MISCELLANEOUS LITERATURE. Scenery, Science, and Art; being Extracts from the Note-Book of a Geologist and Mining Engineer. By Professor D. T. Ansted. (London, J. Van Voorst.) Mr. Ansted made excursions into France, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, Sardinia, Algiers, and the United States, chiefly for the purpose of appreciating the mineral riches of those countries; but he adds descriptions of scenery and manners, rather curt and unsatisfactory, and devotes a chapter to judicious observations on the scientific and artistic riches of Madrid. The book is interesting, and usually free from that obtrusive John Bullism which abuses every thing that is not practised by "the great Anglo-Saxon race." But the worthy professor cannot manage to keep a civil tongue in his head quite throughout. "The chief of the old mosques of Algiers," he tells us, "is now a temple devoted to another kind of idolatry. It is the Roman Catholic cathedral." We will hope that, since the British nation has fraternised with the Turk, and discovered him to be the finest of existing men, it will begin to modify its judgment on institutions that it considers to be kindred to the Turkish "idolatry,"-if our learned professor must show his learning by characterising a religion by perhaps the only one bad name that does not belong to it. Retail Mammon, or the Pawnbroker's Daughter, by H. Hayman, M.A., Fellow of St. John's College, Oxford, and author of "Dialogues of the Early Church." (London, Skeffington.) This is a novel of the philosophical kind; at least we suppose so, as the reverend author commences with a discussion of principles," the immense influence wielded by light literature in the present age of readers" (the age of the readers immensely influenced by his literature must be either childhood or dotage,)" cannot fail to strike a mind that reflects for a moment upon current modes of thought. What matters it that the weapon is light, if it pierces the world of opinion to the core?" (not at all, if it does pierce it:) "an endeavour, however humble, to influence its keen active stroke aright, cannot be thought unworthy of those who bear in every age the heaviest responsibility-the appointed ministers of the Church of God." Our author's mode of piercing the world of opinion to the core, is by recounting the history of Lucy Bezant, who enters on the scene as 66 a blue-eyed darling of some five summers old, sitting, or rather squatting on the hearth-rug before a winter-fire, enjoying the society of her doll;" and who is conducted through various scenes of similar interest, till her education is supposed to be completed, and she is fit to be presented as a model woman. When she is brought to this state, Mr. Hayman presents us with the following details of her appearance: "Her figure has a shapely tendency to embonpoint; it seems a sapling swelling to a tree. Her whole face and mien seem purified by praise from sorrow, which yet has left its chastening effects behind." Wherever the effects of Mr. Hayman's chastenings may remain on the person of this poor girl, we submit that it is not good taste to parade them before the public. We feel tempted to write his name Haynau instead of Hayman. In his defence, however, we must own that his heroine fully deserves to be whipped for her slowness, and that it is with alacrity that we accept his concluding invitation, "let us leave her to pour as she may the balm of faith upon the wounds of life," though it is rather cruel on his part to leave her so. He winds up by asking us to do something else, which we must decline for the present, as we don't quite understand how the feat is to be accomplished, "and let us hang up our wallet here on the finger-post of time." The book is a creditable specimen of a literature eminently parsonic and soft, quite worthy of a Fellow of St. John's College, Oxford. 66 The Crimea; the Soldier's Wife. By John St. Clement. (H.G.Clarke and Co.) This is a little penny broadsheet of verses, which deserves notice from the circumstance that its author is a hard-working man, and not a poet" by profession, or a half-idle littérateur. Mr. St. Clement's verses have the attractiveness of honest, unpretending feeling, and are not without their share of that poetic character which truthfulness always confers on the simplest strains. We heartily wish that the broadsheets rife among the working-classes were as healthy and religious in tone as this is. The writer is not a Catholic; but we must remind him that "Plead for me, Jesu," is not a correct expression. Annotated Edition of the English Poets. By Robert Bell.-Works. of Sir Thomas Wyatt and John Oldham. Both of these volumes have an historic as well as poetic interest,-Wyatt as one of the best of the artificial love-makers of the days of Henry VIII., and Oldham as a popular Protestant satirist of the time of the Titus Oates frenzy. In poetical merit Wyatt ranks next to Surrey, and Oldham to Dryden; the latter longo intervallo, but still as a powerful writer. Oldham seems really to have believed in the vulgar delusions of the day, and Wyatt shows of what stuff our 66 reforming" gentry were made. THE PRINTING-PRESSES OF THE ABBE MIGNE. Some Account of a recent Visit to the Printing-presses of M. L'Abbé Migne at Paris, extracted from a private Journal. "I went this morning to the Petit Mont Rouge, beyond the Barrière d'Enfer, to visit the Abbé Migne and his Printing-presses. He was good enough to recollect me, though my two previous visits had been some three years before. I found him in a happy moment of leisure, half an hour after his déjeûné, and before his people returned from their dinner at twelve o'clock. He has just terminated his Cours complet, and is now embarking, with all the inspiration of success, in the Tradition Catholique; his past,' as he said, 'assures him of his future,' and he quoted, looking round on his shelves, St. Augustine's sentence on Prophecy, Impleta cerne, implenda collige. I noted down a few items of his labours. "It is just twenty years since he commenced, single-handed, a simple priest, amidst discouragements, with opprobrium, and even slander. He has now collected together the letters of thanks and testimonies he has received from every part of the world; they fill twelve quarto volumes, and amount to more than 50,000, thus forming a curious collection of autographs. I remarked amongst them letters from Archbishops Affre and Sibour, Cardinal Bonald, Monseigneur Dupanloup, Bishop of Orleans, Cardinal Wiseman, Archbishop Cullen, and Bishops of furthest Asia. The Holy Father has himself imparted to him and his labours the grace of his special benediction. His various employés amount to 335. He has sent forth from his presses works extending to 2000 volumes, each averaging ten volumes of ordinary publication. The actual number of volumes printed I could not get at, nor the quantity of paper consumed, but he promises me some proximate calculation of the 448 The Printing-presses of the Abbé Migne. number of copies distributed; and we obtained an idea by measurement in paces of those remaining in the warehouses, which I will add when verified more exactly. The account-books in daily use weigh 688 lbs., French lbs., which give nearly 53 lbs. more English. His means for all he has done are not the least marvellous part of the Abbé's history. Beyond la bonne volonté, with the devotion of all he could command, his own fortune,' and trust in Providence,' he has made himself a sort of banker, and receives loans, for which he pays 57. per cent in money, or 71. per cent in books. These loans, almost entirely from the clergy, have been hitherto in very small sums; but he has just resolved to decline all amounts under 500 francs, the expenses of correspondence, &c. being so onerous. Think of the poor priests of France, whose professional income is 1200 francs, 481. per annum, lending out their slender provision for old age and sickness to help on this great work; and think what has been thus effected! When I ventured a hint as to risk, Jamais,' he replied, 'jamais aucun de mes billets n'a eprouvé le deshonneur d'un protêt, même dans les jours les plus mauvais.' Another means of obtaining funds is a sort of manufactory of paintings, in oil, of stations for the Via Crucis, and the supply of frames for them; and to these he has now added copies of Marshal Soult's famous Murillo, the Conception. The latter he sells at 700 francs; the Fourteen Stations at 1500 francs. He has never been ashamed of any efforts, condescending with real heroism even to a tradesman's artifices, not disdaining whatever might advance the good work,-for example, offering reduction of price for a greater number of copies taken; abatement for payment in advance on a subscription for a forthcoming series; 290 francs' worth of volumes added for every 1800 francs paid; so many volumes having the privilege of being sent carriage free, with correspondence also free of postage; the right of sending other books from different booksellers in the same paid parcels; premiums to those who procure 600 subscribers; and so forth. Petty details these; but then, what works are thus sent forth, without patronage, without indeed any assistance beyond perhaps the promise in advance of a considerable episcopal subscription for the very books themselves, the largest of which subscriptions is that of Monseigneur Dupanloup, namely, thirty copies of all the works for the several deaneries of his diocese. These episcopal subscriptions, be it said, are most commendable: they are donations from the bishops to the libraries of their diocesan seminaries; and it must not be forgotten that the gate income of all the sixteen Archbishops and seventy-one Bishops of France, falls something short of the revenue of the present Protestant Bishop of London, and exceeds only by a trifle that of the Bishop of Durham, as returned by those gentlemen themselves, and the actual receipts are probably much in excess of what appears in figures. But to continue: the works thus sent forth are, to instance a few, the Fathers in Greek and Latin, 300 volumes quarto, price 1800 francs; a collection of all the Papal Bulls, depuis St. Pierre jusqu'à Pie IX, and all the rescripts and all the sentences of the various congregations, 150 volumes in Latin, 900 francs, quarto; and the Book of Councils, depuis celui de Jerusalem jusqu'à celui de Baltimore! eighty quartos in Latin, 500 francs; then the apologies of the Demonstrations, including in English the works of Bishop Butler (also translated into French) and those of Dr. Chalmers; and then the schoolmen and the great writers of the ninth century; and the collection of ascetic writers, and a choice Hebrew Bible, and three Hebrew or Chaldaic Lexicons; and fifty quartos of Canonists, Devoti, Fagnani, Reiffenstuel, Canisius, Corradus, Bolgeni, Orsi, the works reproduced entire of writers whose names only aggre The Printing-presses of the Abbé Migne. 449 M. Migne has ventured to disinter from the charnel-house of that astute learning, and now decorates them in his title-page as Les Princes de cette Science vitale! Then, of more certain utility, are thirty quartos of Catechisms and Confessions; fifty large volumes of Liturgies, and the Mozarabic in a supplement; then the six folios of Catholic Iconography, with 3000 plates of costumes, portraits, medals, seals, charters, sacred vessels, paintings, statues, vestments, examples of architecture, each with a short but sufficient notice. Á hundred volumes of biography, and forty of philosophy, both in large quarto, are bagatelles in the list. And to conclude, the price of the 2000 volumes, forming nearly 200,000 quarto pages is, to a priest, paying the whole at once and in advance, 7000 francs. The same bought separately, volume by volume, being 15,000 francs, with various intermediate advantages for taking entire publications. "The stock of these works is prodigious: seventeen different companies divide the risk of its insurance from fire. The warehouses form a perfect labyrinth of narrow streets, walled up with blocks of books; and, enormous as is the extent, the