The Catholic World Volume Ii Part 132

_The Source of the Nile_.--Mr. S. W. Baker read a paper before the "Royal Geographical Society," London, giving an "Account of the Discovery of Lake Albert Nyanza." The author commenced by saying that he began in 1861 the preparation of an expedition, in the hope of meeting Speke and Grant at the sources of the Nile. He employed the first year in exploring the tributaries of the Atbara, and afterward proceeded to Khartoum, to organize his party for the great White Nile.

In December, 1862, he started from Khartoum with a powerful force, embarked on board three vessels, and including twenty-nine animals of transport, camels, horses, and a.s.ses. Pursuing his course, he entered upon a dreary waste of water and reedy banks, where he soon lost his only European attendant, who was killed by fever. The remainder of the party safely reached Gondokoro, which is a wretched place, occupied only occasionally by traders seeking for slaves and ivory. After fifteen days the firing of guns announced some new arrivals, and a party arrived, among whom were two Englishmen, who proved to be Captains Speke and Grant, clothed in humble rags, but with the glory of success upon them. Captain Speke told him the natives declared that a large lake existed to the westward, which he believed would turn out to be a second source of the Nile, and that he himself had traced the river up to 2 20' N., when it diverged to the west, and he was obliged to leave it. Mr. Baker undertook to follow up the stream, and made his arrangements to join a trading party going southward. The trade along the White Nile really consisted of cattle-stealing, slave-catching, and murder, and the men whom he was obliged to engage at Khartoum were the vilest characters. He had applied through the British consul at Alexandria to the Egyptian government for a few troops to escort him; but the request was refused, although an escort was granted to the Dutch ladies upon the request of the French consul.

After Speke and Grant had left him, his men mutinied and tried to prevent his proceeding into the interior. His forty armed men threatened to fire upon him, and the Turkish traders whom he intended to accompany set off without him, and forbade him to follow in their track. At that time, beside his wife, he had but one faithful follower. But he managed to get back the arms from the recalcitrants, and induced seventeen of the men to go with him to the eastward, although none would undertake to go to the south. It was imperative that he should advance, and he followed the trading party who had threatened to attack him, and to excite the Ellyria tribe, through whom he must pa.s.s, against him. However, the chief of the trading party was brought over, and on the 17th of March, 1862, they safely arrived in the Latooka country, 110 miles east of Gondokoro. That country was one of the finest he had ever seen, producing ample supplies of grain and supporting large herds. The towns are large and thickly populated, and the inhabitants are a warlike but friendly race, who go naked, and whose chief distinction is their hair, which they train into a kind of natural helmet. The bodies of those of the tribe who are killed in fight are not buried, but those who die naturally are buried in front of the house in which they had dwelt, and at the expiration of a fortnight the bodies are exhumed, the flesh removed, and the bones put in earthen {854} pots, which are placed at the entrance of the towns. Like all the tribes of the White Nile, the Latookas seemed entirely devoid of any idea of a Supreme Being.

Indeed, the only difference between them and the beasts is that they can cook and light a fire. There are forests abounding with elephants, but cattle cannot live there on account of the "tsetse" fly. The chief was an old man, who was held to possess the power of producing or restraining rain by a magic whistle; but one day Mr. Baker happening to whistle upon his fingers in a loud key, the natives a.s.sumed that he had a power to control the elements, and frequently called upon him to exercise it. From Latooka he proceeded to Kamrasi's country, across an elevated region, the water-shed of the Sobat and White Nile rivers.

