SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Under this heading we notice such Books of the week as have not been reserved for review in other forme.] Essays. By Rev. H. J. Dudley Ryder. Edited by Francis Bacchus. (Longmans. 9s. net.)—Father Ryder's Essays, thirteen in number, are mostly reprints from the Nineteenth Century, the Weekly Register, &c. One on "Auricular Confession" is published for the first time, as is a critique on Purcell's "Life of Cardinal Manning." The first of these was actually in type, but was kept back at the wish of the author. He wished to add to it, and this the limits of space forbade. The second was not intended for publication. The writer wrote it to liberate his soul. A friend and pupil of J. H. Newman, he refused, with a loyalty which members of other Communions might profitably imitate, to aggravate strife. As a controversialist, when he had to deal with adversaries outside the Roman Church, he could deal very shrewd blows. He always preserves the courtesies of debate, but he sometimes uses argu- ments which seem somewhat strange. When it is urged that Papal prerogatives based on the forged Decretals should bo sur- rendered he replies that Israel never surrendered to Edom what it had gained by Jacob's fraud! Much of his reply to Dr. Littledale is effective enough ; but he could hardly have been easy in respect of some of the extravagances of Mary-worship—Newman certainly was not. His apology goes, it may be said, a long way : " The Church says in fact, 'Area et fac quod vis.'" Imagine this maxim applied to secular matters ! But we will not go into controversy. It is enough to say that we have in Father Ryder a cultured and persuasive champion of causes which we cannot profess to approve.
Previous page
