The special feature of Dr. Laemmer's conversion appears to us to consist in this, under the grace of God, that he approached faith through its historic side. Sound and conscientious historical research has been the means of his deliverance from bondage. His mind from boyhood inclined towards things grave; the details he communicates concerning his choice of authors reveal that sobriety of judgment which is the first quality of a student of history. The bent of his mind in this direction was strengthened by study of the fathers, of the history of the Papacy, and of the Catholic theology of the Reformation period. We invite special attention to the happy result of historical studies in his case, because we see in it a promise of much future good for Catholic truth in Germany. The broad distinction between the German method of the present century and that of the past, lies in this, that the nineteenth century is the age of historical inquiry, whereas the last century was that of critical thought. Even the Tübingen school is an improvement on the destructiveness of Strauss, for it admits and calls attention to the historical value of at least some portion of the Scriptures. In the other schools, above described, this tendency is of course still more marked. The modern spirit tends not so much to examine the ontological value of an opinion, as to investigate how men came to hold that opinion. It was this spirit which suggested the questions of concursus, which, as we shall see, changed the current of Dr. Laemmer's life. Now we hold it very probable that as this spirit becomes more extended, its fruits will be these: men will become familiar with the teachings of Christian antiquity; and although this knowledge may be sought not for the sake of the doctrine itself, but as a preliminary to other studies, still, such is the divine power of truth, that, once revealed to the soul, it creates therein a wondrous craving after itself, which will dispose the soul for the grace of faith. There must be at this moment many thoughtful men in Germany, who, in virtue of this spirit, are engaged in the examination of the fathers and of the theologians of the Catholic Church, and, who, finding themselves, like Dr. Laemmer, between the ruins caused by Protestantism and the unbroken strength of Catholic teaching, are even now turning their eyes towards Rome, therein to seek her who was their mother of old.