From the ridge he descended into the valley of the Asua, which river Captain Burton regarded as the main stream of the White Nile, but which, when Mr. Baker crossed it in January, did not contain enough water to cover his boots. On arriving at Shooa, a large number of the porters deserted him, but he pushed on for Enora. He crossed Karuma Falls in the same boat which had carried Captain Speke across, but he was detained for some days by the disinclination of the King Kamrasi to allow strangers to pa.s.s over, and it was only when Mr. Baker had exhibited himself on an elevated spot in full European costume that he received the desired permission. It appeared that a trading party, headed by one Debono, a Maltese, who had escorted Speke and Grant, had made a foray upon Kamrasi's country, and Mr. Baker was therefore looked upon with suspicion. From Karuma Falls the Nile flows due west, a rapid stream, bordered with fine trees. King Kamrasi, who was a well-dressed and cleanly person, although a great coward, was very suspicious, and sought to prevent Mr. Baker continuing his journey by representing that the great lake was six month's journey--a statement which Mr. Baker, himself ill, with his wife prostrate from fever, and his attendants refractory, received as a fatal blow to all his hopes.

Learning, however, from a native salt-dealer that the lake could be reached in something like ten days, he induced Kamrasi, by the present of his sword, to drink blood with his head man, and to allow them to depart. In crossing the Karan river on the way to the lake Mrs. Baker was struck down by a sunstroke, and remained almost insensible for seven days, during which time the rain poured down in torrents. On the eighteenth day after leaving Kamrasi they came in sight of the looked-for lake, a limitless sheet of blue water sunk low in a vast depression of the country. He descended the steep cliffs, 1,500 feet in height, leading Mrs. Baker by the hand, and, reaching the clean sandy beach, drank of the sweet waters. The western sh.o.r.e, sixty miles distant, consisted of ranges of mountains 7,000 feet in height. Upon achieving the object of their journeys, Mr. Baker named the lake Albert Nyanza. That lake, together with that of Victoria Nyanza, may be accepted as the great reservoir of the Nile. Embarking in canoes upon the lake, the party proceeded for thirteen days to the point where the upper river from Karuma Falls enters the lake by a scarcely perceptible current, while the lake itself suddenly turned westward; but its boundaries in that direction, as well as those of its southern termination, are unknown. The Nile issued from the lake precisely as the natives had reported to Speke and Grant, and from its exit the river is navigable as far as the narrows near the junction of the Asua. The author saw altogether from elevations three-fourths of the course of the Nile between its issue from the lake to Miani's Tree.

Mr. Baker's progress up the Upper or Karuma river was stopped, at fifteen miles distance, by a grand waterfall, which had been named Murchison Falls, in honor of the distinguished president of the Geographical Society. Upon their return to Kamrasi's country the travellers were detained nearly twelve months, the king being so impressed with the skill and knowledge of his European visitors that he could not be persuaded to let them leave him. Ultimately the travellers managed to get free, and, after a variety of difficulties with their attendants and the traders, arrived safely at Alexandria.

{855}

NEW PUBLICATIONS.

LIFE OF SAINT TERESA.

Edited by the Archbishop of Westminster. London: Hurst & Blackett. 1865.

St. Philip Neri, that gentle and wise guide of souls, advised those under his direction to read frequently the "Lives of the Saints."

Experience teaches how very profitable this is as an incitement to virtue. As we get a better idea of a person, a place, or an event by an accurate representation than by the most graphic description, so the detailed account of the workings of grace in a faithful soul oftentimes captivates the heart for G.o.d which frequent and fervent exhortation has failed to reach. But the amount of good which even the most striking example will produce upon the mind of the reader, will depend very materially upon the way in which the incidents in the life are presented. In the work before us we have the varied experience of one of the very n.o.blest and most courageous souls, through a long and eventful life, related in language which charms while it inspires. St.

Teresa's spirit was peculiarly one of chivalry and honor. She was a true child of her native Spain, that land of romance, the mother of so large a proportion of the more distinguished of the canonized saints of the Church. Avila, her birthplace, was known as the "City of Knights." She tells us herself how in youth and early womanhood she had revelled in stories of hazardous adventure, of deeds of valor, and acts of self-devotion, to a degree which, on reflection in after years, she thought had been very perilous to her fidelity to virtue.

