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THE

CATHOLIC WORLD.

H

A

MONTHLY MAGAZINE

OF

GENERAL LITERATURE AND SCIENCE.

VOL. XV.

APRIL, 1872, TO SEPTEMBER, 1872.

NEW YORK:

THE CATHOLIC PUBLICATION HOUSE,

9 Warren Street.

1872.

Сс

205 C363

660563

Acoustics and Ventilation, 118.

Affirmations, 77, 225.

Aix-la-Chapelle, 795.

Ambrosia, 803.

Art and Religion, 356.

Art, Faith the Life of, 518.

CONTENTS.

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On the Misty Mountain, 705, 823.

Orléans and its Clergy, 833-

Paris before the War, A Salon in, 187, 323.

Philosophy as a Basis of Higher Education, The

Necessity of, 632, 690, 815.

Philosophy, Review of Dr. Stöckl's, 329.
Press, The Church and the, 413.
Progressionists, The, 433, 618, 766.
Protestant Missions in India, 690.
Providence, Caresses of, 270.

Quarter of an Hour in the Old Roman Forum
during a Speech of Cicero's, 182.

Tyrol, A Summer in the, 646.

"Union of Christian Women," Letters of His
Holiness Pius IX. on the, 563.

United States, The Catholic Church in the, 577,

749.

Use and Abuse of the Stage, 836.

Vancouver, Decision against the St. James'

Mission at, 715.

Ventilation, Acoustics and, 118.

Women, How the Church Understands and Up
holds the Rights of, 78, 255, 366, 487.
Yorke, The House of, 18, 150, 295.

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SOCIETY LIBRARY

NEW VIRK

CATHOLIC WORLD.

VOL. XV., No. 85.-APRIL, 1872.

TAINES ENGLISH LITERATURE. *

IN so far as we may judge from the notices in periodicals and newspapers, this work appears to have been received, both in England and the United States, not only with general favor, but with enthusiastic admiration.

A history of English literature based on a system new to the great body of English readers, and written with freshness, verve, and certain attractive peculiarities of style, could not fail to fix their attention and engage their interest from the beginning to the end of its two bulky octavo volumes. The author of the work in question is so well known in the world of letters by his essays on the philosophy of art that he needs no introduction to our readers.

M. Taine starts out with the as

sumption that the literature of any given country is the exponent of its mental life, or, as he states it (p. 20), “I am about to write the history of

History of English Literature. By H. A. Taine. Translated by H. Van Laun. With a Preface prepared expressly for this Translation by the author. New York: Holt & Williams, 1871.

a literature, and to seek in it for the psychology of a people." In France and Germany, we are told, history has been revolutionized by the study of their literatures.

"It was perceived," says M. Taine, "that a work of literature is not a mere play of imagination, a solitary caprice of a

heated brain, but a transcript of contemporary manners, a type of a certain kind of mind. It was concluded that one might retrace, from the monuments of literature, the style of man's feelings and thoughts for centuries back.

The at

tempt was made, and it succeeded."

Unquestionably the style of man's feelings may be traced in literature for centuries back. That is M. Taine's first approach. But between the successful insight into this or that writer's opinions and modes of thought and the opinions and modes of thought of a nation, the void is so enormous-unless, indeed, we dangerously reason from particulars to generals as to require to fill it more subjective literary productions than any country has ever yet produced. From this system it would follow

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by Rev. I. T. HECKER, in the Office al

the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.

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