The Complete Works of St. John of the Cross. Translated
from the original Spanish by David Lewis, M.A., with a Preface by Cardinal Wiseman. (Longmans, 1864. Two volumes.)—These works comprise a prodigious development of ascetic and anchoretic media3val doctrine, the re-publication of which we should have ascribed rather to anti- quarian curiosity than any ethical motive, if we were not prevented by the serious tone of the preface and the absence of an ordinary historical. or biographical introduction. To shut the mind agaitst all human knowledge and affection, and devote it to the meditation, or ultimately contemplation, of the Deity, is the object everywhere inculcated by the author, and recommended through a wild and incoherent allegorical interpretation of Biblical language, especially in the comments on a poetical canto from the Song of Solomon. The method of arguing, if not the conclusions, will be familiar to the readers of Swedenborg, who is incidentally mentioned by the Cardinal to show that there are dreamers even "in the less enthusiastic sects." This is no very digni- fied apology ; but valeat quantum.
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