The Library of Spiritual Works for English Catholics (Rivingtons) is
intended to contain a series of the greatest devotional works of the " Catholic " class. A significant passage in the advertisement marks a change in the way in which some of these books are now regarded :— " It has been a common complaint of late that translations have been marred by the absence of parts of the originals, the exclusion of which a more intelligent view of Catholic devotion in the present day has rendered unnecessary. In these editions the omissions have been, to a certain extent, supplied ; yet at the same time, any turn or expression which may come under the imputation of being 'un-English' has been reduced, so far as may be without destroying the thought, to its equiva- lent in Anglican phraseology and belief." We have before us five of these works,—The Spiritual Combat, together with The Supplement and the Path of Paradise, by Laurence Scupoli ; The Spiritual Letters of S. Francis de Sales ; Of the Imitation of Christ ; The Bidden Life of the Soul, a work founded on the writings of Jean Nicholas Gron, a French priest, who emigrated to England during the Terror, by the author of "A Dominican Artist ;" and Keble's Christian Year. Two editions are before us, "the Red-line Edition," enclosed in a very elegant and con- venient case ; and a cheap edition, in limp cloth.
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