Mr. Dalton's Translation of St. Teresa's Life of herself (Dolman), and Mr. Morris's learned treatise On the Incarnation (Toovey), must be reserved for future notice.

Ecclesiastical Register.

DECREE

OF THE BEATIFICATION OR DECLARATION OF THE MARTYRDOM OF THE VEN. SERVANT OF GOD JOHN DE BRITTO, PRIEST PROFESSED OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS.

[Translation.]

THE Society of Jesus having been particularly destined by its holy founder to go through the entire world, and to preach the Gospel to every creature, it is to fulfil this mission that its children straitly bind themselves by their fourth vow, devoting themselves to confess the Son of Man before men, and surrendering even their life among the infidels, in order to gain those wretched beings to Jesus Christ, after having delivered them from their blindness, and thus to beget new sons unto his Church. Among these heroes of the first-fruits of the martyrs offered to God by the Society among the Japanese nations, the Ven. John de Britto made himself justly remarkable, who was born at Lisbon of an illustrious race, and was admitted in his early youth among the pages of Pedro II., King of Portugal.

But the pious education which he had received, and the integrity of his manners, speedily induced him to retire from the court, and, by way of prelude to the science of the saints, having scarcely reached the age of fifteen years, he entered into the Company of Jesus. He had not yet been promoted to the priesthood; but he was already ripe for the sacred ministry, when, burning with a desire of participating in the mission of the Indies, and happily fulfilling all the conditions required for that work, he was sent into the province of Malabar, to Madura, a holy expedition so fruitful in labours and in sufferings of every kind. There, this evangelical labourer, after having, during thirteen years, converted numerous idolaters, and baptised thousands of persons, found, by the orders of the Rajah of Madura, a hard captivity, which he bore with an incredible constancy of soul, thereafter to endure frightful torture and banishment. He then returned into Europe by order of his superiors.

He there accomplished with great energy all with which he had been charged for the needs of those missions, and hastened to return to Malabar, where he resumed his apostolical labours with an increase of zeal. He obtained new and numerous conversions, in consequence of which having been brought before the tribunal of the same tyrant, he openly confessed the faith of Christ, and despising the magnificent offers which were made to him, to induce him for once to invoke the name of the idol, without being terrified at menaces, without yielding to blows, he was condemned, out of hatred to the faith, to be beheaded; and consequently endured martyrdom on the day before the nones of February, in the year 1693. The fame of the holiness of this most illustrious martyr having been spread abroad through the Indies, and God confirming it by miracles, the Ordinary of Madura in the first instance, and on his example those of Cochin-China and of Goa, prepared judicial informations, to which having added all that is customary, a preparatory meeting of the Congregation of Sacred Rites was held on the calends of July, in the year 1738, in the palace of the reporter, the Most Reverend Cardinal of San Clemente, to examine the dubium:--An constet de martyrio et causâ martyris in casu et ad effectum de quo agitur.