arrangement is so perfect that one clerk and two porters have the charge of the whole, and can, even in the darkfor lights are not allowed-find any that are required. I thought, as I walked through the piled-up masses of sheets and volumes, and heard the names—here St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, or St. Jerome, then Erigena, or Duns Scotus, or the Master of the Sentences, or Tertullian and Origen, or Eginhard and St. Gregory; and as I measured by cubic feet the copies of the Summa of St. Thomas,-I thought that such things, here, in Paris, are almost as a resurrection of those mighty spirits, hardly less wonderful than if they had appeared again bodily before us; and what may be their mission, thus evoked and thus sent forth once more, as it were, upon the earth: Is it to leaven the nations, or to witness against them? "The establishment contains within itself almost every thing required: a type-foundry, as well as steam-presses; bookbinding and hot-pressing; and the preparing glazed and satined paper; every thing, in short, except making the paper; which, by the way, is now of a greatly improved quality from that of the earlier imprints. Two thousand volumes could be at any time produced in twenty-four hours by the actual day's work. The different rooms are large and lofty; every thing scrupulously clean and perfect in order and method. The walls are lined with the stereotype plates,-whole volumes of leaden books of some tons weight. The modest apartment of M. Migne is entered through a library containing a single copy of each work he has produced, handsomely bound; this forms his luxury. The excellent Abbé is a bright brisk-looking man of about fifty. We have fallen on very matter-of-fact days; still, I could have wished that he had had something of an ecclesiastical dress, instead of his brown working-coat; and the sound of a bell, and a pause for the Angelus at noon, would have been pleasant, and a prayer at assembling: he himself hears and says Mass daily at the adjoining small church; many of his workmen also attend it. Every day, and all day long, except from eleven to twelve o'clock, when he and his people take their meal, M. Migne is seated in the centre of a sort of raised glass room commanding the whole of the workshops, with about forty secretaries and editors at desks around him. At twelve o'clock precisely he unlocked the door of this room: we had been sitting there alone the last few minutes previously, having entered it from the Abbé's private apartment, and then his fellow-labourers, who were waiting on the stairs below, entered; five minutes of settling down and arrangement, and each was engaged in correcting proofs, collating, and the like, and all in perfect silence. The Abbé himself with scissors and paste began, pour s'amuser, concocting paragraphs for La Voix de la Vérité, a newspaper of two editions, one daily, and the other three times a-week, which he has newly added to his other labours, for ecclesiastical distribution. He also engaged himself on a clerical commonplace book, alphabetically arranged in 640 divisions, each of double columns, with subdivisions for morals, dogma, discipline, &c. I whispered my adieu, and trod gently out, feeling as if I had witnessed some grand institution of the "Ages of Faith" advanced into the nineteenth century, and thinking that the patient old monks, while toiling over their manuscripts in the scriptoriums of those great Benedictine monasteries which so long adorned and blessed France, would have joyfully recognised their meritorious successor in this laborious and virtuous ecclesiastic. They preserved theological learning to our day-he has secured it, and has achieved, single-handed, an enterprise at which all Paternoster Row would stand aghast." Correspondence. THE PHILOSOPHY OF ST. THOMAS. [Though it is not usual with journalists to print in their own columns remarks tending in any way to impugn the correctness of statements (excepting pure matters of fact) which have appeared under their auspices, we have no hesitation in breaking the ordinary rule in the case of the following letter. The subject of the metaphysico-physical opinion's of the schoolmen is one of such great importance, that we are unwilling to avail ourselves of our privilege of being in possession of the field of discussion, so far as to exclude from it remarks or statements which we may not ourselves think correct. In allowing a writer to publish in our pages any thing so unusual as a free criticism on the philosophical theories of the great St. Thomas, we are so fully conscious of the responsibility we incur, that we are anxious to lighten its weight, by allowing entrance to any counter-remarks which do not transgress the limits of controversial courtesy, and which really bear on the questions at issue. At the same time we are bound to state, in justice to ourselves, that though a published free criticism on the medieval philosophics is a novelty among Catholics, in this country at least, we believe it to be one of the highest practical importance in our present position with respect to the world around us. We think that no greater injury can be done to the cause of those who would promote the study of St. Thomas and the schoolmen, as theologians, than any attempt to identify. their philosophical speculations with the truth of Catholicism, or to claim for their modes of reasoning on religious topics any thing more than an historical, as distinguished from a logical and necessary connection. We are sure that the most devoted admiration of St. Thomas as a theologian, is fully compatible with a belief that his metaphysicophysical opinions are sometimes not correct, and that they are inconsistent with one another. The Editor of the Rambler is not, indeed, hereby expressing any opinion of his own as to the correctness or incorrectness of these theories; confining himself to the statement of his conviction that, in the present state of the world, it is of great practical importance that the difference between the authority of the scho |