3 DECEMBER 1910, Page 67

Stars in the Twilight. By Mary H. Debenham. (National Society.

2s. 6d.)—This is a story of Roman Christianity in the fourth century. The " Stars " are the members of a Christian community of the conventual kind which was established on the Aventine. The book gives a vivid picture of various contending influences and beliefs in the Rome of the time; no one should object to the presenting of the good aide of the ascetic life. Miss Debenham should not have made a man of the Royal British race speak of the Empress Helena as one of similar parentage. That was a later fable invented when men were ill content to acknow- ledge that this distinguished Christian lady was the daughter of an innkeeper of Antioch.