it as a duty to avoid dogmas, and to banish pomp from its worship, condemns itself to be dry and cold. We must not presume that the heart of man, deprived of any assistance from the imagination, can have resources within itself sufficient to cherish the undulations of eloquence. The very sentiment of eloquence is destroyed even at the moment of its birth, if it does not find itself surrounded by things capable of nourishing and supporting it; if it finds no images to prolong its duration, no spectacles to fortify it, no dogmas which transporting it into the region of mystery, prevent its being disenchanted.

The protestants boast that they have banished gloom from the Christian religion; but in the Catholic worship,. Job and his holy melancholy, the shade of the cloisters, the tears of the penitent upon his rock, the voice of Bossuet delivering a funeral oration, will create more men of genius, than all the maxims of morality devoid of eloquence, as plain and unadorned as the temple where it is preached. Father de Ligny has then considered the subject in its proper point of view, in confining his life of Christ to a simple concordance of the different Gospels. Who, besides, could flatter himself with being able to equal the beauty of the New Testament? Would not an author who should aspire to such pretensions be already condemned. Every Evangelist has his particular character except Saint Mark, whose Gospel seems to be nothing more than an abridgment of Saint Matthew's. Saint Mark was a disciple of Saint Peter, and many people think that he wrote under the direction of this prince of the Apostles. It is worthy of remark, that he has related the heavy fault committed by his master. That Jesus Christ should have chosen for the chief of his church precisely, the only one among his disciples who had denied him, appears to us at once a sublime and interesting mystery. There do we see all the spirit of christianity; Saint

Peter is the Adam of the new law; he is the sinful and repentant father of the new Israelites; his fall teaches us, that the Christian religion is a religion of mercy, and that Jesus Christ has established his law among men subject to error, much less for the innocent than for the repentant.

The Gospel of Saint Matthew is to be recommended above all things, for the pure morality which it inculcates. It is this Apostle who has transmitted to us the greatest number of moral precepts in the sentiments recorded by him, as proceeding so abundantly from the mouth of Jesus Christ.

Saint John has something more mild and tender in his manner. We recognise in him “the disciple whom Jesus loved," the disciple who was near him on the mount of Olives, during his agony-a sublime distinction undoubtedly, since none but the cherished friend of our soul is worthy to be admitted to the mystery of our griefs. John was, besides, the only one among the Apostles who accompanied the Son of Man to the cross. It was there that the Saviour bequeathed to him the care of his mother. "Mother behold your Son; Disciple behold your Mother." Divine expression! ineffable recommendation. This was the well beloved disciple who slept upon upon the bosom of his master, who retained in his soul an image of him never to be effaced; who was the first to recognise him after his resurrection;-the heart of John could not be mistaken in the features of his divine friend, and faith was given to him as a reward for kindness.

For the rest the spirit breathed throughout the whole of Saint John's Gospel is comprised in the maxim, which he went about repeating in his old age. This Apostle full of days and of good works, when no longer able to preach long sermons to the new people whom he had brought forth to Jesus Christ, contented himself with this exhortation: " My little children love one another "

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St. Jerome asserts that Saint Luke was a physician, a profession so noble and so esteemed in antiquity, and adds that his gospel was medicine to the soul.-His language is pure and elevated, shewing at once a man conversant with letters, and one who was well acquainted with the manners and the men of his time.-He begins his narrative after the manner of the ancient historians; you may fancy that it is Herodotus speaks :

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1. Since many have undertaken to write the history of those things which have come to pass amongst us

2. According to the account given by those who, from the beginning, were eye witnesses of them, and who have been ministers of the word

3. It seemed proper to me that I also, most excellent Theophilus, having been exactly informed of all these things from their commencement, should write to you in their order the whole history of them.

Our ignorance is such, at the present time, that there are perhaps some men of letters who will be astonished at learning that Saint Luke is a great writer, whose gos pel breathes the true genius of the ancient Greek and Hebrew languages-What can be more beautiful than the passage which precedes the birth of Christ?

In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia; his wife was also of the race of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth-

They were both righteous before God, but they had no children because that Elisabeth was barren, and they were both now well stricken in years.

Zacharias offers a sacrifice, an Angel

appears to

him standing by the side of the altar of incense," he informs him that he shall have a son, that this son shall be called John, that he shall be the precursor of the Messiah and that "he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the chil

dren."-The same Angel goes afterwards to a virgin living in Israel, and says to her: "Hail thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee"-Mary goes into the mountains of Judea; she meets Elisabeth, and the infant which the latter carries in her womb, leaps at the voice of the virgin who is about to bring the Saviour into the world. Elisabeth, being filled on a sudden with the Holy Ghost, raises her voice and cries aloud "Blessed art thou among women: and blessed is the fruit of thy womb!

Whence am I thus blessed that the mother of my Saviour comes to me?

For when you saluted me, no sooner had your voice struck my ears, than my infant leaped in my womb for joy.

Mary then chants the magnificent canticle O my soul, glorify the Lord!

The history of the manger and of the shepherds follow next; a multitude of the heavenly host sing, during the night, "glory to God in heaven, and on earth peace, good will to men" a sentiment worthy of angels and which is as it were an epitome of the whole Christian religion.

We believe ourselves to be somewhat acquainted with antiquity, and we dare affirm that we might have searched a long time among the sublimest geniuses of Greece and Rome before we had found any thing which was at once so simple and so wonderful.

Whoever reads the gospel, with a little attention, will every moment discover in it admirable things, which escape us at first on account of their extreme simplicity. Saint Luke, for instance, in giving the genealogy of Christ goes back to the beginning of the world. Arrived at the first generations and continuing to name the different ra ces he says "Cainan which was of Enos, which was of Seth, which was of Adam, which was of God!" the simple expression "which was of God" thrown out thus

without any comment and without any reflexion, to relate the creation, the origin, the nature, the end, and the mys tery of man, appears to us the height of sublimity.

Much praise is due to Father de Ligny for having felt that he ought not to alter these things, and that he who could not be satisfied with these, and similar touches, must have a very false taste, and be little acquainted with christianity. His History of Jesus Christ offers an additional proof of the truth of what we have advanced in another place, that the fine arts among the moderns are indebted to the Catholic religion for the major part of their suceess. Sixty engravings, after the masters of the Italian, French and Flemish schools, enrich this fine work; and it is worthy of remark, that in seeking to add the embellishments of pictures to a life of Jesus Christ it has been found that all the chefs d'œuvre of modern painting were comprehended in the collection.*

We scarcely know how to bestow sufficient commendation upon the typographical society who, in so short a space of time, have given us with the truest taste and discrimination works of such general utility.--The select Sermons of Bossuet and Fenelon, the Letters of Saint Francis de Sales, and many other excellent books, have all issued from the same presses, and leave nothing further to be desired as to the manner in which they are executed.

The work of Father de Ligny, besides being embellished by the painter, is about to receive another ornament not less precious. M. de Bonald has undertaken to write a preface to it; this name alone speaks talents and an enlightened mind, and commands respect and esteem. Who is better calculated to treat of the laws and precepts of Jesus Christ, than the author of Divorce, of the work upon

* Raphael, Michael Angelo, Dominichino, the Caracci, Paul Veronese, Titian, Leonardo-da-Vinci, Guercino, Lanfranc, Poussin, Le Sueur, Le Brun, Rubens, &c.

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