RECENT LIVES OF THE SAINTS.

1. THE most complete life of St. Teresa has hitherto been that of the French writer Boucher, published more than fifty years ago. The author, who followed up his work by a similar biography of the Blessed Mary of the Incarnation, who introduced the Teresian nuns into France, did almost every thing that could at that time be done to make the life perfect. He compared all the existing materials, previous lives by Ribera and others, with the Saint's own works and letters; and he extended his researches so as to give very copious details, in the form of notes, concerning the companions and friends of Teresa. When in our own time F. Bouix came to arrange her letters in chronological order, and to make a new and more accurate translation of these and her other works, which had suffered considerably from liberties taken with them by editors, and were not faithfully represented by the ancient French version of Arnauld d'Andilly,-he made very extensive use of these notes of Boucher. In fact, the work of the latter had only one defect; namely, that it was written before the appearance of the magnificent volume in which the Bollandists have put together all that their patient industry and ample means of research could collect with regard to the great Saint of Avila; and, of course, also before the labours of F. Bouix himself, who by the arrangement of the letters has made the biography of St. Teresa far more easy to write than it was before. But a new edition of Boucher, embodying materials not accessible in his time, and with perhaps some passages rewritten, would be as good a history of the Saint as any one could desire.

It is perhaps fortunate that the writer of the volume before us was not aware of the existence of Boucher's work.† There would then have been the great and natural temptation to give the English reader a translation instead of an original work. We are far from saying that translations should be altogether proscribed. There are some foreign books, and among them some Lives of Saints, that are so perfect in their kind, as to make an independent work in another language not only superfluous, but inexpedient; but such books are comparatively few. Again, if lives of Saints were to be used simply for the purposes of meditation and spiritual reading, it might seem immaterial whether they are put in our hands with the freshness of an original work about

*1. The Life of St. Teresa, of the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Edited with a preface, by His Grace the Archbishop of Westminster. London, 1865.

2. Histoire de la Bienheureuse Marguerite-Marie, Religieuse de la Visitation Sainte-Marie, et des Origines de la Dévotion au Caur de Jésus. Par le Père Ch. Daniel. London: J. Lecoffre.

3. St. Clare, St. Colette, and the Poor Clares. By a Religious of the Order of Poor Clares. Dublin, 1864.

4. A Life of St. Francis of Assisi, with a Sketch of the Franciscan Order. By the same. London, 1864.

Neither Boucher nor the Bollandists are mentioned in the preface as the sources from which the life had been drawn.

them, or without it. But such is not the only use to which the biographies of the Saints may be applied; and we cannot help welcoming the appearance of this volume, as an indication that the time is coming when we are no longer to live entirely upon the charity of our neighbours, and when the words "translated from the French" will become less uniformly conspicuous on the title-pages of Catholic volumes-at all events of biographies. Let the standard works of foreign ascetic and spiritual literature find a home in England, by all means-though as to these we could wish that the current translations were somewhat less uniformly repulsive as to their English than they are. Translation is, in some respects, as difficult as original composition; to turn a French or Italian book into such English as Frenchmen and Italians speak after a moderate study of our language, is not to translate it, but to torture the author's thoughts as much as the language of the reader. But do not let us have translations of every thing, especially of works the chief value of which lies in their matter, which can be easily cast into a new and original form by an English writer.

The great work of the Bollandists, of which we have already made mention, makes it possible to follow, with singular minuteness, the most interesting life of St. Teresa. In consequence of her providential mission as the reformer of the Order of Mount Carmel, she was, during a great many years, a kind of public character, thrown into contact with most of the leading men of the time in Church or State. The abundant details brought together in the volume of which we speak could hardly be crowded into the pages of that which we are now noticing; some of them, however, might have been added with profit. The main outline of the history is accurately given; the characters of the very motley crowd that surround the central figure, the family and friends, the patrons and enemies-priests, seculars, and religious-of St. Teresa are clearly brought out; and the changing fortunes of the enterprise in which the Saint was embarked, so nearly ruined at one time, so triumphant at last, keep up the interest of the book to the very end. The writer of such a life is very fortunate in his subject; fortunate also in having so many materials at his disposal in the writings of St. Teresa herself, which enable him to make her so often tell her own story, and impress his readers with the wonderful beauty and greatness of her character without interference on his part. The present writer has produced a very delightful book, and it is a sincere pleasure to us to chronicle the appearance of so acceptable a contribution to English Catholic literature.

2. The late beatifications have, of course, given occasion to the production or republication of the lives of those who have received fresh honours at the hands of the Church. The name of B. Margaret Mary is perhaps more familiar to us than that of some others who have lately been beatified, on account of her connection with the introduction of the now widely-spread devotion to the Sacred Heart; and her beatification may be considered as a kind of final seal set by the Holy See to that devotion, so hotly resisted at first in the very country in which

