APPROVALS. Auctoritate a Reverendissimo Patre Nuncio Mauron, Superiore Generali Congregationis SS. Redemptoris, nobis commissa, licentiam dedimus R. Patri Dechamps in lucem edendi opus, cui titulus, La Nouvelle Eve, ou la Mère de la Vie, a duobus ordinis nostri Theologis ad id deputatis perlectum et adprobatum. J. KOCKEROLS, C.S.S., De Red. Sup. Prov. Belg. Brusellis, die 7 Martii 1862. Nous avons lu, conformément aux intentions de Mgr. l'Evêque, un livre intitulé, La Nouvelle Eve, ou la Mère de la Vie; Souvenirs et Prières, &c., par le R. P. Dechamps. Nous avons remarqué dans cet ouvrage, approuvé par les Supérieurs de la Congrégation du très Saint Rédempteur, un heureux ensemble de considerations sur les grandeurs, les grâces, les vertus de la Sainte Vierge, sur le culte qui lui est dû, et les pratiques de piété qui s'y attachent. Cet ouvrage, qui respire la foi la plus vive, et la confiance la plus entière dans la puissante protection de la Mère de Dieu, nous a paru propre à démontrer tout ce que la dévotion envers la Sainte Vierge renferme de solide, de suave, et d'éfficace, et combien des âmes desireuses de leur perfection doivent y être fidèles. Nous en autorisons l'impression, et nous en recommandons tout particulièrement la lecture pendant le mois de Marie. Tournai, Fête de N. D. des Sept Douleurs, 11 Anril 1862. A. P. V. DESCAMPS, Vic. Gen. PREFACE. We have given the title of Recollections to this work, that our readers may not be tempted to seek or even to suppose they can find any thing new in it. The thoughts and the prayers of which it is composed are, in fact, recollections of what the faith, the wisdom, and the piety of our fathers have handed down to us from age to age, from the very first centuries of the Church. If they appear here and there in a new light, it is because truth has never been grasped on all sides, nor has ever been embraced entirely by the mind of man, and that no one can gaze attentively on that truth which is always old without discovering there beauties which are always new. But what are these Recollections? Are they meditations? Doubtless they contain matter for meditation, but they are not meditations. They are religious reflections, the greater part of which require only a little modification to become instructions on the knowledge and the cultus or worship of the Blessed Virgin. We had at first, indeed, intended to give them this general title, which we afterwards changed for that of The Second Eve; or, the Mother of Life, as corresponding more entirely to their fundamental idea, and as better suited for a work intended chiefly for persons in the world. We hope, however, that this little book may not prove wholly without use to our colleagues in the Sacred Ministry, many of whom have, doubtless, experienced what befell ourselves at the conclusion of our theological studies. From the impossibility of fathoming, in the course of a few years, all the depths of the science of sciences, our notions were far more imperfect than they are now of many truths relating to the Mother of God, and her intimate union with the mysteries of the Incarnation and Redemption,—such as the order of her dignity, her grace, her merit, her unrivalled place in the Divine economy of man's salvation, her quality or function of universal Mediatrix of prayer and intercession. On these different points, and on many others, we might, then, and in perfect good faith, have treated the most sublime and certain truths as pious exaggerations, because the great theological works which treat these subjects with the fulness which they deserve were then unknown to us. If any one had then given us an analysis of at least their most important contents, he would have rendered us a most essential service. The first part of this work contains such an analysis, but in a form which may suit all readers, because, as we have said, it is intended principally for persons in the world. We are persuaded that all the pages of this book, not only those of the second part, which is the longest and most practical, but also those of the first, are perfectly within the reach of the faithful. The chapter which requires the greatest attention to be fully understood is unquestionably the second, which, nevertheless, is entirely founded on a long passage from an ascetical |