Page images
PDF
EPUB

in the presence of a numerous and deeply-interested congregation. One of the young men then repeats aloud, in the name of himself and all the rest, the Baptismal vow, of which this sacred ceremony is the true Confirmation. On the following Sunday they all communicate for the first time.

The oldest Preachers are distinguished by the name of Dean (Doyen). Every Minister delivers his discourse to his congregation without reading it. He is however obliged to have it in writing on the desk of his pulpit, in case his memory should fail.

In this canton there are three Roman Catholic parishes, which, pour le spirituel, hold of the Bishop resident at Fribourg. These are the little towns of Echallons, Bottens, and Assens. The Romish worship is freely tolerated; but has no legal existence. At Lausanne, ever since the country of Vaud was rendered independent of Berne, a chapel has been established in la-rue-de-la-mercerie, which is used, at different hours, for the Church of England service, the German Protestant worship, and that of the Church of Rome. All the respective Pastors live in social union. Not a single monastic establishment is permitted to exist in the Pays-de-Vaud.

We asked our friend some questions respecting the Momièrs, of whom we had heard speak at Geneva."Their title," said Madame H. "is derived from Momeries, which means Grimaces ridicules, tels qu'on en practique dans les couvens, et églises Catholiques."-The fanaticism of this new sect had produced in the cantons of Vaud, Zurich, and Geneva, such shocking results, that the Government was obliged on the 24th of May, 1824, to adopt some penal enactments against it; among

which was the banishment for three years, of those found guilty of proselytism or seduction. Several Preachers (Prédicateurs) belonging to the Protestant Establishment were prosecuted and dismissed for having favoured this sect. My respectable informant added, that a cousin of hers, a physician of eminence in this canton, had become so completely crazed by the pernicious influence of these wicked people, as to have made an attempt to crucify his only daughter. At Geneva, five persons, members of the same sect, actually destroyed themselves (as the poor deluded wretches expressed it) par amour pour Jesus Christ; and at Zurich, two young persons were literally crucified by some of the Momièrs.— At Yverdun there was a congregation of these people, which the Authorities dispersed by dint of punishment and surveillance.

With the super-addition of an impious atrocity, ascribed to them in the above recital-an atrocity in which the perpetrators seem to have gone beyond all recorded example of religious phrenzy among persons calling themselves Christians, the extravagancies of these Momièrs appear to resemble those of the Pietists of the 17th century, whom Addison notices in his Travels as then a new sect arisen in the Protestant cantons, "the professors of it being (to use his language) accused of all the ill practices which may seem to be the consequences of their principles, as that they ascribe the worst of actions, which their own vicious tempers throw them upon, to the dictates of the Holy Spirit." Such proceedings would indeed be a re

*"The Roman Catholics (continues the same Author), who reproach the Protestants for their breaking into such a multitude of Religions, have certainly taken the most effectual way in the world

proach to Swiss Protestantism, if they had met with the slightest sanction either from its spiritual directors, or from its secular authorities. But whilst the utmost tolerance is shewn to all religious persuasions whose respective followers possess any character for beneficence, nothing at the same time can be more completely opposed than the doctrines and discipline of the Reformed Church, nothing can be more decidedly hostile than the principles of the civil government, to the springing up and spreading of fanaticism of every kind, and to these most revolting enormities in particular.

During severe winters, the snow, which descends in prodigious quantities on the neighbouring mountains, causes daily disasters by the fall of avalanches. Numbers of unfortunate persons are thus oftentimes deprived of an asylum, and die of cold and misery. It is at such moments of distress and calamity, that the Droits-de-Bourgeois become especially valuable. Under these rights of townsmanship whole families are maintained by their communes. They are in general very lucrative in the Pays-deVaud; insomuch that none of the villagers would be willing to exchange their advantages in these respects for those of a citizen of Paris. Through the privileges which

for the keeping their flocks together. I do not mean the punishments they inflict on men's persons, though these certainly lay a very great restraint on those of the Catholic persuasion. But I take one great cause why there are so few sects in the Church of Rome to be the multitude of convents, with which they every where abound, that serve as receptacles for all those fiery zealots who would set the Church in a flame, were they not got together in these houses of devotion. All men of dark tempers, according to their degree of melancholy and enthusiasm, may find convents fitted to their humours, and meet with companions as gloomy as themselves. So that what the Protestants would call a fanatic, is in the Roman Church a religious of such or such an order."-Remarks on Italy, p. 353.

the Bourgeoisie gives to a man, he attains to public situations, both civil and military. Each town and its encompassing district possess what is called the Poor's Fund (Bourse-des-Pauvres), which, well administered, abolishes mendicity, solaces the aged and infirm, provides for the maintenance and education of orphans, and for the reparation of damages and losses occasioned by public misfortunes: the least of these advantages is that which insures to every individual the wood necessary for his use, as well as a lot of ground for planting potatoes or any other crop.

An alien, on obtaining his certificate of naturalization, may purchase the Bourgeoisie: the price is not fixed, but regulated according to the value of the commune in which he domiciliates. That of Yverdun, as I am given to understand, may be bought for a hundred and fifty louis. From the moment that a man acquires the rights of Burghership he is considered to belong to the state: he is enrolled in the Militia of the Canton-de-Vaud (La Milice Vaudoise) and lies under an obligation to go through a course of theoretical and practical instruction, at the Military School of Lausanne.

In Yverdun, at the house of M. Rogain, whose grandfather was the intimate friend of Rousseau, strangers are shewn the Cabinet d' Etude, which the Philosopher occupied and which still bears his name. The conversation turning upon that remarkable man, we found Madame H. interestingly at home on the subject. "My Father" said the good lady, "was one of Jean Jacques' most zealous admirers; and as towards myself, who was youngest of the family, he always manifested the strongest predilection on account of my natural vivacity

the

and strength of memory, so I was selected by him, in preference to his other children, to be brought up in conformity to the physical and moral principles, developed in the Emilius. Often have I murmured at my lot; for I was deprived of many little treats and pleasures which my brothers and sisters enjoyed. For example, before the age of eight years, I was not allowed to taste any meat. My beverage at all seasons was water, or cold milk. I took a great deal of exercise both on horseback and on foot. If my head and chest were covered, it was only to screen them from the sun's rays. This mode of bringing me up, however, being suited to my constitution, was advantageous to my health."

And are we to believe (said I) what has of late years been asserted, that Rousseau, who has given us such detailed and romantic accounts of Clarens and Meillerie, never even visited those places ?

"Certainly not (replied our friend). The story of the New Heloisa may be wholly a fiction: the places may never have been inhabited by a Julia or a St. Preux. the artificial embellishments of the locality may have been furnished by the author's fancy: but his description of scenery, on the grand scale, bears too faithful a resemblance to reality to be the work of imagination: it must have been witnessed, and frequently too by the writer who has so accurately and forcibly delineated The fact is, Rousseau inhabited both Vevay and

it.

Lausanne."

You confirm me (I rejoined) in the idea which suggested itself to my mind, as, within these few days, with his literary pictures vividly in my remembrance, I surveyed some of the spots which he has celebrated.

« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »