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The first edition of "The Garden of the Soul," by Bishop Challoner, was published in 1740, and it was reprinted without alteration in 1741. The present volume is a reprint of the 1741 impression.

The publishers’ purpose in reverting to the original text cannot better be displayed than by the quotation of a passage from Dr. Edwin Burton’s "Life and Times of Bishop Challoner": "So popular has been ‘The Garden of the Soul, so varied have been the countless editions, so numerous the added features, that at length, after 170 years, it has been edited out of all recognition. It has even come to pass that, in the constant addition of new devotions and the consequent need of omitting some portion of evil eee Vill Advertisement the original contents, Dr. Challoner’s original purpose has been lost sight of, with the result that these modern editions no longer embody the author’s main idea. For Dr. Challoner’s ‘Garden of the Soul’ was not a mere collection of prayers. It was designed to be a brief guide to the spiritual life, containing not prayers only, but information, instructions, and much practical advice... . There are long sections devoted to the consideration ‘of the ordinary actions of the day,’ ‘the necessary virtues to be exercised every day,’ and ‘preservatives and remedies against sin? This portion of the book, which has disappeared from the modern editions, is in effect a miniature treatise on the spiritual life."

In the present reprint certain necessary changes have been made. The lists of holidays of obligation (then no less than thirty-six in number), days of fasting and abstinence, etc., have been corrected into conformity with present-day usages; vespers and complin have required altering in the same sense; the invocation "Mater boni consilii" has been added to the Litany of Our Lady; and three or four sentences, over-explicit according to modern standards, in the Examination of Conscience have been modified.

The section (pp. 147-153) devoted to Bene-Advertisement IX diction has a particular interest because "it is the first description of Benediction given in any English prayer-book. At this time Benediction vas only in practice in the chapels attached to embassies or country-houses" (" Life and ‘Times of Bishop Challoner," supra).

With regard to format,- this book is of approximately the same size as the editions of 1740 ind 1741, and type of identical character and size has been used for it (technically known as < Caslon small pica," a type designed in the early wears of the 18th century). The first editions, however, were printed in black only.

‘8 whit vu iy out. it RAS g A ha an F 2 Pa e WA: STI aha Ai 4: i . b r P sà N wick aE L ni 2 ) Aw "0s PA eas MAA È y a l ‘ a IRA it i HN ARA Aua MAN i sd S C ~ ba ` $ "re ——— E i] < P mes TOP CHALLONER ISHOP Challoner was born in 1691. R He was educated at Douai, a place with which the present war has made everyone familiar; and after spending twenty-six years there as student, professor, and Superior, came back to England in 1730. Eleven years later he was consecrated as Coadjutor to Bishop Petre, whom he succeeded as Vicar Apostolic of the Midland District in 1758.

His death was hastened by the Gordon Riots, which lasted nearly six days . . . " "the illuminations"’ caused by the flames " "impressing the spectators at a distance with the lea that the whole metropolis was burning."?

The Bishop, who was then in his eighty-ninth year, never recovered the shock he had 1 Political Magazine for June and July, 1780 xii Bishop Challoner received from the burning of his churches, and the ruin inflicted on so many of his people. He died in January, 1781.

His character was summed up by his friend Dr. Milner in the following words:

"When I say that Bishop Challoner was a model of Christian virtue, every breast glows with a conviction of the truth; whatever I can allege in his commendation will barely answer the idea you have already formed of him; and when, on every occasion, I represent Bishop Challoner as a Saint, I say no more of him after his death than all who knew him have said of him during his life." 1 He was interred at Milton in Berkshire. The entry made in the Registry on the occasion by the Rector, the Revd. James George Warner, deserves to be recorded:

"Anno Domini 1781, Jany. 22, buried, the Revd. Dr. Richard Challoner, a popish priest, and titular Bishop of London and Salisbury; a very pious and good man, of great learning and extensive abilities."

1 Husenbeth's Life of Bishop Milner, p. 12.