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Peter's, that it appears less than it is, this must be considered as a proof, not that its proportions are exactly what they ought to be, but that there is something wrong about them; for its magnificent dimensions are generally and justly regarded as one fit cause of our admiration, and therefore that must be thought a defect which conceals their immensity. If, on the other hand, it be a merit in the proportions of St. Peter's that they diminish to the eye its real size, then, that size must be a defect, and the expense and labour of producing it must have been more than wasted. In truth, however, we doubt altogether the justness of the theory, which attributes to the general proportions of a building, unassisted by its darkness or lightness, the power of diminishing or augmenting the whole magnitude of a building. We think the true cause of the apparent diminution of St. Peter's, in part at least, may be the great magnitude of the numerous statues in the church. These are, in fact, all colossal, and as our eye is accustomed to statues more near the size of life, they serve as a false standard, by which we measure the ehurch in which they stand. We suspect also that statues of white marble have, from their brilliancy of colour, the appearance of being much nearer the eye than they really are, which must of course diminish their apparent magnitude, and render the scale afforded them still more fallacious. The great light of St. Peter's, especially when contrasted, as it will be involuntarily by all foreigners, with the gloominess of their own Gothic cathedrals, contributes to the same effect of reducing its seeming dimensions."

GENERAL APPEARANCE OF THE INTERIOR.

"A NOISY School for children in one corner; a sermon preached to a moveable audience at another; a concert in this chapel; a ceremony half interrupted by the distant sounds of the same music in another quarter; a ceaseless crowd sauntering along the nave, and circulating through all the aisles; listeners and gazers walking, sitting, kneeling; some rubbing their foreheads against the worn toes of the bronze St. Peter, others smiling at them; confessors in boxes absolving penitents; laquais de place expounding

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pictures; and all these individual objects and actions lost under an artificial heaven, whose grandeur and whose beauties delight and distract the eye. Such is the interior of this glorious edifice,-the Mall of Rome; but religious sentiments are perhaps the last which it inspires."

"The view of the interior of St. Peter's" says Mr. Williams "is perhaps, the best near the bronze statue of St. Peter. We saw it under the most striking effect, adorned with the beams of the sun, playing upon its gorgeous magnificence, the noble dome with its various colossal paintings in Mosaic, of angels, prophets, and apostles, the latter, in the spandrils, at least twenty-five feet in height. In the transept of the cross are seen the noble sepulchral monuments of the popes, by Canova, Bernini, Michel Angelo, and others; splendid pictures in Mosaic, designed by Raffael, Domenichino, Guercino, and Guido, scarcely distinguishable from the finest paintings; grand columns of marble, porphyry, and granite, the gigantic supporters of the dome, each of which, were it hollow, would contain hundreds of people. Numerous colossal statues of saints, in niches at least thirteen feet high; the various and precious stones which impanel the walls of the whole building; the richness of the ornamented roof; the galleries from which the relics are occasionally exhibited; the great altar of Corinthian brass, by Bernini, (the height of which is not less than that of the highest palace in Rome,) with its twisted columns wreathed with olive; the hundred brazen lamps continually burning, and surrounding the tomb of the patron saint, with its gilded bronze gate, enriched to the utmost with various ornaments; the massive silver lamps; the hangings of crimson silk; the chair of St. Peter, supported by two popes, statues of great magnitude; the pavement, composed of the most rare and curious marbles, of beautiful workmanship; the statue of St. Peter, with a constant succession of priests, and persons of all descriptions kissing his foot;-form a whole not to be paralleled on earth: especially when seen as I saw it, with the sun's beams darting through the lofty windows of the dome, throwing all into mysterious light, tipping the gilded and plated ornaments, and giving additional richness to

the colours of the Mosaic paintings, and to the burnished silver lamps, which sparkled like little constellations; while the effect of all was heightened by the sound of the organ at vespers, swelling in notes of triumph, then dying upon the ear, and sinking into the soul; the clear melodious tones of the human voice, too, filling up the pauses of the organ, diffusing a deeper solemnity through this great temple, and making us feel an involuntary acknowledgement to God, who had gifted man with such sublime conceptions."

The inside of St. Peter's has fewer faults than the outside. "One is astonished," says Mr. Hope, "to find so much splendour, and even glitter, united with such an air of repose, of majesty, and of quiet, There is a serenity of look, and an equability of temperature in this vast edifice, which throws over all its parts an inexpressible charm; and in many of its finishings, by peculiar good luck, have been avoided a number of blemishes in architecture, that were in high vogue, at the time it was finished. One wonders, for instance, how its ceiling should have escaped allegorical paintings. Bernini, however, who had the worst taste of any man who ever acquired the reputation of a great artist, was still in time to exhibit some of his wretched conceits. Treating the adorning of the first church of Christendom in the same tawdry flippant style as he would have done that of a temporary stage, he contrived not only to introduce at one end of the vestibule a theatrical exhibition of Constantine starting at the vision of the cross, but to place in the central point of the church a transparency of the Holy Ghost, surrounded by a glory of rays of plaster gilt. Yet such is the immensity and splendour of St. Peter's that this defect and that of the twisted columns of the altar-piece, and a hundred others, are absorbed in the galaxy of beauties with which they are mingled.

