In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of LOAN STACK TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 153 THE first part of this work, viz., the "Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ," has been already published on the other side of the Atlantic; but somehow the translation was not approved of by American readers, and I have endeavored to place before them a new version of a work so justly esteemed. In looking over the translation already made by a learned gentleman of Dublin, I very soon perceived that his great error lay in a too close adherence to the original, thereby cramping and constraining, to a certain extent, the English meaning. There is no denying that the translation is, in the main, a faithful one; but it is in but it is in many instances too faithful to the French to be altogether true to the English, seeing that the genius of the two languages is so very, very different. If I have succeeded, even partially, in making this great work acceptable to the American public, I shall be well repaid for my labor. With respect to the second part, the "Lives of the Apostles," I am not aware that it has been as yet translated, and I feel happy to offer it to those who cannot enjoy it in the beauty of the original. I am fully conscious that my translation will give but a faint idea of the author's style, but I have the poor consolation of knowing that very few translations ever do. I have done it to the best of my ability; and if it be not all that the reader could wish, surely it is better than having a work so rare and so valuable locked up in the recesses of a foreign language. I am only sorry that this most valuable production of the learned and pious De Ligny has not 675 fallen into better hands; but as the task has devolved on me, I have endeavored to perform it in what I considered the most suitable manner that is to say, without any of those meretricious ornaments of style which might infringe on the chaste simplicity of the learned author. The Scriptural portions of the work, I have, of course, copied with the most scrupulous care from an approved version of the New Testament, and I trust they will be found correct. MONTREAL, August, 1851. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. MANY pious and enlightened persons have considered that a work like this might not be altogether useless; and hence it is that its author has placed it before the public. He first undertook it with the sole idea that it was a good and suitable work for the leisure hours of a priest; and even in occupying those hours, it was productive of some advantage to himself, so that he could not consider such time ill spent. But if this work may also serve to instruct the faithful, he believes it his duty not to withhold it from them. His idea is not a new one, and he has no desire to claim the merit of invention. There are in existence numberless concordances of the four Gospels, wherein the word of God and the word of man are interwoven, as in this work. Many, almost numberless, are the commentaries and reflections on the Gospels; so that the present writer can lay claim to nothing peculiar, excepting only his style and his selections, together with some observations which he believed necessary, in order to explain certain obscure texts. Even for these he cannot venture to claim originality: he can only say that he has never seen them in any of the authors consulted by him. To these are added some moral reflections, which grew out of the subjects before him, and which appeared to the author as calculated to excite and nourish piety. He has also endeavored to explain some of the evangelical dogmas. The nature of the work required that these explanations should be brief, and it was, moreover, necessary to make them clear and simple: it is for the reader to judge wheth er he has succeeded in these points. These explanatory notes are not intended for professed theologians. Far be it from the author's mind to think of giving instruction to those whom he considers as his masters. No; they are solely intended for that numerous class who, in matters concerning religion, have no more than the limited knowledge usually obtained in what is called "a Christian education." They may also be found of some value to those ecclesiastics who have as yet made no very profound study of Scripture or theology, or to those who may have forgotten, in the multitude of their avocations, a portion of what they had in early life acquired. Many of these explanations are directed against heretics, for it is always useful to know how they pervert the Scriptures in support of their errors, and the manner in which the Church confutes them. Protestants in particular are frequently referred to, as being more known to us, and coming in closer contact with us. But there is yet another reason-shall we venture to confess it? There are sometimes found among us Catholics (at least by profession) who advance in conversation the same opinions as they do; and who, though not daring to maintain them as dogmas, at least propose them speculatively. This mode of speaking is seldom found in countries where the leaven of Protestantism has not penetrated, which fact shows plainly the origin of the evil. Whether those who assume this tone believe or do not believe what they say-for it generally happens that there is more of vanity than of conviction in these flippant remarks-yet every Catholic, who is truly attached to the faith of his fathers, will be very glad to have the means either of enlightening or confounding them, as the case may require. The authorities whom the author has followed in explaining the sacred text are, generally speaking, the Fathers of the Church, and the best authorized commentators. He embraces no particular system, and gives no opinion of his own on those questions; he simply fol |
