THIS book, received with such favour and indulgence by the public is not written through any vain desire of obtaining celebrity; it is a work of patience and of faith, a flower placed on the altar of Mary, with the simple heart of a pilgrim of the good old times. A better historian the Virgin undoubtedly deserved; but one more sincerely desirous to see her name glorified and her devotion extended she could not find.
The history of the Queen of Angels, the mystical rose of the New Law, is a theme so poetical in itself that it naturally calls forth the most beautiful and refined ideas, as well as the most dignified expressions of language. It is an Oriental recital, reflecting the manners, the glories, and the sites of Asia; and so can it appear strange that the style should be impressed with an Eastern tint?