A Number of artists practising the art of wood engraving, have formed themselves into a Society for the purpose of holding Exhibitions from time to time.

Membership of the Society is confined to those who use the European method of wood engraving. This method, distinguished from the Japanese or Eastern method by the fact that prints are obtained by means of the printing-press, is more suitable to the tradition and temperament of European artists, and is of greater utility in connection with book production and decoration.

Decoration (a word formerly always prefixed by the word “mere”) is now returning to its right place at the head of artistic activities. In a decoration the artist is forced to consider the actual beauty of his work, and only secondly the beauty of the story or scene depicted. And as the bootmaker, however useful he may be as a voter, is as a workman primarily a maker of footwear, so the artist, however useful he may be as a story-teller is, as an artist, primarily a maker of things of beauty and not things of sentiment.

Admirable in its tone and temper, entirely lucid in statement, and very thorough in its examination of the writings relative to the subject, the value of Dr. O’Brien’s work, as a contribution to our knowledge of Catholic teaching in the Middle Ages, can hardly be rated too highly. The value is the greater to-day when the minds of many, their hearts perturbed by the strife of capital and labour, are turned to the ages of faith for light and guidance.

What was the Christian teaching in the Middle Ages on the economic relations of man to man? Wherein did it differ from the political economy taught in schools and colleges in the nineteenth century?

The first thing to note is that scientific economics as such were unknown to the great medieval teachers, for whom economics did not exist as a separate study. Much was written on labour, property, usury, and trade ; but all these things were subject to the laws of justice and charity, and the economic relations of man to man were governed by the Christian teaching on morals. Our modern political economy is something entirely different from this, for it distinctly and definitely excludes the moral question.

Not the least of the many obstacles that prevent the English people from getting at the truth of things concerning the history of the Catholic Church is the method of the Protestant historian—a method employed with conspicuous success from Foxe, with his Book of Martyrs, until our own day.

Various simple devices, which may be detected by the student or general reader, are the signs of the Protestant method in history. Similar devices are employed by all writers engaged rather in making out a special case for a person or cause than in telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

i. The selection of facts to establish a theory or bolster up a prejudice, accompanied by a discreet silence where the known facts do not fit the theory, This suppressio veri rarely fails to effect its purpose, and is the distinguishing mark of all our popular Protestant history books.

2. The attachment of epithets, often question begging epithets, always epithets that stick, to the names of prominent persons or events : irresistible this to Carlyle, too often sacrificing truth to picturesque description. By styling Henry VIII “bluff King Hal,” Mary Tudor “bloody,” and Elizabeth “good Queen Bess,” lively but quite unrecognizable portraits were presented, suitably framed, for the Protestant parlours of John Bull.

3. The citing for reference as authorities non-Catholic authors only. This is doubly effective, for it implies either that no Catholics have written on the subject, or that the non-Catholic writers alone are trustworthy : both conclusions may be drawn where anti-Catholic prejudice is strong.

One would think that it was unnecessary to commend the study of history to Catholics, and that they would be quick to recognize the historical action of the Church upon the world of secular society as the chief formative influence in European civilization. Especially interesting would be the study of the “Middle Ages,” as those centuries witnessed some of the most specific developments of essentially Christian ideas.

By the Norman Conquest the Church in England was invigorated ; the development of Feudalism was more than counterbalanced by the creation of the system of Law and Administration ; while the conflict between Church and State, which everywhere took place, assumed in England an exceedingly interesting and important form. Nowhere was the idea of Liberty better understood or more strenuously vindicated than by such champions as Becket, Langton and De Montfort. Imagination might sometimes be stimulated by the thought that we ourselves have seen history made, and that the recent startling changes in the map of Europe bring it back again to a strange resemblance of what it was five hundred years ago.