But grace led captive that warm and impa.s.sioned heart, and stimulated her to do for G.o.d what many a brave knight is said to have done for the object of his love. As St. Paul said, "I can do all things in him who strengtheneth me." So, the more rough and jagged the front of the obstacles she had to oppose, the more invincible she proved herself to be. "No, my Lord!" she said on one occasion, "it is no fault of thine that those who love thee do not great things for thee; the fault is in our own cowardice and fears, because we never do anything without mingling with it a thousand apprehensions and human considerations."

The Holy Ghost had infused into her energetic soul a holy restlessness, and work, ceaseless work, hard work, alone could satisfy its cravings. While the foundations of Valentia and Burgos were in contemplation, so many difficulties came up, one after another, and among them ill health and the feebleness natural to a life now in its decline, that it seemed impossible that they could be effected. In speaking of this particular time she says: "It seems to me that one of the greatest troubles and miseries of life is the want of n.o.ble courage to bring the body into subjection; for though pain and sickness be troublesome, yet I account this as nothing when the soul can rise above them in the might of her love, praising G.o.d for them, and receiving them as gifts from his hand. But on the one hand to be suffering, and on the other to be able to do nothing, is a terrible thing, especially for a soul that has an ardent desire to find no rest, either interior or exterior, on earth, but to employ herself entirely in the service of her great G.o.d." She was in this unsettled state, her mind oppressed with doubt, when she begged light of our Lord at communion. He answered her interiorly: "Of what art thou afraid? When have I been wanting to thee? I am the same now that I have ever been. Do not neglect to make these two foundations." She then adds, "O great G.o.d! how different are thy words from those of men! I became so resolute and courageous that all the world would not have been able to hinder me." Here we have the key to her whole life.

Her stimulus, as well as strength, was personal love for our Lord.

When circ.u.mstances threw her back for a moment upon her own feebleness, she was powerless; but let her only hear an encouraging word from him, for which she instinctively listened, and in a moment she was fearless and unconquerable. Spiritual cowardice is the great obstacle which lies between numberless well-disposed {856} souls, nowadays, and perfection. How valuable, then, and how opportune, this life of the great-hearted St. Teresa! We offer our thanks and grat.i.tude to the devout and active Archbishop of Westminster, under whose editors.h.i.+p this useful life appears. From private authority we learn that its auth.o.r.ess is a religious of a convent of Poor Clares under the direction of the Oblate Fathers of St. Charles, in London.

We are tempted to envy this good religious the satisfaction and pleasure she must feel at having been instrumental in giving her Catholic brethren so welcome and powerful an aid to lead a holy life.

Although the name of the Oblate Fathers of St. Charles does not appear in connection with this work, their very recent connection with Dr.

Manning, and their existing relation to the convent from which this work has issued, compels us before closing this notice to thank them for the share which we suspect them to have had in its publication.

This suspicion is strengthened by the fact that from their hands we have received that perfect specimen of a beautiful book, "The Works of St. John of the Cross;" in unity of labor, as in spirit, the twin-brother of St. Teresa.

THE LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF ANDREW JOHNSON, SEVENTEENTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, including his State Papers and Public Speeches.

By John Savage, author of "Our Living Presidents," etc. Derby & Miller. 8vo, pp. 408.

The life of a man like Andrew Johnson must command the profound attention of every one who wishes to understand the age and country.

It is deeply interesting to ourselves, who have raised him from obscurity to the highest position in the nation, and are prepared to give him, without reference to party or opinion, our cordial and loyal support in his efforts to carry out the organic idea of national life.

The biography of Andrew Johnson is a history of the epoch. He is a representative man of his cla.s.s and age. It ill.u.s.trates the power of will to conquer and bring to its support a vast amount of coeval will, making itself the controlling and representative _will_. Few men are elected who are not in intrinsic as well as extrinsic harmony with the power electing. Fraud, chicanery, and deception have less to do with the results of our popular elections than is generally and flippantly a.s.serted. The great characteristics of President Johnson are strong natural ability, invincible determination, courage, ambition, loyalty to the Union, fidelity to his own convictions, and contempt for privilege and prescription.

