The Life of St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori. Translated from
the French of Austin Bertha, and Edited by Harold Castle, M.A. 2 vols. (J. Duffy and Co., Dublin.)—We are conscious of not occupying the point of view from which it is intended that this book should be reviewed. The editor himself, though belonging to the same Order with the author, is manifestly not quite in line with him. M. Bertha, for instance, describing the laxity and indifference which prevailed in the French Church in the eighteenth century, ascribes these things to Jarisenism. Mr. Castle is constrained to remark that Jansenism was rather the outcome than the cause. It was, from one point of view, a reaction against a system which produced a Cardinal Retz in the seventeenth century, and was still vigorous enough to produce a Cardinal Rohan in the eighteenth. The great work of Alphonsus de Liguori was the foundation of the Redemptorist Order. One feels that this was an effort after' reform and quickening of spiritual life ; but it is difficult to be sympathetic, and the story of how the foundation was' brought about, the visions of Maria Celeste Crostarosa, the opposition of rival religionists and such-like, are not always edifying. M. Bertha is touched with the story of how the Madonna made a cake for the nuns who were anxious to provide their director with something for his journey ; but it sounds a little strange to us. The episcopate of the Saint deals • with more familiar topics. He seems to have been the most zealous of Bishops. This part of the biography will be, at least to the outside reader, the most attractive. We must leave un- touched—for, indeed, the subjects are too large for treatment here —the two books by which Alphonsus de Liguori is chiefly known, the " Moral Theology " and " The Gloi:ies of Mary." Neither of them will commend the author to a Protestant reader.
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