Book Description

Excerpt from A Popular History of the Catholic Church in the United States IT is seldom, indeed, that the American Catholic author of a strictly Catholic book, has the gratification of adding a few words to the fourth edition of his fist book within a few months after its first issue. Yet, scarcely six months have passed since the first copy of the present volume was given to the public. The earliest edition was so quickly disposed of, that I had but little time to make a hasty re vision, when another was called for. Soon a third edition was demanded, and, now, a fourth. I feel that I am deeply indebted to the kindness and generous appreciation of our Catholic public. To express fully my warm gratitude, I am at a loss for fitting terms. Were my volume a novel, or a romance, I would not be so astonished at its success; but it is a book of dates, facts, and figures, a book in which imagination had little room for play, a book, in fine, standing on the solid ground of truth. But, after all, perhaps, truth is stranger than fiction. Nor are my thanks less due to the American, Canadian, and British press, for the friendly expressions of welcome, the manly, courteous reception accorded to my first literary venture in the book-world. But I thank, above all, those learned and venerable Rulers of the Church whose valued, weighty, and beauti ful words of encouragement, I'can never forget. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.