Mr. Savage has written the text well and carefully, and interwoven the coincident history with more than ordinary correctness. There is one little point to which we would call attention, in, the contents of Chapter XVII. the pa.s.sage occurs, "_Granger and Thomas relieve Burnside._" In the same chapter, page 281, he says, "Granger and Sherman were sent into East Tennessee to relieve Burnside and raise the siege of Knoxville." Granger and Thomas did _not_ relieve Burnside. The opportune arrival of General Grant, the intelligent and vigorous co-operation of Sherman and Hooker on the extreme flanks, and the almost spontaneous charge of the center by the troops of the army of the c.u.mberland up and over Missionary Ridge, won the glorious victory of Chattanooga. General Grant immediately dispatched Sherman to the relief of Knoxville. Gordon Granger commanded a corps temporarily under Sherman, and was not distinguished for alacrity or zeal on that occasion. Sherman relieved Knoxville as a part of Grant'^s grand plan of the campaign. The work is issued in handsome style, and has a correct steel engraving of the President.

THE LETTERS OF WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1769-1791). Translated from the collection of Ludwig Nohl by Lady Wallace; with a portrait and fac-simile. 2vols., 12mo. New York: Hurd & Houghton. 1866.

The many thousands living who know, and the many thousands who are yet to know, the works of the great Mozart, will not fail to welcome this true picture of his artist life. It forms, indeed, rather a continuous journal, very little short of an autobiography, than a mere chance collection of letters; extending as they do from a date when he was but thirteen years old up to within a few days of his death. One would look in these letters, of course, for a great deal about music, and musical composition, operas, concerts, and the {857} like, but hardly expect to find so much as there is of Mozart's personal life, his thoughts, plans, detailed descriptions of nearly all he saw and heard, revealing to the reader, better than any biographer could, the real character of this crowned master of the heavenly art. Possessing an intensely vivid imagination and a sprightly wit, his letters sparkle with humor. He dearly loves to say odd, pleasant things to make them laugh at home. Here is one taken at random:

"VIENNA, April 11, 1781.--_Te Deum Laudamus!_ at last that coa.r.s.e, mean Brunetti is off, who disgraces his master, himself, and all the musicians: so say Cecarelli and I. Not a word of truth in any of the Vienna news, except that Cecarelli is to sing at the opera in Venice during the ensuing carnival. _Potz Himmel!_ and all sorts of devils!

I hope that is not swearing, for if so, I must at once go to confession again, from which I have just returned, because to-morrow (Maunday Thursday) the archbishop is to administer the sacrament to the whole court in his own gracious person. Cecarelli and I went to the Theatine monastery to try to find Pater Froschauer, as he can speak Italian. A _pater_ or a _frater_, who was at the altar tr.i.m.m.i.n.g the lights, a.s.sured us the Pater, as well as another who perfectly knows Italian, were not at home, and would not return till four o'clock. What did please me was, that on my saying to the clerical candle-snuffer that eight years ago I had played a violin concerto in this very choir, he instantly named me. Now, as far as swearing goes, this letter is only a _pendant_ to my former one, to which I hope to receive an answer by the next post."

Mozart lived and died a pious Catholic. Such might be gleaned from his compositions, expressive as they are of that deep religious reverence, and sense of the sublime majesty of the holy faith, which he possessed in so marked a manner. He felt and fully appreciated the power of inspiration which Catholic life possesses to elevate the soul, and realize in art, as in every form of the beautiful and the true, its n.o.blest aspirations. "You know," he writes to his father, "that there is nothing I desire more than a good appointment--good in reputation--good in money--no matter where, provided it be in a Catholic country." The piety of his ordinary life may be seen in the manner in which he prepared for his marriage. "Previous to our marriage," he writes, "we had for some time past attended ma.s.s together, as well as confessed and taken the holy communion: and I found that I never prayed so fervently, nor confessed so piously, as by her side, and she felt the same."

