Books
Shuster, George N. & Purcell, Richard J.
192 THE COMMONWEAL December 23, 1925 BOOKS BOOKS ON MIRACLES OF BOOKS on this subject and of short accounts of special cases there is no lack, and it would be impossible to set down...
...Belloc very rightly points out, come about through Lourdes, for Lourdes is a big fact and one that cannot be eluded...
...Probably none better can be recommended than the work entitled Lourdes, by Johannes Jorgensen, translated from the original Danish into English by Ingeborg Lund with an admirable preface by Mr...
...Listen to this from a prayer "for the Evening:" "O Lord, forgive mee my sinnes, which are more infinite than the starres, and more heavie than if mountaines lay upon my bosome...
...The case of de Rudder, and most properly so, is the case on which a champion of miracles may "declare to win" for it is quite inexplicable on ordinary lines...
...Grant, O Lord, that the Sun may not go down upon my wrath...
...1914...
...And these birds, as well as their habits, symbolize faculties and duties of the human soul in its race for the "crown of heavenly blessedness...
...F. J. Bayer's work and the excellence of this English translation by E. M. Lamond, with its preface by Father Herbert Thurston, SJ...
...And further the perfect good faith of the place is now admitted by all respectable witnesses of all shades of opinion...
...Colum's sympathetic manner: the result being a highly entertaining volume...
...Foure Birds of Noahs Arke, by Thomas Dekker...
...We can't write it these days...
...It is not easily available, nor is its wealth of material readily accessible...
...Letters from afield appeared in secular and Jesuit reviews...
...The Jesuit Relations, edited by Edna Kenton...
...A book of such quality is truly a literary and spiritual treasure...
...The Jesuit was everywhere...
...Naturally the older works may be neglected, for many of them were quite uncritical and therefore are useless at the present day when the angle of conflict has quite changed from what it was some fifty years ago...
...Hence the value and utility of Dr...
...A. Marchand, for so many years head of the medical bureau at Lourdes where all cases are investigated...
...He was seen by Dr...
...He did very earnestly propose to give the public a number of fervent petitions phrasing the most necessary wants and requirements...
...Second Edition...
...In scholarly volumes, later in general histories, finally in text books and in the films, the heroism of the lonely Jesuit of the forests in extending God's kingdom, serving Our Lady of the Snows, and broadening the empire of the Bourbons has been made known to readers of every class...
...1916) may be recommended as very complete...
...The style is vivid, simple, unadorned, and straight-forward...
...and the official expulsion of the Jesuits and their abandonment of the field, 1763 to 1789...
...192 THE COMMONWEAL December 23, 1925 BOOKS BOOKS ON MIRACLES OF BOOKS on this subject and of short accounts of special cases there is no lack, and it would be impossible to set down anything like a complete list...
...Especially has the story of Jesuit labors, sufferings, martyrdoms, and explorations been related by Protestant and Catholic historians...
...Wilson—meet with favor among the learned and pious...
...The defense then has to be directed in the real combat to this attack...
...Dekker at his prayers was very much of an individualist...
...This is one of the most remarkable of all the Lourdes cures, but to the surgeon much more remarkable than to the layman...
...Hence there is the tang of the forest and the odor of the wigwams where so often the accounts were written surreptitiously to avoid the superstitious hostility of the savage to quill and note book...
...Incidentally let there be appreciation for the labors of nonCatholic scholars in writing Catholic history—and much American Catholic history in the southwest as well as in the north has been and is being written by them—though at times their vision appears dimmed...
...but to read it slowly and with gusto is to experience, as did Charles Lamb, the rivalry of antiquity...
...BRIEFER MENTION The Book of the Popes, by Dr...
...The Oxford Book of Portuguese Verse, compiled by Aubrey F. G. Bell...
...In his Name doe I sue for a pardon...
...The Foure Birds (of Noahs Arke)," he tells us, "have taken foure several flights...
...A few years later new narratives and letters found in Laval University archives appeared in the Journal of the Jesuits, edited by Abbes Laverdiere and Casgrain# About 1891 their work was reprinted as the old edition was exhausted...
...1 HE story of the Popes is the story of modern Europe, the beginnings of its civilization, its government and culture...
...Possibly better fortune may greet the reissue...
...Thus in them we escape from the constant annoyances of a translation of a technical work made by a technically untrained translator...
...Yet such a collection is of little value to schools and general readers...
...This was followed by Shea's edition and by additional materials published by O'Callaghan and by Father Martin...
...They popularized Canada, the fur-trade, and the missions and gave the nation a zest for empire and colonization...
