As Monsignor Barry tells us that the series of letters
collected in The Triumph of Life, or Science and the Soul (Longmans, 10s. 6d.), were planned, and many of them written, over 12 years ago, it is not surprising that their main line of argument now ap- pears a trifle out of date. Though pure determinism is not quite a dead dog yet, it no longer enjoys such robust health as of old ; and the lively castigation delivered by Dr. Barry seems, under present circumstances, almost- to constitute a refined form of cruelty to animals. The strongest feature of his apologetic is his acute criticism of scientific monism ; the most unexpected in a Roman divine, his resort to the pheno- mena of clairvoyance and telepathy as evidence supporting the attack on Materialism ;• the weakest, his tendency to pass over from the domain of logic to that of mere rhetoric. It is no real answer to honest agnosticism to say : Methinks from :latitudes where saints have trodden age after age, your little- huts -in the valley of doubt -become invisible." On the whole, the most valuable and interesting pages are those which bring into play the Monsignor's evident and • subtle under- standing of human character ; his -sense of the depth and mystery of man's life, and his-.sympathetic outlook on the difficulties and weaknesses of that amphibious creature; poised- so uncertainly between two worlds. We look forward to his promised essay on "The Ill-temper of Prophets r ; it will, we are sure, do justice with mercy to a much-tried class of men. * * * *
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