There is throughout these letters a certain free, off-hand way of dealing with all sorts of subjects and persons which evinces a strong and independent spirit, and shows us that Mozart, though often obliged to dawdle at the heels of n.i.g.g.ardly and exacting patrons, never lost his own self-respect. He had too keen a sense of his own merits, and of the too frequent lack of any merit at all in his compet.i.tors, not to be pardonably vain. He sought praise, it is true, and revelled in it, and loved to repeat what had been said of him, yet with so much boyish simplicity as to banish from the mind of the reader all judgment of affectation. He gives an amusing account of an interview with the composer Becke, of whom, it must be confessed, he was not a little jealous. "At his request I tried his piano, which is very good.

He often said 'Bravo!' I extemporized, and also played the sonatas in B and D. In short, he was very polite, and I also polite, but grave.

We conversed on a variety of topics--among others, about Vienna, and more particularly that the emperor was no great lover of music. He said, 'It is true he had some knowledge of composition, but of nothing else. I can still recall (and here he rubbed his forehead) that when I was to play before him I had no idea what to play, so I began with some fugues and trifles of that sort, which in my own mind I only laughed at.' I could scarcely resist saying, 'I can quite fancy your laughing, but scarcely so loud as I must have done had I heard you.'

He further said (what is the fact) that the music in the emperor's private apartments is enough to frighten the crows. I replied, that whenever I heard such music, if I did not quickly leave the room, it gave me a headache. 'Oh, no! it has no such effect on me; bad music does not affect my nerves, but fine music never fails to give me a headache.' I thought to myself again, such a shallow head as yours is sure to suffer when listening to what is beyond its comprehension."

{858}

Altogether, it is a delightful book. It comes to us in a neat scholarly dress, creditable to the publishers, and as worthy of a wide circulation among the lovers of art as it is certain to have a distinguished entree into all literary circles.

HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES CAVALRY FROM THE FORMATION OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO THE FIRST OF JUNE THE 1ST 1863.

To which is added a list of all the Cavalry Regiments, with Names of their Commanders, which have been in the United States service since the breaking out of the Rebellion. By Albert G. Brackett, Major First U. S. Cavalry, Colonel Ninth Illinois Volunteer Cavalry, etc., etc.

12mo., pp. 337. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1865.

Col. Brackett has presented the history of the U. S. cavalry, brought down to 1863, in a modest and soldierlike manner. It is the first attempt at a systematic literary record of an arm of the service, and we hope it will be followed by others, in order to perpetuate traditions most interesting to the people and honorable to the brave men who have trodden the wilds of the forest and prairie, subdued the savage, and performed gallant deeds from the Rio Grande to the Columbia, and from the James to the Colorado of the West.

Few persons living in towns and cities can appreciate the intelligence, courage, and cheerful self-sacrifice which have been the characteristics of American soldiers, who have borne such an important but un.o.btrusive part in the conquest of the natural obstacles to the settlement of the continent, and been the pioneers on the great lines of emigration and improvement. The material subjugation of the wilderness has been no less heroic than their military triumphs. In all these great events the cavalry has acted a most conspicuous part.

This book will be welcomed at all the military posts, and become an authority at every mess-table and camp-fire. Its personal reminiscences are, perhaps, its most pleasing and attractive feature.

They recall vividly men and scenes identified with our early life, now pa.s.sed away for ever. Col. Brackett has done a graceful thing in including Dr. Joseph B. Brown, U.S. A., in his dedication; a purer man and better officer does not live than Dr. Brown.

The work concludes at a period when the volunteer cavalry was beginning to be useful and efficient. The history will not be complete till their splendid services under Wilson at the battle of Nashville are recorded. No one who saw them moving in long gleaming lines on the extreme right on the morning of the 15th of December, 1864, or heard the ceaseless converging roll of the repeating carbines of the dismounted two thousand reverberating amidst the wood-crowned hills, will ever forget the picture or the sound.

