de l'objet en question, mais dans une note explicative (voir paragraphe suivant), en indiquer les variantes existantes dans le même territoire.

II

Explications à donner pour chaque objet.

1. Il faut dresser une liste exac te de tous les objets envoyés. Chaque objet doit y figurer avec un numéro identique à celui porté par l'objet lui-même. Au moin une copie exacte de cette liste doit être faite, qui restait auprès de celui qui l'a composée; de cette façon, il devient poss le d'obtenir, le cas écheant, des renseignements complémentaires plus étaillés, si un objet se trouve être d'une importance spéciale. La listele-même devra être adressée par lettre recommandée au Président du Comité de l'Exposition (Sa Grandeur Monseigneur Marchetti-Selvaggiani, Secrétaire de la Sacrée Congrégation de la Propaganda, Rome, Piazza di Spagna, 48). Il serait à souhaiter qu'il y eut une autre copie de la liste accompagnant la collection elle-même.

2. Dans cette liste, les indications suivantes doivent être données pour chaque objet :

a) nom de l'objet, y compris celui en langue indigène ;

b) à quoi il sert et quel en est le mode d'emploi ;

c) endroit (tribu, ville, village) de sa provenance; confins du territoire où il est en usage;

d) endroit de sa fabrication; s'il est différent de celui de la provenance; e) indiquer si l'objet en question se trouve dans le territoire fréquemment ou rarement; s'il est d'usage courant ou fabriqué ad hoc.

Plus ces indications sont exactes et détaillées, plus la valeur de toute la collection augmente. Une collection moindre, mais bien choisie et comportant des indications exactes et detaillées, serait d'une valeur beaucoup plus grande qu'une collection considérable dans laquelle tout cela ferait défaut.

3. Dans le cas où il existerait déjà des livres ou des articles bien faits sur le peuple ou la tribu en question, on peut les citer, mais de façon exacte, en indiquant le nom de l'auteur, le titre de l'ouvrage, l'endroit et l'année de la publication et à quelle page se trouve la référence. Tous les ouvrages ethnographiques et linguistiques publiés par les Missionaires eux-mêmes devraient être ajoutés, au moins par un exemplaire, à la collection.

4. En attachant à un objet le numéro qu'il porte sur la liste, il faut veiller à ce que ce numéro reste sûrement audit objet; car s'il se perd, tout le travail employé à dresser les listes et à recueillir des explications complémentaires serait vain, puisqu'on ne pourrait savoir quel est l'objet si minutieusement décrit. Le plûs sur serait d'inscrire le numéro sur l'objet lui-même, soit au moyen d'une couleur ou d'une teinture ineffaçable, soit en y collant fortement une étiquette à numéro.

Dans le cas où ladite étiquette serait seulement attachée, il faut bien prendre garde que le nœud ne se desserre et l'étiquette ne se perde; il faut aussi utiliser du papier plus fort, afin qu'elle ne se déchire pas.

5. On demande d'écrire la liste très lisiblement; il serait préférable d'employer la machine à écrire.

III

Emballage des objets.

1. Les objets d'une exécution plus fine et plus compliquée, surtout ceux qui comportent un grand nombre d'ornements délicats, doivent être emballés de préférence dans une matière molle (laine ou autre).

2. Si les objets sont assez fragiles (poteries, objets de fine sculpture et ciselure, etc.), après les avoir enveloppés, comme il est dit ci-dessus il faut les mettre dans de petites caisses spéciales et renfermer celles-c à leur tour dans une caisse plus grande.

LETTER OF THE HOLY FATHER TO HIS EMINENCE CARDINAL MERCIER AND THE BELGIAN BISHOPS

(June 10, 1923)
EPISTOLAE

AD EMUM P. D. DESIDERATUM TIT. S. PETRI AD VINCULA S. R. E. PRESI CARD. MERCIER, ARCHIEPISCOPUM MECHLINIENSEM, CETEROSQUE BEI GARUM EPISCOPOS: COMMUNIBUS RESPONDENS OFFICIOSIS LITTERIS