...He was at his best when framing orations for the use of husbandmen and mariners, mothers and soldiers...
...1914...
...That it is an authoritative work is proved by the fact that its author is Dr...
...The Forge in the Forest...
...Richard J. Purcell...
...le Bee, whose patient he had been for a long time, just before he made his grumbling exit from Paris for the shrine...
...As a general introduction to the subject Introduction a l'fitude du Merveilleux et du Miracle, par Joseph de Tonquedec (Paris: Gabriel Beauchesne...
...Of course there are side skirmishes which confuse the ignorant such as the sapient statement made by an Anglican clergyman and fostered by some wandering continental bishop of the same denomination, that the apparition at Lourdes was really the bien aimee of a soldier who induced her to pose in the niche...
...These tales have, generally speaking, a classical or oriental origin, and decked out in the Gaelic imaginings of Mr...
...Oxford: The Clarendon Press...
...1920) and the author is Dr...
...Where these clerics can have been not to have known that no one but Bernadette saw the apparition, though scores of others were on the spot, a fact utterly at variance with their tale, does not appear but such is the kind of thing which when disseminated by men whose position impels attention makes silly persons captive...
...de Grandmaison...
...but thy mercy, and the merits of my Redeemer do I trust in...
...A keen observer, the Jesuit has left indebted geographers, historians, and ethnologists...
...This book is called a clinical study, and that is just what it is...
...Medical Proof of the Miraculous is the third book (New York: P. J. Kenedy and Sons) and its author is Dr...
...The Introduction dealing with The Papacy and The Catalogue of the Popes provides an excellent guide for the calendars of papal reigns, papal arms and papal mottoes...
...Attention therefore will only be paid to a selected list of books of the day...
...the Iroquois warfare...
...One can visualize the highly trained priest from the most cultured nation of the time plunging into the wilderness, living the tribal life, acquiring the dialects, suffering every privation of cold and hunger, joining hunting and scouting parties, carrying his share of the load at the portage, preaching by word and example, and probably ending it all at the torture ring...
...IT WAS a very kind fate which placed in the hands of Mr...
...The Relations breathe the qualities which made the Jesuit the most successful missionary among the hordes of baffling tribesmen: courage, tolerance, zeal, and complete self-sacrifice...
...Let Miss Kenton's book be read in conjunction with W. B. Munroe's Crusaders of New France, Thwaites's France in North America and Father Marquette, Father John J. Wynne's The Jesuit Martyrs of North America, and Father T. J. Campbell's Pioneer Priests of North America and Pioneer 194 THE COMMONWEAL December 23, 1925 Laymen of North America, and it will serve its true purpose...
...Bancroft was virtually right in his oft-quoted phrase: "Not a cape was turned, not a river entered, but a Jesuit led the way...
...New York: Albert and Charles Bonu $5.00...
...The Cramoisy volumes were supplemented by Latin and Italian as well as French editions by independent publishers in Rome, Paris, and Lyons...
...but it is in the illustrations of papal portraits, arms, tombs and ancient churches, that this volume shows its real value...
...It is a prose with more than a little body— a deep-stained, aromatic, stirring yet sedative prose...
...It is the case of the immediate cure of an old suppurating compound fracture of eight years' standing which took place at a "Lourdes" shrine at Oostacker in Belgium, some years before the war...
...There is breadth and tolerance with candid appraisal of the redman's vices and virtues...
...The first account of this was published in English under the title A Modern Miracle, by the Catholic Truth Society of Scotland (1906) and was a translation of the original and best account by Alfred Deschamps, S.J., M.D., D.Sc, just the kind of man to deal satisfactorily with such a case, but unfortunately this little book has, the writer believes, long been unobtainable...
...Dekker's prose, which was given to the public in various forms during those deadly years between 1605 and 1625 when the plague nearly put an end to English play-acting, has much in common with the diction of the authorized version...
...This more or less legendary history is treated in Mr...
...The printed Relations were popular in high circles, in court and salon...
...This revival was due largely to E. B. O'Callaghan's Documentary History of New York, to the writings of Father Felix Martin, S.J., and John Gilmary Shea, and to Parkman's Pioneers of New France and his Jesuits in North America, but also to the activities of such collectors as the late James Lennox of New York...
...Colum they produce an effect of splendor that is sure to fascinate his readers...
...Dekker's book had no success in its own time, nor did his "short and pithie sentences"—added to the present edition by Mr...
...1 HE excellent series of Oxford Books of Verse from various periods and various languages is now supplemented by a selection from the Portuguese poets by that able Hispanic scholar, Aubrey F. G. Bell, who traces the footprints of the muse through the days of early Portuguese-Galician troubadours down to the fullness of song revealed in Camoens and his successors...
