Ben Hur, a Tale of the Christ, one of the most popular novels written during the last quarter of the century. He also wrote The Prince of India and The Fair God. He, like some other American authors, has marred his works by anti-Catholic bigotry.

Orestes A. Brownson (1803-1876), Vermont, an able American reviewer and philosopher, devoted his pen with heroic energy to the cause of the Catholic Church, to which he became a convert in 1844. His principal productions are The American Republic and The Convert. In the latter work he relates his religious wanderings in succession as a Congregationalist, a Presbyterian, a Universalist, a Rationalist, and a Socialist, until he found satisfaction in the solution of his doubts and solace for his troubles in the bosom of the Catholic Church.

Archbishop Hughes (1797-1864), New York, is known not only as a most valiant defender of the Catholic Church when it was struggling for a footing in a rather hostile community, but also as the champion of the "school question." His lectures, sermons, and pamphlets on historic and doctrinal subjects, usually hastily done, as occasion required, commanded general attention from friend and opponent.

Reverend Abram J. Ryan (1839-1886), Virginia, the "PoetPriest of the South"-Catholic chaplain in the Confederate army during the Civil War-is famed for many beautiful poems, which are excellent in merit, characterized by subtle harmony and strange sweetness and full of fervent feelings of the southerner and pious priestly aspirations. Among the most popular of his verses are "The Conquered Banner," "Erin's Flag," and "The Sword of Robert Lee."

Brother Azarias (1847-1893), New York, was a member of the Christian Brothers. He is remarkable for the depth and soundness of his thinking and for the beauty, ease, and clearness of his style. Among his writings may be mentioned "Development of English Thought," "Aristotle and the Christian Church," "Books and Reading," "Philosophy. of Literature."

Alice Cary (1820-1871) and her sister, Phoebe Cary (18241871), Ohio, are the best women poets America has produced. Their poems are thoughtful, graceful, and replete with religious feeling. Among their best verses are "Poems of Faith, Hope, and Charity," "Pictures from Memory," "Order for a Picture.

Harriet Beecher Stowe (1812-1896), Connecticut, gained renown by her anti-slavery novel entitled Uncle Tom's Cabin. Her overdrawn pictures did much to influence the North against the South.

Anna Hanson Dorsey (1815-1896), District of Columbia, was one of the pioneers of Catholic fiction in the United States. Among her principal works are Palms, Oriental Pearls, May Brooke, Warp and Woof.

Mary A. Sadlier (1820-1903), Ireland, a Catholic, and an indefatigable writer, is best known by her novels, The Blakes and Flannigans (dealing with the school question), Confederate Chieftains, Bessie Conway, and Aunt Honor's Keepsake. Her stories and translations number more than sixty volumes.

Helen Hunt Jackson (1831-1885), Massachusetts, known by her pen name "H. H.," has by her story, Ramona, left a prominent name in American literature. In this artistic composition, perhaps the best novel produced by an American woman, the pictures of the mission district of California are so vividly drawn that the story attracts many visitors to the country.

Louisa M. Alcott (1832-1888), Pennsylvania, a most popular writer of her day, won fame as the author of Little Men, Little Women, An Old-Fashioned Girl, and many other stories for young people.

741. Our Familiar Historians. William H. Prescott (17971859), Massachusetts, is well known as the author of Ferdinand and Isabella, Conquest of Mexico, Conquest of Peru. Religious prejudices, however, greatly mar the reliability of his otherwise excellent works.

George Bancroft (1800-1891), Massachusetts, has left a great work in a History of the United States in Twelve Volumes, the

first volume of which appeared in 1834. It covers the Colonial and Revolutionary periods. As a literary production, it ranks high, but from a religious point of view it is objectionable, owing to the expression of bigotry against the Catholic religion, and the covert inculcation of the pernicious theory of Pantheism. Most Reverend Martin John Spalding (1810-1872), Kentucky, the seventh Archbishop of Baltimore, is famous for Sketches of the Early Catholic Missions of Kentucky, History of the Protestant Reformation in all Countries, and Miscellanea. Miscellanea won great popularity and ran into many editions.

John L. Motley (1814-1877), Massachusetts, is best known for his classic History of the Rise of the Dutch Republic, which he completed after ten years of labor.

Francis Parkman (1823-1893), Massachusetts, is the author of The Conspiracy of Pontiac, The Pioneers of France in the New World, The Jesuits in North America, and La Salle, or the Discovery of the Great West. For the facts of the Jesuit missions, Parkman is entirely reliable; but as a Catholic critic has well remarked, "Of the motives which governed the missionaries, of their faith and charity, as well as of their whole interior spiritual life, he understands less than did the untutored Indian."

John Gilmary Shea (1824-1892), New York, was a Catholic whose world-wide fame as a scholar and historian is based on his Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley, The History of the Catholic Missions among the Indian Tribes of the United States, and The History of the Catholic Church in the United States.

742. Our Present Literary Era. Although the number of American writers is far greater at the present era than at any time in the past, the standard of excellence is not as high as in the days of Longfellow, Emerson, and Lowell. Among the promnent literary men and women of the present day may be mentioned the following:

Cardinal Gibbons (1834- ), Baltimore, Maryland, is the dis

tinguished writer of Faith of Our Fathers, Our Christian Heritage, and The Ambassadors of Christ-works which are rich contributions to American letters and which have won a wide circulation.

The Right Reverend James L. Spalding (1840-1917), Peoria, Illinois, has given us productions of a master mind and of a ripe and broad scholarship in essays published under the titles of Education and the Higher Life, Things of the Mind, Means and Ends of Education, Thoughts and Theories of Life and Education.

Father John B. Tabb (1845-1909), Virginia, another poetpriest, is noted for his singularly artistic and refined poetical works. Some of his volumes are "Poems," "An Octave to Mary," and "Poems Grave and Gay."

Father Francis Finn, S. J. (1859- ), St. Louis, Missouri, is the author of numerous wholesome works of literature for young people. Among the most popular tales are Percy Wynn, Tom Playfair, Mostly Boys, and The Football Game.

Edmund Clarence Stedman (1833-1908), Connecticut, one of the best known and most highly esteemed of our present authors, wrote Fort Sumter, Wanted-A Man, The Doorstep, At Twilight, and Alice of Monmouth.

Eleanor Cecilia Donnelly (1840-1917), Pennsylvania, a Catholic, is the author of many volumes of verse, including the poems "Crowned Stars," "Hymn of the Sacred Heart," "Children of the Golden Sheaf." One of her chief prose works is the Life of Father Felix. In the spirit and method of her work she is compared with Adelaide Procter.

Maurice Francis Egan (1852- ), Pennsylvania, a Catholic author of exquisite taste, has written much and on a variety of subjects. As a novelist he will be remembered for The Disappearance of John Longworthy, Success of Patrick Desmond, The Vocation of Edward Conway, and A Marriage of Reason. He wrote also juvenile stories, among which Jack Chumleigh is noted for fun and frolic. As a poet, Doctor Egan ranks high in

American literature. Two volumes of verse published by him are Preludes and Songs and Sonnets.

Francis Marion Crawford (1854-1909), holds the first place in the American school of romantic novelists. Among his stories may be mentioned A Roman Singer, Dr. Claudius, and Marzio's Crucifix. He spent the greater part of his life in Rome, and his strongest subjects were Italian life and scenery.

Other American writers of the present era are: Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836- ), New Hampshire; Charles W. Stoddard (1843- ), New York; James Jeffrey Roche (1847- ), Ireland; Father John Talbot Smith (1855- ), New York, and many others whom limited space does not permit us to mention. Though the standard of excellence in American literary productions is not so high at present as in the "Golden Age" of Jackson's administration, the writers of history have been fairly successful in maintaining the standard set by Parkman, Bancroft, Motley, and Shea. Among historians of note may be mentioned Rev. A. Guggenberger, S. J. (1841-1906); Charles F. Lummis (1850- ), Massachusetts; James Schouler (1839- ), Massachusetts; John B. McMaster (1852- ), New York; Henry Adams (1858- ), Massachusetts; and James Ford Rhodes (1848- ), Ohio.

743. Catholicity. Religious liberty is, perhaps, less restricted in the United States than in any other country on the globe. Under the Constitution, every man may believe and preach what he will, so long as his doctrines and practice are not contrary to public morals and do not infringe upon the rights of others. If it is true that the Constitution is in harmony with the Catholic religion, it is also true that no religion in the United States is more in accord with it than is the Catholic. While the State is independent of the Church, this external separation in their different spheres does not hinder them from meeting on the fundamental religious principle, that God is the source of all government and all authority.

In the United States, the Catholic Church, whose children