Dilecte fili Noster, venerabiles fratres, salutem et apostolicam ben dictionem.--Quam, ante mensem, communiter ad Nos dedistis epistulan periucunda ea Nobis accidit cum ob singularem, quam redolebat, pietate erga Nos vestram, tum ob multa ac praeclara quae de variis argument significabatis. Placet propterea testimonium illud observantiae vestr publico rependere grati animi Nostri testimonio, nullamque earum reru praeterire, quas tanto pastoralis animi ardore ad Nos attulistis. Voca divinitus istic ad sacerdotium adulescentes bene multos non sine mag delectatione comperimus; quod autem plerique eorum huc spectent, vel iuventuti rite instituendae suo tempore se devoveant vel sacra Chris legatione in dissitis infidelium regionibus fungantur, non est profecto c metuatis ne procuratio apud vos animarum ob curionum penuriam a quando depereat. Dei enim providentiae est, ut vosmet ipsi facit perpetuo confidendum, quae minime iis de causis patiatur sacros su quemque dioecesi deesse operarios. Quibus in excolendis, scribitis, ve vos, quoad fieri poterit, ea exsequi quae de Seminariis deque ratio sacras tradendi disciplinas monuimus, neque minus curaturos assidue, ad duas priores, quas dedimus, Encyclicas Litteras populus unicuiq vestrum creditus conformetur. Et recte quidem : quid enim Ecclesi adeoque ipsius civitatis, magis ad prosperitatem intersit, quam ut, remo praesentium malorum causis restitutaque inter gentes pace et tranquillit ordinis, homine sper evangelicum ministerium actionemque catholicam Deum revocentur, et, Salesio facilioris disciplinae magistro, ad as quendam vitae sanctimoniam contendant? Itaque confidimus verba ] vos Nostra sic in Belgarum insidere animis, ut exploratissimam eor voluntatem ad procurandam societatis humanae emendationem acr incendant. Sed alia, quae pressius propiusque ad vos pertinent, gr

quidem animo commemoratis: ea dicimus, quae, proximi decessoris vestigiis insistentes, Litteris Nostris Quae tu, die xvi mensis novembris superiore anno datis, adhibuimus benigne monita, cum Acta et Decreta Concilii Provincialis Mechliniensis quarti ad vos, legitime recognita, mitteremus. Ex ipsa sane communi epistula vestra luce clarius apparet, vos, ut Episcopos unius eiusdemque provinciae ecclesiasticae in primis decet fraterno amore inter vos cohaerere' atque idem sentire nullo discrimine nec generis nec linguae.' Neque minus concorditer profitemini, curaturos vos diligenter, ut sacrorum alumni et clerus ad supernaturale vitae institutum, quemadmodum hortabamur, fingantur atque assuescant, seduloque caveant quicquid dissensiones et discidia inter cives commovere queat, ut controversias illas de rebus politicis deque linguae et generis varietate. In quo cum videamus vos Nobiscum uno animo consentire, I hac in re diutius morari non attinet. Quod reliquum est, iterum vobis spem bonam, qua nitimur, aperimus, fore ut, deprecatrice Beata Virgine, quam suavissimo gratiarum omnium Mediatricis titulo in dioecesibus vestris, Apostolicae Sedis concessu, veneramini et colitis, religionis studium morumque integritas apud carissimos Nobis Belgicae filios florere ac vigere pergat.

Quod ut facilius e communibus optatis contingat, caelestium munerum auspicem paternaeque benevolentiae Nostrae testem, vobis, dilecte fili Noster, venerabiles fratres, et clero populoque uniuscuiusque vestro apostolicam benedictionem peramanter impertimus.

Datum Romae apud Sanctum Petrum, die x mensis iunii, anno MDCCCCXXIII, Pontificatus Nostri secundo.

PIUS PP. XI.

REVIEWS AND NOTES

BELIEF AND FREEDOM. By Bernard Holland. London: Burns, Oates, and Washbourne, Ltd. 1923.

ONE often hears the remarks: If I could believe, I should like to be a Catholic'; 'If there is any religion, it is the Catholic religion'; 'I should like to die a Catholic'; 'I wish that I could believe, but I cannot.' This vague longing, however, is not strong enough, is not sufficiently definite and definitive to induce him to make the great venture of faith. For to those outside the true fold it is a venture, and the last step by which they cross the threshold of the Church is vastly different from those which led them to the door, and requires a great act of will, a clear, definite, and final choice. A Catholic, born in the faith, finds it difficult to realize what this renunciation means. He never had experience of it, and even when a new doctrine is defined he has already accepted it implicitly when he believed in the infallibility of the Church and the Pope.

