66 with a Jew Pedlar, a Swiss Merchant, and an Italian Count! At Bologna I stayed two days to see the paintings, of which there are many by the first masters. Those in the Government Gallery are well worth seeing, but those in the churches are, in general, so much faded, that, whatever their beauty might once have been, it is now lost. There were, however, in these churches some specimens of Catholic superstition, which were very striking. In that of St. Dominic I saw a printed tablet hung up in front of one of the little side-chapels, which contained a picture of the Virgin with Jesus on her knees. It had the following title: " A most holy Prayer, to be said before the ancient and miraculous Image of the Blessed Virgin, who was for many ages worshiped under the title of St. Mary of the Fevers at St. George's at Miramonti, afterwards at St. Girolamus', and now at St. Dominic's." The prayer then begins, "O most holy Virgin Mary! Mother of God," &c., and proceeds, "Entreat for me your most beloved Son Jesus, whom you hold to your breast, to avert the fever from my house," &c., without saying a word about God. The paper then directs that the Ave Maria should be said three times; and lastly, there is a very short prayer to Almighty God in Latin, stuck in at the end as if to save appearances! And what, after all, is the subject of this prayer? Not that God would himself avert the fever, but that he would make the supplicants sensible that the Virgin was interceding for them; "tribue, quæsumus, ut ipsam pro nobis intercedere sentiamus, per quam meruimus auctorem vitæ suscipere." Much in the same style, though not quite so flagrant, is the following prayer, addressed to St. Emigdy (S. Emidio), the averter of earthquakes: I copied it from a tablet in one of the churches. "A Prayer to the glorious Saint Emigdy, Bishop and Martyr. O most glorious Saint Emigdy, Bishop and Martyr! I pray you with all earnestness to obtain from the most high God, for this city and people, and for me in particular, miserable sinner that I am, the grace of being freed from the infliction of the earthquake, through the intercession to wit of the Virgin Mary, (our Advocate and Protectress,) with her most holy and divine Son. Amen." Then follow a few short prayers in Latin to the same Saint, then a prayer to God, and lastly the benediction of the Saint. Such things as these surely need only to be made known in order to be condemned.-If I had wanted any further proof that I was among a superstitious people, I should have found it in a procession which I witnessed in the afternoon of this day. There is kept, it seems, in a church two or three miles out of the town, a picture of the Virgin, which the good Catholics believe to have been painted by St. Luke the Evangelist. Once a year this picture is brought to the Cathedral of Bologna, where it remains four days to the great edification of the inhabitants, who come and kneel before it. On the third day it is carried in high state, accompanied by all the priests and friars that the town can muster, to the church of San Petronius, where it gives its benediction and then returns. This ceremony happened to see; and strange it was to behold the whole multitude fall down on their knees, and cross themselves most devoutly, as her Ladyship courtesied to them three times from the top of the steps. Yet there are persons who think that such mummery as this can last! I 15th. In the afternoon of this day, the Madonna was carried back to her usual residence in the country, between which and the town there is a covered way the whole distance. She was escorted by the same attendance as the day before, and gave her blessing to the people as she went along the streets. Heretic that I was, I cannot say that I much valued the salute of the little, ugly, black-looking picture, which was paraded about with so much state. 16th and 17th. There is a diligence twice a week from Bologna to Milan, passing through Modena, Parma, Placentia, and Lodi. In this I took my place, and found it a much preferable conveyance to the voitures, though from the frequent interruption of the Douane, and still more from purely bad management, it is thirty-six hours in going one hundred and forty-five English miles. What should we think of one of our stage-coaches if it were to take three hours in changing the luggage from one coach to another, and making out fresh weigh-bills, and if, in another place, it were to stop six hours in the middle of its journey for no good reason whatever? Yet this is the way they do things on the Continent, especially in Italy. The road, however, was good, and the country through which we travelled, one of the most fertile parts of this garden of Europe. The wheat was all shooting into ear, the haymakers were busy at work in the meadows, and the vines, now in full leaf, were either hanging each on its own separate elm, or stretching in graceful festoons from tree to tree, while the distant view to the South was bounded by the noble range of the Apennines, which I had crossed in coming from Florence a few days before. Through this whole line of country, and particularly in the States of the Grand Duke of Modena, there were signs of industry, and of consequent prosperity, which it was very pleasing to remark. In the afternoon of the second day we arrived at Milan, which appears to be in every respect one of the best of the Italian towns-the streets well paved, and the shops and houses very good. There is also a degree of style in the dresses and equipages of the inhabitants, which is a clear indication of wealth and fashion. The principal architectural ornament of the town is the Cathedral-an immense building in the gothic style, though somewhat