...He returned after less than a fortnight absolutely cured of an affliction which had lasted for twenty years and without a sign that it had ever existed, to show himself to the surgeon who had seen him just before his journey...
...George N. Shuster...
...In a world-wide survey of missionary work, Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses, Ecrites des Missions, there appeared many letters and items concerning the Jesuits in America from 1702 to 1776...
...It was a difficult task, almost an impossible one...
...Miss Kenton's book is at best but a key to the great collection, but it opens a new vista to a wider audience of teachers, students and others who are interested in the exploits of the Jesuits...
...Hence, there was need for a volume like Miss Kenton's, a book of selected readings from Thwaite's Jesuit Relations...
...E. le Bee, surgeon to one of the great Paris hospitals and president of the Bureau des Constatations de Lourdes...
...New York: The Macmillan Company...
...as an excellent English work, The Question of Miracles by Father Joyce, S.J...
...by Padraic Colum...
...the Huron missions and martyrs...
...New York: D. Appleton and Company...
...The first year nothing happened, but the second December 23, 1925 THE COMMONWEAL 193 year he was rewarded by seeing a cure—miraculous to all appearance—in the case of one of those whom he had carefully examined and who had been x-rayed before visiting Lourdes...
...The very immensity of the subject of the Popes makes it a difficult task in these hurried modern days to trace a personality or a date or enactment, to discover a portrait or obtain an illustrative remnant of any definite prelate...
...So much for the general topic—passing to the medical side, the first book of importance is The Facts of Lourdes and the Medical Bureau (New York: Benziger Brothers...
...X HE Forge in the Forest is enriched with some very spirited pictures by Boris Artzybashefjf that greatly add to the effect of Padraic Colum's charming fantasy as a story-teller...
...Louis: The Herder Company...
...Edited by F. P. Wilson...
...F. J. Bayer...
...This and the two next books have been translated from the French by Dom Izzard, O.S.B., an Englishman, and a fully qualified medical man also...
...1924...
...Besides the classical cases of Marie Lebranchu, Marie Lemarchand and Pierre de Rudder, there are seventeen others of crucial importance...
...Yet their seventeenth-century vogue gave way, and aside from use in Jesuit histories of Canada, the Relations were almost forgotten when at last they were revived in the middle of the nineteenth century...
...The choice of these poems reveals an exquisite sense of appreciation and a series of notes, biographical and bibliographical, that enhance the value of this handy volume...
...What a pity there cannot exist somewhere a kind of discreet literary restaurant, in which a menu of excellent English would be served by a master of the cellars...
...But accounts of the case will be found in several of the books already mentioned and a very full analysis of this case with a discussion of the arguments pro and con here and in a few other cases of recent miracles, will be found in a work entitled On Miracles and Other Matters, by B. C. A. Windle (London: Burns, Oates and Company...
...Wilson a nearly perfect copy of old Thomas Dekker's book of prayer...
...Paris: Mai son de la Bonne Presse...
...The names of Jouvency, Charles and Jerome Lalemant, Lejeune, Brebeuf, Mercier, Peron, Jogues, Daniel, L'Alemant, Ragueneau, Le Moine, Dablon, Marquette, Coquart, Potier, and others ring out clearly from the pages and tell a goodly fragment of Indian and missionary history...
...It must prove a constant aid to librarians and consultors of public libraries in the general availability of its facts, the reliability of its dates, and succinctness of its make-up...
...Finally all the narratives with translations, journals, printed letters, and reports were gathered together by Professor Thwaites and printed by Burrows Brothers of Cleveland in seventy-three stout volumes...
...Portraits, prints, maps, charts, and a mass of editorial comment make this a monumental collection of inestimable value to the scholar of early American and Canadian history...
...Belloc (New York: Longmans, Green and Company...
...Yet the Jesuit Relations, the basis for these narratives, are familiar only to specialists and found merely in the largest libraries...
...The change of opinion in regard to miracles has, as Mr...
...The present writer has noticed an article by the last named author which appeared in The Queen's Work early in this present year which seems to be the only account in English of an observation at Lourdes which approaches as nearly to an experiment as is possible, and ought to convince the most hardened unbeliever...
...But if any this day hath done me wrong, that I may freely and heartily forgive him, as I desire at thy hands to bee forgiven...
...the westward expansion of lands and missions...
...1911) consisting of papers and sermons from the Guardian newspaper...
...The Voyagers...
...This last book commences by a general study of Lourdes and its facts and then turns to the consideration of special cases...
