RETREATS FOR THE PEOPLE.
Retreats for the People. By Charles Plater, S.J. With a Preface by the Bishop of Salford. (Sands and Co. 5s. net.)—The writer of this book says that it is "a sketch of a great revival." All over Europe and in America the Roman Church is organizing "retreats," and the Anglicans are copying a good example. For a few days men and women of every class of society are urged to retire from their ordinary life and to lead in common a life of religious recollection. In some places "retreat houses" have been built : more often colleges, monasteries, and private individuals lend accommodation for those who desire what our author calls "a dose of calm." " Directors" preside, as a rule, at these houses of quiet—indicate subjects for meditation and give addresses. A Protestant reader will perhaps kick against the thought of so much ecclesiastical guidance ; at the same time he cannot but ho impressed by the accounts given both by business men and by working men of the mental and spiritual good they have obtained "in retreat." Oddly enough, " retreats " seem to be specially appreciated by overworked men of affairs in New York. The whole subject has a singular fascination, and suggests that methods directly opposed to those of the most conspicuous modern revivalists are finding a response in an age of supposed secu- larism.
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