different from other structures of the same order in England. The interior has a grand and imposing effect, notwithstanding innumerable faults. It has two aisles on each side of the nave, formed by rows of pillars which are lofty and massive; but the nave itself is too narrow compared with its length; and the dim and dirty colour of the pillars makes an unpleasant contrast with the whiteness and the beauty of the richly ornamented ceiling. Besides this, there is a great want of light in the choir, which is still further spoiled by a trumpery representation of Christ on the cross, and St. John, and one of the Marys standing by. Still, with all its faults, the whole is grand, and the dome and transept particularly light and beautiful. The church of Milan still retains the ritual of St. Ambrosius, and has many practices which are peculiar to itself. One certainly struck me as being both very peculiar and very excellent. When I went into the Cathedral on the Sunday afternoon, I found no less than seven different services going on at the same time. In one place was a layman, with a hundred or two of men about him, to whom he was preaching in a very familiar but animated style. The audience were all seated on benches placed in a square form round the orator, who was also seated. Beyond this congregation was another of about the same size, who were listening to the exhortations of a priest; and on the other side of the same transept, were three other smaller and more juvenile audiences assembled round three young priests, who were explaining the Catechism, occasionally putting questions to those about them, and then enlarging on the answers which were given. There was one of them who particularly struck me: he had a fine, intelligent countenance, and his clear style and interesting manner fixed the attention of all around him. He was lecturing on the miracles of Jesus Christ, as a proof of his being the Messiah; and he afterwards proceeded to discourse on the conversion of the Gentiles, which, he contended, must have been miraculous, for six or seven distinct reasons, all of which I do not remember; nor, indeed, had he time to enlarge on more than one or two, but I well recollect the first, which was the character of the apostles. "Who were the apostles ?" said he, turning to a boy on his left hand. The answer I could not catch; but the preacher himself continued, "They were poor men, without riches, without connexions, without eloquence, without any thing;" and so he proceeded to argue, that they could not have accomplished so mighty a work as the conversion of the Gentiles by their own unaided powers. After this service was over I went into one of the side aisles, and I there found two other little audiences collected round two priests, one of whom was discoursing, in a most clear and luminous manner, on the immortality of the soul. When this was finished, one of the priests went up into a low, temporary pulpit, and began to preach to the same people who had just before formed two separate audiences; and another priest was, at the same time, discoursing to a larger audience in the transept, the subject of his sermon being the duty of humility-and a capital sermon it was. When all this was finished the people kneeled down before one or other of the different altars, (of which there are many in the church,) and when there was not a priest to be found to lead the prayers, this was done by a layman. Nor was this all that was going on in the cathedral. Still further along the same aisle, of which I have already spoken, there was an assemblage of little boys, who were learning to repeat the pater noster and the responses; and on the other side of the church was a space, partitioned off with curtains, where there were a number of girls and women, who appeared to be listening to the same kind of religious instruction as that which I had just heard addressed to the men; but as this was forbidden ground, I can give no further account of it. I was much gratified by what I saw and heard this afternoon. These people, I thought, are Catholics, who repeat their ritual like parrots, and estimate their devotion by the number of their fasts and their ave-marias; but it would be well if we Protestants had any thing to compare to so good, and useful, and practical a service as this. The beauty of it was its perfect ease and familiarity. In seven out of nine of the little services which I saw going on, the speaker was not stuck up in a pulpit, and decked out in the paraphernalia of office, but he was seated on the same bench with part of his audience, and occasionally put questions to them; and there was not one, who had either note or book before them to assist his memory, and to nullify the effect of what he said. All was perfectly easy and natural-a familiar address, on an important subject, and proceeding from the mouth of a man who knew very well what he was talking about. Would to God that we had something of this kind in England, instead of our afternoon services, which the rich will not attend, and which are not adapted to the poor! 19th. Had a delightful excursion to the Lake of Como, the particulars of which I must omit, only hoping that my readers may some day have the opportunity of luxuriating as I did, on the promontory of Bellagio, and in the gardens and the villa of the Marquis Sommariva. 