...Derived from the ancient liturgy of the Church, its revival is possibly some augury of a day to come when it will once more be understood that prayer is not only a practice, but truly an art for the greater glory of Him whom it addresses...
...These reports were then edited and combined with the oral accounts of missionaries on occasional retreats at the motherhouse and forwarded to the French Provincial who in turn published them annually (1632-73) through Cramoisy of Paris as the Jesuit Relations...
...2.50...
...The title of the pamphlet is Une Observation Medicale presque en forme d'Experience, faite a Lourdes en 1920-21...
...De Rudder again appears here and in additioTti to others of first-class importance there is the truly wonderful case of the middle-aged French priest ordered, much against his will to go to Lourdes by his bishop, on account of the extremely serious varicose veins from which he suffered...
...Those curious to understand various phases of Anglican opinion on the subject, though they will not get much assistance from it on account of the nebulosity and variety of the opinions expressed, may turn to a work entitled Miracles (New York: Longmans, Green and Company...
...No matter where he might be stationed whether with the Abenakis, Hurons, Eries, Iroquois, Chippewas, Foxes, Illinois, Mandans, Menominees, Ottawas, and the Sioux, or in the far-flung forts and trading posts, the Jesuit sent a yearly journal to his superior in Quebec...
...But Dekker did not set out to be aesthetic...
...Their little daily chores come to the front in his sentences, immemorial, the same now as they were then...
...NEW France was the land of romance: great inland seas, interminable forests, broad rivers, savages of many nations, headlong explorers, rash furmen, half-barbarous squaw-men and coureurs de bois, and the omnipresent Black Robes...
...Here again one may pass over the older books like that of Henri Laserre and confine oneself to more modern works...
...That discreditable form of attack has now been dropped by all but Maria Monks of both sexes, and the main argument today is that these things occur but that they are not miracles but the outcome of "suggestion"—blessed word, before which Mesopotamia shrinks into nothingness...
...for we should learn, very probably, that like wine this English gains with age...
...Consequently, it will appeal with particular force to medical men, and, parenthetically, the writer of these lines may confess that he belongs to that profession and can testify to the medical accuracy of the three books now under consideration...
...Indeed the French Jesuit has been popularized by non-Catholics from Parkman and his school to that of the late Professor Reuben Thwaites of the University of Wisconsin...
...4.00...
...but to keep my cogitations chaste, and let my dreames be like those of innocents & sucking babes...
...Twenty Cures at Lourdes, is the title of the second of these books (Sands and Company...
...Under the editorship of Abbes Laverdiere, Plante and Ferland, the Canadian government in 1858 reprinted the Cramoisy series...
...There is little glorification and no seeking of sympathy for personal sacrifices...
...On the whole she has chosen her narratives and letters wisely enough, though some criticism might be advanced...
...Suffer, O Lord, no uncleane thoughts this night to pollute my body and soule...
...for he has touched upon every phase of native life and land physiography, religion, morals, folk-lore, habits, languages, woodcraft, and potential economic wealth in furs and minerals...
...The Voyagers, being legends and histories of Atlantic discovery, are interpretations of such old myths as those of the fabled Atlantis, the voyages of Maelduin, the voyages of Saint Brendan, the explorations of Eric the Red, of Columbus and Ponce de Leon...
...Then the common "argument" was that miracles could not and did not occur and that what appeared to be such were mere fakes by money-grubbing priests and monks...
...Of course there are petitions for the church and state, but these scarcely take rank with the majestic and tumultuous requests penned by other men...
...4.00...
...It is much to be desired that this really important little book should be translated into English and rendered available for many who know nothing of it at present...
...2.25 each...
...Probably this accounts for the previous failure to supply the market with so necessary a work...
...The original narrative was rarely marred in editing and its identity never destroyed...
...New York: Harper Brothers...
...The subject has been dramatized in worthy fashion...
...In the same year and with the same brief title was published another and smaller book (The Herder Company) and when it is said that its author was the late Monsignor Benson, those who know and appreciate his writings will not require to be told anything more about it, for it is thoroughly Bensonian...
...From this copy, the present edition is an admirable reprint, being so distinguished and charming of appearance that even "such as be hoary cynicks" cannot avoid lifting their hearts in petition...
...He charted lands, lakes, and streams in rough maps, splendidly done when one considers that they were drafted on march or beside the smoky fire of the tepee...
...The writer of the original pamphlet, a medical man of experience, made up his mind to see all the Lourdes pilgrims before their departure and examine them—taking careful notes...
...Her illustrative readings are grouped under five headings: the early missionary period, 1611 to 1634...
Vol. 3 • December 1925 • No. 7
