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Show CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA. The sixth volume of the Catholic Encyclopedia has appeared. It contains 800 pages and treats of all subjects embraced between Fathers of the Church and Gregory XI. In a little over a year the last three volumes have made their appearance. Enough of the work has been completed to enable the world of letters to gauge its worth and usefulness, useful-ness, and it has already come to occupy a unique and honored place in the encyclopedic field; unique because it is the only source of information in English Eng-lish on the matters it has made its own, honored, because it represents the highest learning and most painstaking labor of three continents. The intellectual intel-lectual treasures which have been waiting in the rich storehouse of the Catholic church are being poured forth in splendid profusion and the realization of what this means has caused the Catholic Encyclopedia Encyclo-pedia to be placed on the shelves of the public libraries, li-braries, on the priest's library table, in the editor's sanctum, and in the home of the man of affairs. Those who have watched the careful progress of the Encyclopedia and have come to a realization of all that it portends will not wonder at the enthusiasm en-thusiasm with which the press, both religious and secular, has greeted each new addition to its volumes. vol-umes. With hardly a dissenting voice, the literary periodicals of the entire civilized world have spoken in a vein aptly phrased by the Literary Digest in its review of Volume V: "The Catholic Encyclopedia ' impresses us as one of the best of modern reference books. Admirably arranged, comprehensive comprehen-sive in range of subject matter, generally scholarly, dignified, and, so far as comports with conviction, impartial in tone, it is a monument to the wisdom and temper of the church it represents." Some of the subjects treated in the present volume vol-ume are: "France," by Georges Goyau, associate editor of the Revue des Deux Mondes, and "Germany," by Franz Kampers and Martin Spahn, professors of history at the respective universities of Breslau and Strasburg, are the two articles of greatest historical importance in the volume, and, by laying special stress on the events in which the church has been concerned, cast a new and interesting light on the history of the two countries. "French Literature" and "German Literature" are sympathetically treated by Rene Doumic, lately elected to the French Academy, and Arthur F. J. Remy, professor of Germanic Philology at Columbia Colum-bia university. The article on French literature, in particular, is worthy of more than passing no-. no-. ..lice, .as -it-sums, upthe- progress of letters in France better than any work we can recall. Among the many valuable biographical articles, "Fenelon," by Antoine Dcgert ; "St. Francis of As-sisi," As-sisi," by Paschal Robinson; "Garet," by J. II. Pollen; Pol-len; "Ghirlandajo," by Louis Gillet, and "Galileo," by John Gerard, deserve especial notice. The picture pic-ture of St. Francis, drawn by Paschal Robinson, affords af-fords an excellent idea of the great apostle of poverty pov-erty and humility, and the manner in which John Gerard discusses the supposed conflict of church and science is lucid and convincing. "The Liturgical Use of Fire," by II. Leclercq; "Flabellum," by Francis Mershman; "Gallican Rite," by Henry Jenner, and "Gradual" and "Greek Rites," by Adrian Fortescue, are liturgical contributions contri-butions of no mean importance, the last-named summing sum-ming up the differences between the rites of Alexandria. Alex-andria. Antioch and Constantinople. i Under the title "God," P.J. Toner considers the subject both in its theological and philosophical aspect, and, after presenting the classic arguments for the existence of a Supreme First Cause, turns to the- conception of the Deity afforded by Revelation. Revela-tion. "Grace," by J. Pohle, first takes up the nature na-ture of actual grace, and after passing to its properties, prop-erties, closes with a summary of the controversies on the subject, with especial reference to the relationship rela-tionship between grace and free will. "Free will" is considered by itself in another part of the volume by Michael Maher, and is a very clear and able exposition ex-position of a difficult subject. The biblical articles in Volume VI are especially especi-ally happy. The following subjects are well treated in Volume Vol-ume VI: Fetishism, Flagellants, Fools, Feast of, Forty Hours' Devotion, France. Free Will, Galileo, Geography, Biblical, Golden Rose, Grail, Holy. The present volume should induce many to become be-come subscribers. Iso other book published in English Eng-lish will give better or more, reliable information on Catholic subjects. |