12 SEPTEMBER 1908, Page 25

The Spiritual Ascent. (Burns and Oaths. 2s. 6d. net.)—This is

a devotional treatise by Gerard of Zutphen, one of the brethren of Deventer, and showing very much the same characteristics as are to be seen in the " De Imitatione." I brief Life of the author by Thomas a Kempis is prefixed. We cannot help thinking that there is something inhuman about the picture which is drawn of this eminent saint. That lie died in his thirty-first year, evidently from habitual neglect of his health, is possibjy a merit. But what are we to say of this ?—" When he went across to the church he passed through the streets as if without noticing amen: and being asked if ho were not hindered by the worldlings that went by, he answered, I think it is a herd of swine that passeth me in the road : what is it to me if they have the upright posture of men?'" Compare this attitude with that of Jesus : "But when He saw the multitudes, Ho was moved with compassion on them."