PRAYERS AND MEDITATIONS OF THOMAS A BEMPIS.
Thomas (I Kompis's Prayers and Meditations on the Life of Christ. Translated from the text of the edition of Michael Joseph Pohl by W. Duthoit. (Began Paul, Trench, and Co. 5s.)—The translator of this work, who takes what may be termed the orthodox view of the authorship of the "Imitation of Christ," speaks of it as "much more subjective in its form" than that im- mortal work. This is true ; if not so humanly interesting, it is more distinctly ascetic, from the Christian point of view. It is fuller of the ecstasy of monasticism as contained in such almost "epigrammatic" passages as :—" Come, my beloved Jesus, and lead me into the holy city of Jerusalem ; not that Jerusalem which killed the prophets, but that Jerusalem which is above, whose inhabitants dwell together in unity. Ride, I pray thee, upon that foal of an ass, the light and wanton lusts of my flesh, by subduing them with the bridle of continence." Mr. Duthoit has much to say that is profitable of the various translations which have been attempted of this work. He comes to this conclusion : "It seems plain that those who use either Mr. Lee's or Dr, Bettlewell's translation,' hoping to find in it a veritable treatise of Thomas k Kempis, will be disappointed, and that Father
Carre's ' is the only English translation (in any true sense of the word) of the De Vita' which has yet appeared. That work cannot unfortunately be republished, for to revise it without rewriting it would be practically impossible, and to reprint it as it stands would be to print something which scarcely any one would read." What Mr. Duthoit has done, therefore, has been to publish, with careful, discriminating, and not too numerous notes, a translation of the text lately published by Dr. Pohl. The book will be found a very valuable addition to a library of manuals of religious, and especially monastic, devotion.
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