THE CATHOLIC WORLD. T A MONTHLY MAGAZINE OF GENERAL LITERATURE AND SCIENCE. VOL. XVII. APRIL, 1873, TO SEPTEMBER, 1873. NEW YORK: THE CATHOLIC PUBLICATION HOUSE, 9 Warren Street. 1873. "Abraham"-" Abron "-" Auburn," 234 Abuse of Diplomatic Authority, An, 130 Art Pilgrimage through Rome, An, 808 Bolanden's The Russian Idea, 27, 161 Bolanden's The Trowel or the Cross, 308, 473 Brittany: Its People and its Poems, 252, 537 Bruté, Memoirs of the Rt. Rev. S, G., 711 Casgrain's The Canadian Pioneers, 687 Casgrain's Picture of the Rivière Quelle, 103 Legend of S. Christopher, А, 278 Madame Agnes, 78, 182, 330, 446, 591, 731 Madame Jeannette's Papers, 566 Memoirs of a Good French Priest, 711 cf Pitt, 545 POETRY. Angel and the Child, The, 570 Beati qui Lugent, 271 Christe's Childhoode, 472 Dante's Purgatorio, 24, 158, 304 Dies Iræ, 221 Marriage Song, 462 May Carol, A, 407 Mother of God, 710 Augustine, S., Harmony of the Evangelists, etc. 855 Fisherman's Daughter. The, 575 Formby's Catechism of the Holy Rosary, 428 Garside's The Prophet of Carmel, 857 Marshall's My Clerical Friends, 138 Meditations on the Blessed Virgin, 860 Meline's Two Thousand Miles on Horseback, 286 Gaume's Sign of the Cross in the XIXth Cen- Sœur Eugénie, 142 Nesbits, The, 283 Old New England Traits, 720 Only a Pin, 574 Out of Sweet Solitude, 720 Palma's Particular Examen, 860 Peter's Journey, etc., 285 Potter's Rupert Aubrey, 859 Primaute, La, et l'Infaillibilité des Souveraines Pontifes, etc., 576 Proceedings of the Convention of the Irish Ca- tholic Benevolent Union, 287 Progressionists, The, and Angela, 281 Quinton's The Money God, 282 Reverse of the Medal, The, 288 Sainte-Germaine's Only a Pin, 574 Sermons for all the Sundays and Festivals of the Year, 428 Sign of the Cross in the XIXth Century, 429 Snell's Isabelle de Verneuil, 430 Southwell's Meditations, 574 Stewart's Limerick Veteran, 719 Suema, 428 Sunday-School Library, 430 Sweeney's Sermons, 428 Taylor's Lars, 430 Thebaud's The Irish Race, 432, 718 Thompson's Hawthorndean, 430 Threshold of the Catholic Church, 572 Truth and Error, 142 Two Thousand Miles on Horseback, 286 Valuy's Directorium Sacerdotale, 574 Visit to Louise Lateau, A, 574 Walworth and Burr, Doctrine of Hell, 571 Wild Times, 284 Wilfulness, 285 Winged Word, A, etc., 572 Wiseman's Essays, 431, 575 Wiseman's Lectures on the Church, 143 : NEW-YORK SOCIETY BRAN THE CATHOLIC WORLD. VOL. XVII., No. 97.-APRIL, 1873. PUBLIC CHARITIES. MODERN civilization has no higher or more important question to deal with than that of ameliorating the condition of the poor, the unfortunate, the ignorant, and the vicious. Governments are and can be engaged in no more appalling work than that of legislating wisely in regard to these classes, and in seeing that not only are their inevitable wants provided for and the public interests protected, but also that their rights are secured in fact as well as in theory, and that the instruments employed in these exalted spheres of public administration are suited to their purpose, and are guarded against degenerating from means of amelioration into agencies of oppression, cruelty, and injustice. There are two chief motives which lead to the care and provision for the unfortunate members of the social body-charity on the one side, and philanthropy on the other. Religion inspires every motive for this great and holy work, and of all the virtues which religion inspires, charity is the highest, purest, and best. Charity is the love of God, and of man for God's sake. That God of charity has revealed to us that, of faith, hope, and charity, the greatest is charity; that he that giveth to the poor lendeth to the Lord; that he who performs works of charity to the least of the human race performs them ipso facto to the Lord, creator and ruler of the universe; and that the eternal doom of every human being at the last dread day will be decided by this great test. Christianity itself, like her divine founder, is charity. The church of God, like her Lord and Spouse, is charity. She is imbued with and reflects his divine essence, which is charity. Charity arises from no statute or arbitrary decree, which might or might not be made according to the option of the legislator; it is the essence and motive of all good. It exists in the very nature of things. And as the love of God by man is the first and necessary relation of the creature to the Creator, and as our fellow-creatures exist from God, and Eatered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, by Rev. I. T. HECKER, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. |