holic and
non-Catholic, than "The Happiness of Heaven;" fewer still have
proved, in the perusal, more worthy of the praises bestowed by
Reviewers, or have borne out the character which favorable critics
had assigned. Of this work it may be said with truth, that the
highest praise falls short of its merit, the most favorable critic
has not said too much in its commendation. And this promises to be
more than an ephemeral popularity--the book will live--it will be
read with pleasure and profit, as long as genuine Catholic literature
finds readers.

It is a book which was long wanted: a thorough, systematic treatise
on a subject of the most vital importance: a book which gives us all
that Catholic Theology teaches about heaven, and gives it in an
authentic shape, with text, references and citations in all
scholastic completeness; and yet in a form adapted to the humblest
capacity. It is indeed, as one of its reviewers so happily calls it,
"The spiritual Geography of heaven, giving us such a knowledge of
that blessed country, as we can acquire at this distance," and
showing forth its beauties, its loveliness, its thousandfold bliss in
a manner so clear, so winning, so unconquerably attractive, that
earth pales into insignificance before those dazzling splendors, and
our hearts long to be where our real treasure is. When we have read
this book and studied it, (for a single perusal of it will not
satisfy us,) we know something of that heavenly Paradise which is to
be the eternal abode of the Elect, and knowing it, we must love and
desire it,--we must submit with patience, if not with joy, to the
trials of this life, which are to be there so gloriously
rewarded,--we must sigh for the moment which is to admit us into that
Paradise of endless delights and of imperishable beauty.

Let then this book go forth on its mission of consolation and
encouragement to the sorrowing and suffering poor: it will teach them
to prize their sorrows and their afflictions as the virgin gold of
which their crown is to be formed, and the brilliant gems which are
to adorn it forever. Let it go to the counting-house of the merchant,
to the desk of the banker--and they will know that there is another
and a truer wealth more worthy of their ambition. Let the great ones
of the earth learn from it that their honors are a deceit and a
snare; that one sigh for Eternity, one moment spent in the service of
God, purchase greater glory than all the crowns and