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288 BOOK REVIEWS certing in many ways. Many of the basic authors on Descartes are omitted. One is happy to note five works of Professor Gilson but these concern rather St. Thomas and Thomism. The only work of Professor Gilson on Descartes listed in his Etudes sur le role de la pensee medievale dans la formation du systeme cartesien. The Discours de la methode, with its precious notes, the Index scolastico-cartesien, and Professor Gilson's articles on Descartes are nowhere mentioned. For most of the authors cited in the List, one notes, upon checking the Index of the book, that they are cited only once in the book. In the List of Works Cited each of these authors is given an abbreviation-symbol. One wonders why these symbols are necessary if the author is only mentioned once. R is used as the symbol for the Regulae of Descartes and also for the work of J. Wahl entitled Du role de l'idee de l'instant dans la philosophie de Descartes. One is tempted to find the reason for certain errors in Descartes and the Modern MĀ·ind in the author's insufficient knowledge of the literature on Descartes. We have particularly in mind the question of the dates of Descartes' stay at La Fleche. In the table: " Life of Descartes " placed at the end of the Preface (pp. ix-xii) the dates given are from l604-l6Hl. But the question has been the subject of careful research by Monsignor Monchamps (Hll3), by Cohen (1920), and by Sirven (1928). All agree Descartes went to La Fleche in 1606 and left in 1614 or 1615. The whole question has been very exactly summed up Professor Gilson in his commentary on the Discours de la methode, Paris, 1947, pp. 103-105. We regret that in referring to review articles the author gives no page references. The reader is thus unable to realize immediately the length of the articles. The Index of proper names leaves much to be desired. Certain names appearing in the book are not in the Index (Rosenfeld, p. 316, Roth, p. 4, 6, etc.) , others are in the Index but with incomplete references. University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Ind. ELIE DENISSOFF Counseling in Catholic Life and Education. By CHARLES A. CURRAN. New York: Macmillan, 1951. Pp. 488. $4.50. Historically, Father Curran's text is the mature unfolding of a thesis that was worked out several years ago in the clinical laboratory of Dr. Carl S. Rogers, then professor of psychology at Ohio State University. Himself an eminent authority in the field of non-directive counseling, Dr. Rogers always regarded Father Curran as a psychologist of great promise, despite the fact that differences of opinion existed between the two men BOOK REVIEWS ~89 in matters of interpretation. These differences, in the main, arose from a simple cause. Thus, Rogers was content to remain at an empiriological level in the explanation of his findings; whereas Father Curran, because of his philosophic and theological training, and especially because of his interest in the prudential wisdom of St. Thomas Aquinas, envisioned meanings and applications of the counseling process that would effect not only the more formal aspects of Catholic education, but also the wider reaches of Christian perfection and the Christian way of life in a secular world. After a brief introduction in which the general nature of counseling is set forth, and the particular nature of the non-directive method is fitted within its Thomistic framework, Father Curran applies himself with care to the task of analyzing the relation of counsel to prudence. The latter, as we all know, is first in the line of the cardinal virtues. More important to Father Curran's purpose is the fact that it is an incommunicable body of knowledge; enabling us to make moral decisions about the singular and contingent events in our lives. Because of the uniqueness of these events, prudence is an intensely private affair, lying at the core of all those movements that make for the integration of personality. From this point of view, it is the most individualistic of all our natural virtues; and since counsel is the prologue...

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