Those who appreciate devotional reading in which literary and spiritual
beauty are combined, already know and value Pere Charles' three little volumes of meditations La Priem de Touter les Heures. The enormous success of this book in its original form encouraged the publication of a translation of its first and finest part. This has now been followed by a further instalment, Prayer for all Times, Second Series (Sands & Co., 5s.) by the same translator, Mother Maud Monahan ; well known for her excellent biography of Mother Janet Stuart. Pere Charles' meditations owe their compelling charm to a peculiar balance of qualities. They are the reveries of a modem man, fully conscious of the tension of modern life, its practical problems and needs ; yet of a _ religious mystic saturated in Christian philosophy and possessed of a poetic imagination and singularly flexible style. Alas ! not all these virtues survive translation into Mother Monahan's industrious but undistinguished prose. The reader's disappointments begin on the first page and recur as each favourite passage is reached. We have left the studio of the expert craftsman for the " dip& de bondieuserie." Nevertheless, much beauty of thought remains, as in the meditations on Silence, and on " giving in the most perfect way " : and those who cannot read the original will be grateful for this opportunity of making acquaintance with a writer who has the art of conveying with a persuasive gentleness the deepest lessons of the spiritual life.
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