Synopsis "Eight Months at Rome During the Vatican Council"
THE Memoirs of the Vatican Council which are here presented to the public, are the work of a sincere and liberal Roman Catholic, and are inspired by a genuine desire to promote the welfare of that religion. The book is marked by a spirit of frankness and moderation, and there is abundant internal evidence to show that the writer had peculiar means and opportunities of closely observing the incidents which he depicts, and of recording them with accuracy. When to these recommendations it is added that the subject is one of universal and enduring interest, enough has been said to justify the attempt that is made to render the work accessible to the generality of English readers by this translation. The Translator is however sensible, that some injustice may have been done to the original, in a version which has been undertaken by one who is little acquainted with the metaphysical arguments in which the Author frequently engages; and with the technical language in which those arguments are embodied. The general meaning of the original has, it is hoped, been invariably preserved; but there are refinements and distinctions in the Italian, which may not have been always rendered with perfect accuracy, and which the English language is, perhaps, scarcely fitted to reproduce. To errors of this nature, for which the Translator must be held responsible, the Author and the reader will, it is hoped, alike extend their indulgence. The author explains his method of presentation: "After this preamble, it is hardly necessary to add that the Council is here regarded, not in its bearing on theology and canon law, but in its relation to civil life; and that it is studied, not from within, which was, indeed, impossible for common spectators, but from without, as the title-page is intended to indicate. It only remains for us to assure the reader that, though these sketches may be wanting in the depth and research which 80 grave a subject demands, yet by way of compensation they are strictly conformable to truth; for there is very little related of which the Author was not a personal witness, or which he did not receive on authority of equivalent value."
