St. Augustine : his Life and Times. By the Rev.
R. Wheeler Bush. (Religious Tract Society.)—We cannot speak highly of Mr. Bush's handling of this great subject. He seems to have had an idea of writing down to his readers. He moralises, draws lessons, makes reflections which one might safely be left to make, if necessary, for oneself, and is generally aggravating to a reader who wants to hear as much as possible about Augustine, and as little as may be about any one else. Now, Mr. Bush fully recognises the transcendent merit of the "Confessions." With the " Confessions " at his hand, what does the biographer want ? Of course, the whole book cannot be given "raw," so to speak, to the general reader; but the more of it that is given, and with the less admixtnre of comment, the better. Still, there are points on which a word of comment would not be un- reasonable. The conduct of Monica when she excluded her son from her house demands some such word. When he was living in open sin —nominally a catechumen, but practically an infidel—she welcomed him ; when he became a Manichean she broke off all intercourse with him. This is curiously unlike Christianity as we understand it now. The most valuable part of Mr. Bash's work is the review of the theology of St. Augustine. We welcome the language which he uses about predestination. May we ask why, on p. 10, Lady Herbert is quoted as an original authority about the life of Monica ? "'She used,' it has been said, almost superhuman efforts to soften the hearts of the uncongenial inmates of her home.'" "It has been said," it seems, by Lady Herbert, in her "Life of St. Monica."
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