In Belief and Freedom we have a full and sympathetic discussion of the whole position. The author says: 'I wish to examine certain main difficulties which hinder from crossing the many who arrive at one time or another at the bank of the river which separates the Catholic Church from the rest of the world. I know what these difficulties are, because I have myself made the passage.' Many men and women outside the Catholic Church feel its strong attraction, but are unwilling or unable to take the plunge: they die with a regret, or, at least, a sense of void, in their inmost hearts, because they have made the great refusal instead of the great acceptance' (p. 8). Of others, some are hostile to the Church, some are indifferent. While all these classes will gain by reading this volume, it is intended principally for the first class. These are held back by two difficulties: by their inability to accept all that the Church teaches, and by the fear of losing their liberty. From Chapter IV the book is occupied with these two central ideas: Belief and Freedom.

Mr. Holland in explaining the nature of Belief draws a sharp distinction between Belief, in the strict sense of the word, and opinion. With a relevancy easily understood, he says: The difference between a more or less strong opinion and a conviction is like the difference between an unmarried flirtation and an engagement to marry, or rather a marriage. A conviction is a married opinion, and this involves a solemn act' (p. 47). He is equally happy in explaining the steps by which a person with the 'wish to believe' comes to the faith: The true process is: (1) an unsatisfied and undefined desire, gradually taking shape in a gaze of longing, mingled with fear and doubt, directed towards the Catholic Church. If, at last, reason convinces him that this desire is an attraction

operating on the higher part of nature and not on the lower and sensuous, the next thing is (2) an act of will, a choice, or acceptance, or surrenderwhichever name you like to give, but an act in any case, a voluntary act and deed by which the river is crossed, and the exiled and pilgrim soul is united to the Church. (3) After this act has been made, the entrant ... will become one in mind and heart with the Church in all ages and countries' (p. 67). After dealing with the nature of Belief and the way in which a person comes to Faith, he explains at length, quoting freely from St. Augustine, St. Thomas, and the great medieval thinkers, the relation of Faith to Science and the functioning of reasoning before and after Belief. Union with the Church, he also insists, is the essential condition for true and full Belief. In Chapter VII he takes up and analyses the idea of Freedom, and all that it implies. Acceptance of the Catholic Church makes a person free intellectually, it frees him from superstitions, insincerities, and the tyranny of his lower self; converts have often given testimony to the singular and unexpected sense of immensely expanded mental freedom upon entrance.' Of the destruction of mental freedom apart from the authority of the Church, he writes: If the authority of the Church ceased to exist, weak intellects and characters would be raided and held enslaved by the stronger or more crafty. Already in the decay of that authority, no longer now even replaced by the old respect for Holy Scriptures, spiritual charlatans swarm like maggots, and corrupt and deceive the released and ignorant and empty minds of millions' (p. 121).

We can recommend Belief and Freedom to that large body outside the Catholic Church who are earnestly looking for light and encouragement. It is written in a spirit of helpfulness by one who understands their lifficulties, by a layman who has no liking for harsh theological phrases, by a man of cultured mind and wide reading, by a man whose easy and eloquent expression of deep religious thought and feeling will appeal to hose who are looking for the truth that will make them free.'

D. M.

THE EARLY FRIENDS OF CHRIST. By Rev. Joseph P. Conroy, S.J. New York: Benziger Brothers.

We know no man thoroughly till we know his friends, those who nade him what he is, and those who in their lives show the influence of his teaching and example. In the study of what we may call the natural side of Christ's character it is of importance to understand the ormative influences of His early years, and the effect of His personal contact on His associates and disciples. The knowledge of the character of the Blessed Virgin, of St. Joseph, of St. Elizabeth and Zachary, of St. Stephen and St. Paul, throws a flood of light on the ideals, the courage, and wisdom and love of Our Divine Lord.

In The Early Friends of Christ Father Conroy has given us an minently valuable and readable book. It contains eighteen charactertudies, some of which already appeared as articles in the Ave Maria,