20th. Came by the diligence from Milan to Sesto Calende, at the southern extremity of the Lago Maggiore-the country most rich and fertile, the road excellent, and the conveyance so good, that I could almost have believed myself to be travelling in an English mail-coach. At Sesto we took the steam-boat as far as the Borromean Islands, which lie in a bay on the western side of the lake. The first of these which we visited was the Isola Madre, a small island about a fifth of a mile long, occupied by a house and pleasure grounds belonging to the Count Borromeo. It would be difficult either to form or to imagine a more charming spot than this. The whole surface of the island is laid out in groves, orchards, and gardens, in a style which approaches much more nearly to the freedom of the jardin Anglais than any thing that I have seen on the Continent; and then there is a luxuriance and a variety in the trees and shrubs which our English gardens cannot boast. The laurels shoot up green and flourishing; the lemons hang ripe on the espaliers; pines, cedars, and cypresses, form an impenetrable shade above; and roses, and rhododendrons, and a multitude of beautiful plants which I have not botany enough to name, are tastefully disposed below. In the midst of all this, a number of pheasants enjoy themselves, as if they neither feared nor knew the molestation of man; and, at every little turn in the winding walks, the eye catches a glimpse of some of the grandest scenery in the world. I felt an almost indescribable sensation of delight when I gazed upon the mountains which shut in the head of the lake; for their stupendous height, and bold and broken summits proclaimed, beyond the possibility of mistake, that I was now on the borders of Switzerland. I seemed to greet and welcome these rugged forms, as something peculiarly congenial to my own wild, adventurous spirit; I longed to wander once more among them, free, and joyous, and independent; and I half reproached myself that I had ever deserted them, to seek for any thing else with which to gratify my taste. Let Italy enjoy her own meed of praise. Her woody heights and rich productive valleys, her churches and her palaces, her paintings, her statues, and her antiquities, and, above all, her "human" forms "divine," are peculiar to herself; but, with all her wonders, she has no Alps towering high, in unapproachable majesty, above the other productions of nature, and realizing to every soul that is not dead to feeling, all that can possibly be conceived of the grand, the sublime, and the terrible. In this respect she must be content to yield the palm to her undisputed superior. From the Isola Madre we rowed to the Isola Bella, and thence to Baveno, where the diligence took me up, and conveyed me in forty-eight hours across the Simplon, and along the Valais, to Lausanne. I stayed there two nights, and reached Geneva, by the steam-boat, on Saturday, May 24th. I was never so much struck with the change in national face and expression as I was in coming out of Italy into Switzerland. The conducteur of the diligence, from Domo d' Ossola, and a woman, who was one of our fellow-passengers, had faces so essentially Swiss, that it was impossible to mistake them; and when we had passed the boundary, there was not an individual whom we saw who did not forcibly remind us that we were now among a different race. The high and sprightly looks, the finely drawn profiles, and the jet black hair of the proud dames of Italy, are such as might grace a court, or afford living models to the painter or the statuary; but the fuller, and softer, and plainer features of the Swiss women, have no pretensions to be denominated handsome, and they indicate no disposition which would care to stray beyond the narrow circle of domestic occupations and every-day interests. For the first day or two that I was among them, I thought them scarcely tolerable; but I was soon won over by their good character. I was not long in discovering that I was now among an honest and a worthy race of people, who afforded a striking contrast to those in whose country I had been travelling for the last two months. I will venture to affirm, that in Italy one half of those with whom I had any pecuniary transactions endeavoured to cheat me; and at last it became quite as habitual with me to tell a man that he was demanding too much, as it was to ask him what there was to pay. But during the few days that I have been in Switzerland the case has been different. I have found the fixed charges, though higher than those of Italy, yet reasonable for the country, and every body satisfied with the gratuity I have given them; and as for the government, the change for the better is as complete as it is in private character. I was not asked for my passport all the way from the last custom-house in the Sardinian States to Geneva; and the officer who required it on entering the last-named place, addressed me with as much kindness as if he had been the best friend that I had in the world. The officer, too, of the Douane took my simple affirmation that I had nothing contraband in my luggage; and neither one nor the other of them petitioned for a single sou for himselfall which, to a man just arrived from Italy, was infinitely delightful. During the course of my journey through that most interesting country, there have been times, I will confess, when I have been so thoroughly disgusted with the want of domestic comfort, with the villany and the indolence of the men, and the superstition of the women, that I have vowed that I would never set foot in it again. But the Dome of St. Peter's, the Ruins of Pompeii, and the Galleries of Florence, are to be seen only in Italy; and if I were assured that the state of things was somewhat improved, (and improved it must and will be,) or if I were rich enough to make the journey in my own carriage, and with a travelling servant to spare me the trouble of the details, I am not sure that my resolution would long hold good. (To be concluded in the next Number.) SONNET. THAT face! oh! it is eloquent with love, J. E. R. |