Margaret Mary was born. Her life was written, while the heat of the Jansenist controversy was still raging, by Mgr. Languet; and the work of that distinguished prelate has become familiar to English Catholics by having been translated for the series of Lives of Saints published by the late Father Faber. Languet was too much occupied in honourable labours in defence of the truth to write the life of the holy nun with all the calm and repose that became such a work; and the defects of his book, which made it at times tiresome to the reader, have been considered sufficient to justify the attempt to supplant it by an entirely new Life. There were, however, other reasons why Père Daniel should have undertaken the work which now lies before us. A good deal had to be added to the history of the devotion with which the name of Margaret Mary is inseparably connected; and something also as to the condition of the Order of the Visitation at the time at which she joined it. The chapter in which these new topics are handled are among the best in Père Daniel's work; though perhaps we might have desired a little more fulness of detail as to the first of the two points just now mentioned. The whole book is well written and put together, and has thus a very marked literary advantage over that of M. Languet. Perhaps, however, a good deal that is included in the latter will be missed in the present volume by those who might wish to use it simply as a saint's life. It is not that any material incident in the life of Margaret Mary is omitted; but Père Daniel has not been so profuse as his predecessor in the insertion of her letters and compositions, and these must always have the highest value in a work of this kind. Perhaps, in a new edition, room may be found for these documents, without making the volume too unwieldy.

3. The other two works on our list will be found very interesting, not only as lives of the great Saints whose names are placed on their title-pages, but as giving some account of the fortunes and trials of the Franciscan Order, and its recent revival in England and Ireland. With regard to this last head, they contain much information that is not to be found elsewhere.

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Lamoriciere.

CHRISTOPHE-LOUIS-LEON JUCHAULT DE LAMORICIERE was born at Nantes early in 1806. His family was noble, loyal, true to its faith and its sovereign-a true Breton family-such as might be expected to produce good Christians and gallant soldiers. He studied with distinction at the Ecole Polytechnique, and obtained his commission as lieutenant of engineers in 1829. We have met with no anecdotes of his childhood or youth; but a man of about his own age, whose name became afterwards illustrious in the literature not only of France, but of Europe, and who was once his colleague as a minister of the Republic-Alexis de Tocqueville-gave a sketch of him in a letter written in 1828, which may furnish in a few words some idea of what he was at the age of twenty-two: "I was enchanted with him personally. I thought I saw in him all the traits of a really remarkable man. I live habitually with men who are easily satisfied with words. It quite surprised me to see the need of cision, which seems to be an incessant torment to him. The coolness with which he stopped me to make me give account of one idea before he would let me go on to another-which indeed often disconcerted me—and his manner of never speaking of any thing that he does not perfectly understand, gave me a higher opinion of him than I have almost ever formed of any man at first sight.'

pre

Lamoricière's first acquaintance with war was on the soil where he was to win his great military fame. He was employed in the army which conquered Algeria in 1830, under De Bourmont. The first redoubt constructed after the opening victory of Staoueli, on a spot of ground now occupied by the Trappists, was built by him. But he was soon attached to the new corps of Zouaves; and during the many years of his service in Algeria, it was in connection with them that his chief glories were gained. The novel position of the French in Algeria, where every thing had to be created and organised,-where the country had to be conquered and reconquered, under circumstances very trying to European troops, and with active and

* The letter is quoted from the collection of M. Gustave de Beaumont, by M. de Montalembert, in his article on Lamoricière in the Correspondant for October.

VOL. III. NOVEMBER 1865.

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intrepid enemies ever on the watch for an opportunity,—called forth, in a peculiar manner, the energies, the patience, and the ingenuity of the military commanders. They had to fight under new conditions, to be ready for extraordinary perils, to dispense with the usual means and tactics of their profession, to organise and to administer no less than to fight and treat. The African army thus became a new school both for soldiers and officers; and it produced a set of generals who might probably have turned out in no way inferior to the marshals of the First Empire, if political changes and the accidents of life had not removed most of them from the scene without their having had any opportunity of measuring themselves against European armies. Bugeaud, though his name is connected with the greatest achievements of French arms in Africa, hardly belonged to this set of men. Some of them lost their lives in the bloody battles of June 1848 in the streets of Paris,-as Negrier, Duvivier, and Brea; and the success of the coup-d'état sent Cavaignac, Changarnier, Bedeau, and Lamoricière into prison and exile. Those only of the Africans who adhered to the present Emperor of the French had the opportunity of showing their skill and courage in the Crimean and Italian wars. But a higher honour than to command at the Alma or at Solferino was in store for one of these proscribed glories of France.

Although not the first commander of the Zouaves, Lamoricière did more than any one to create that splendid and famous corps; and it is with his name that the French soldier most naturally connects them. His African renown was perhaps more brilliant than that of any other of the great officers we have just named. He possessed immense courage and intrepidity, a chivalrous and venturesome daring worthy of a Breton noble; he had besides great coolness and sagacity, perfect self-command, the power of winning hearts and inspiring absolute confidence, a singular gift of administration and organisation, and an unsurpassed fertility of resource, often drawn upon in those wild African campaigns. He threw himself most completely into the work of conciliating the native inhabitants, as well as conquering them. He became the first head of the Bureau Arabe, instituted to deal with them directly on the part of the government. He made himself master of their language, and was the first to go among the Arabs without a guard and alone. His great personal bravery at the assault of the breach at Constantine rang through France, and made him at once a popular hero: Horace Vernet has painted the scene on the walls of Versailles. There are many other instances of personal valour, such as would have gained him the Victoria Cross in the English army, recorded