23 FEBRUARY 1867, Page 20

Three Phases of Christian Love. By Lady Herbert. (Bentley.)— Lady

Herbert has done well to bring the life of St. Monica, the mother of St. Augustine, before the English public, though the French bio- graphy which has here been tranalated does not seem to us "admirable both in feeling and expression." We have not space to enter into the. reasons which influence our verdict. As a general rule, French lives of saints are not healthy or hearty. But whatever may be our objections- to the tone of much of this life of St. Monica, the story itself has so deep an interest that we pass by the peculiarities of the French narrator. We cannot say the same of the other two lives, one of which serves Lady Herbert as an excuse for bringing in her much debated censure. of modern girlhood. It would have been better if she had left modern girls to profit by the teaching of such a life as that of St. Monica, and. had not insisted on their want of resemblance to her other heroines.