THOUGHTS ON THE FUTURE CIVIL POLICY OH AMERICA.

By John William Draper, M.D., LL.D. Crown 8vo., pp. 317. Harper & Brothers. Third Edition.

This is the t.i.tle of a beautifully printed and bound volume, by Prof.

Draper, who is well known for his scientific attainments and elegant scholars.h.i.+p.

It might be called a treatise on the psychology and physiology of national life, especially applied to the American republic in its present and possible character and destiny. It is written from a point of view directly opposed to Catholic theology and philosophy, and a.s.serts the dominion of the natural in opposition to the supernatural.

It rejects the supernatural and subst.i.tutes irresponsible force for intelligent, benignant Providence. It recognizes only the plane of natural reason, and denies by implication the transition from the natural to the supernatural in the incarnation.

Dr. Draper is the best representative of the school of Guizot, Carlyle, and Buckle, inasmuch as he is more calm and dispa.s.sionate, and if he possess less erudition than they, he has more scientific knowledge and the discipline of practical teaching to chasten and modify his forms of thought and expression. Dr. Draper, we do not question, desires conscientiously to promulgate the true doctrines of national life and development. He announces many important truths, and his a.n.a.lyses of historic periods in the domain of the material and intellectual are often clear, precise, and beautiful. There is a good deal of orientalism in his thoughts, and it seems to us that his own imagination is profoundly affected by the gorgeous pictures pa.s.sing before it in the process of {859} intellectual creation. The same observation applies to his style and imagery, and his writings possess the power, like Carlyle's, of stimulating the imagination of the leader to the highest degree, often to the detriment of the reason.

He chooses the close of his magnificent periods to dart a keen, condensed, carefully studied, dogmatic a.s.sertion into the mind like an arrow, while the faculties are for the moment blinded by the splendor of diction and the pomp of highly colored ill.u.s.tration.

Dr. Draper is exceedingly cautious and guarded as to his conclusions, and leaves the necessary inferences to be drawn by the reader. His influence has a tendency toward one of two directions, either an oriental, sensuous, hopeless intellectual apathy, or a senseless, because objectless, material activity.

Dr. Draper does not deny the existence of G.o.d; but how he can a.s.sert it while attempting to demonstrate the omnipotence of natural law and _force_, we do not understand. His doctrines lead either to nihilism or pantheism. Dr. Draper is ent.i.tled to high respect as a philosopher of the natural order from Catholics, for the reason that he has always been generous in his statements of Catholicity in its natural and exterior aspects and relations. His tributes to the Church are among the most cordial, appreciative, and eloquent that have been uttered in modern times by non-Catholics. He has however done much in the present volume to diminish this claim, established in some of his former writings. He is the representative in this country, at least, of the great controversy between the Church and the natural life of man-- between the two orders, natural and supernatural--between science and authority.

There can be no antagonism between science and infallible authority; for truth is a unit, comes from G.o.d, and returns to him, like light from the sun, its type and figure. Religion has nothing to fear from science. The occasional apparent opposition has been personal and temporary, not ex-cathedral and eternal. There can be no conflict between the spoken word of G.o.d and his actualized word, creation. The dispute is an old one. There is no change in the principles involved; but the form is modified by experience, development, and scientific research. It must be reviewed in the retrospect of history, present knowledge, and the prevision of science. There can be no doubt but the illumination of the whole subject will ill.u.s.trate (it cannot prove) the truths of revelation, as practical science ill.u.s.trates the judgments of common sense.

Dr. Draper is an able philosopher and doctor of material progress and the natural order. His advice to the people of this country is sound and wise, and it will be well for our temporal prosperity if his suggestions are heeded by those who have control of public affairs.

His work is in some sense complementary of Dr. Brownson's recent great work, and there are some striking a.n.a.logies between them.

The binding and execution of the book are in Harpers' best style, and leave little to be desired in this department of luxury.