THE FLOWING TIDE.
The Flowing Tide. By Madame Belloc. (Sands and Co. 6s.) —This book is written to prove that Catholicism is increasing in England, reviving on the Continent, and spreading all over America. To our mind, the writer succeeds in proving none of her points. Nevertheless, if we forget its title and purpose, the book is worth reading. It is not a picture of the flowing tide of religious thought, but it contains some interesting sketches of life in a religious backwater. The writer tells us nothing new about Newman or Manning, or any of the great English converts. The chapters devoted to them and to "The Literature of the Catholic Revival" aro very commonplace. On the other hand, the accounts of the lives of Jeanne Jugan —a maid-servant in Brittany who founded the community of the "Little Sisters of he Poor "—and of Mother Margaret—also originally a servant, the reviver in England of the Order of Dominican Nuns—are charming reading. Jeanne Jugan is a type of feminine Christian piety to be found only in the Roman Communion. The present High Church Movement in England delights Madame Belloc, who argues from it a speedy return of the Eng- lish people to the Roman fold. She describes our ritualistic ser- vices and our Anglican convents—such as Clewer —forgetting that ritualistic practices are struggled for by clerics only, and that these religions houses are filled by women. To the English layman sakerdotalism will remain, as we believe, a stumbling-block. It is easy to quote strings of names of Roman converts from the pro- fessional and aristocratic classes,—among the thoughtful every religion and irreligion can count its converts. Such people do not represent the nation. The ordinary church-goer is more attracted by ceremony than he was, but he knows very little about symbolism. He likes a beautiful service, not because he has Roman leanings, but because his standard of life, amuse- ment, and worship has altered for the more luxurious, the less monotonous, the more ornate. He likes spectacular effect, whether at church or at the play, but he does not confuse religion and ritual any more than he confuses Shakespeare and scenery. The most widely read religious books during the whole of Mr. Kensit's noisy crusade have been Mr. Sheldon's stories, and these take no account of ceremonial or ecclesiastical matters, but accept without comment the very few fundamental dogmas of Protestantism as a necessary pedestal on which to exalt the figure of Christ. The balk of English church-goers have one theory of religion, and that is the imitation of Christ. We think Madame Belloc builds false hopes on the revival of ritual both here and in America ; she mistakes for change of creed what is in the ordinary layman a change of taste.
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