drawn up by writers of the early ages. In the next two chapters
he defends the authority of several of the fathers from the ignorant and
malicious misrepresentations of his adversary, and crowns the work by
reprinting at the end of his volume a dissertation delivered by him some
years ago in one of the Roman academies, in which he proves that "the
love and the hatred men show to Rome are two consequences of the
presence, the episcopate, and the martyrdom of St. Peter in the Eternal
City".

III.

_Regles pour le Choix d'un Etat de Vie, proposees a la Jeunesse
Chretienne._ Par Mgr. J. B. Malou, Eveque de Bruges. Bruxelles,
Goemaers, 1860 (iv.--249 pp.).

Although this book is not of recent publication, we feel it a kind of
duty to bring it under the notice of the clergy of this country. The
prelate who wrote it expressed to us his earnest desire that it might be
translated for the use of the Catholics of Ireland, for whom he ever
professed warm esteem and admiration. Indeed, we have very few books in
which the question of vocations to the ecclesiastical or religious life
is treated with such accuracy and solidity as in the Rules of Monsignor
Malou. On the other hand, vocations are, through the grace of God, so
abundant in Ireland, that there is hardly any priest, having care of
souls, who must not have felt, at times, the want of some help to enable
him to determine with confidence the state of life to which some
youthful member of his flock may have been called. Such a guide he may
find in the book under notice. Chapter i. treats of the nature of a
state of life, and limits the number of such states to four, viz., the
priesthood, the religious state, matrimony, and celibacy in the world.
The second chapter examines the nature of a vocation to a state of life,
and how far it imposes an obligation. Mgr. Malou thus defines a
vocation: "A disposition of Divine Providence, which prepares, invites,
and sometimes morally obliges, a Christian soul to embrace one state of
life in preference to another; which disposition is ordinarily
manifested in the qualities, the sentiments, and the position of the
person called". Chapter iii. shows the necessity of Christian
deliberation before making a choice of a state of life. Chapter iv.
deals with the conditions requisite for a good deliberation, paragraphs
being devoted respectively to interior conditions, to exterior
conditions, and to the method of proceeding in the deliberation.