"Yet has not St. Peter's, among all its magnificence, above one or two excellent works of art. Michel Angelo has left his name on a small and pitiful Pietà: Algardi has intrusted his celebrity to an immense bas-relief which imitates a painting, and consequently fails in its effect; and on every side you see gorgeous mural monuments, which being neither mere decorations of walls, nor positive sarcophagi, encroaching too much for the former, and too little detached and fanciful for the latter, have not the imposing appearance of the most uncouth Gothic tomb. Among these, however, that of Paul the Third, by Guglielmo della Porta is much spoken of, and that of Pope Rezzonico by Canova deservedly admired. To judge of the size of this enormous pile, two hundred feet longer, and a hundred feet higher, than St. Paul's, one should ascend the cupola, and look down upon the inside. It is here that, suspended over an immense abyss, not hollowed out by the potent hand of nature, but formed by the slow manual operation of man, that man himself looks like an insect creeping within his own work."

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The feelings excited by this edifice in a religious mind will be of a very mixed character, and at times of a tendency most painful. The vastness, the symmetry, the beauty and lightness, of the architecture, impart to it character of loftiness and perpetuity," perhaps unequalled by any other edifice; yet to some it may seem the “presencechamber of the monarch of the world, rather than the scene which a sinner would select in order to meet his God." "From this temple of high beauty and exquisite skill," to use the words of an eloquent writer, "have any waters issued forth to heal the sickly places of the moral wilderness? Alas! is it not here that the slumbers of the soul are the most entire,-that the despotism of ignorance is the most cruel,-that the degradation of the intellect is lowest, and the darkness of the heart the most unbroken and profound? Is it not here that the deep warning falls the loudest upon the startled ear? Woe unto thee Chorazin! woe unto thee Bethsaida! for if the mighty works which were done in thee had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for thee.'"

"How perfect a contrast of feeling," exclaims the same writer, "have I experienced sometimes, when standing within that majestic edifice of St. Peter's! This hour, the quietness, the warmth, the beauty, the fragrance, the light, the solitude, the vastness of the scene, have placed me in an element with which earth has been scarcely connected. I have felt detached from all human and immediate interests. The presence of God has cheered my spirit, and united me to all the lofty objects of eternity. The love and

grace of the great Saviour and benefactor have carried their ineffable consolations to my heart; and I have longed for the wings of a dove, that I might fly away and be for ever at rest. The next hour, the scene has been wholly changed. I have seen the multitude kiss the image which was that of Jupiter, and is that of St. Peter; I have heard the addresses to God in a language which the people cannot understand; I have considered the repugnance of the government to education; the jealousy with which the dif fusion of the Scriptures is regarded; and all the previous enchantment has vanished from my mind I have been compelled to turn from the magnificence of art, from the beauty of sculpture, from the lofty aspirations of an outward edifice, from the balmy breath of a fragrant atmosphere, from the fine emblems of heaven and eternity, to the ap palling consideration, that the beams of truth have feebly irradiated these walls; that the chillness of a moral death reigns eternally within them; that the very structure which had given the former enchantment to my senses and my heart, owes its existence to the ambition and despotism of human crime, and that in very truth, these magnificent buildings are, in the words of an energetic writer, as triumphal arches, erected in memorial of the extermination of that truth, which was given to be the light of the world and the life of men!' How fearful is the consideration, that all the best faculties of the mind and the hand have thus been seized by a foreign force, and made instrumental against the happiness of their possessors, and against the glory and "If," authority of Him who called them into existence. exclaims another writer, "we could imagine a momentary visit from Him, who once entered a fabric of sacred denomination with a scourge, because it was made the resort of a common traffic,-with what aspect and voice, with what infliction, but the rebuke with flames of fire,' would he have entered this mart of iniquity, assuming the name of his sanctuary, where the traffic is in the delusions, crimes, and the souls of men. It was even as if, to use the prophet's language, the very 'stone cried out of the wall," and the beam out of the timber answered it' in denunciation; for a portion of the means of building was obtained as the price of dispensations and pardons."

THE DOME.

The dome, the vast and wondrous dome,
To which Diana's marvel was a cell.

IT is usually said to have been the boast of Michel Angelo that he would elevate the Pantheon in the air. "Whatever merit may attach to this idea, is certainly due to Bramante, since the cupola designed by him was certainly in pendentive, while that of Brunelleschi, at Florence, bears perpendicularly on its foundations. Perhaps to put it upon stilts would have been a more correct expression, and it is certainly better on the ground." "To be convinced of this," says Mr. Woods, "it is only necessary to mount into the gallery, and observe how much superior it appears in size and beauty than when seen from below."

The dome of St. Peter's is double,-that is to say, there are in fact two domes, an inner and an outer one; between the two is the staircase leading to the summit. The diameter of the internal dome is 140 feet, of the external dome, 195 feet. From the cornice immediately above the pillars to the aperture of the lantern the distance is 170 feet, from thence to the top of the cross, 110 feet; the height of the supporting piers themselves, is 178 feet, so that the total elevation of the top of the cross above the pavement of the church is 458 feet.

Much alarm has been felt at different times for the stability of the cupola of St. Peter's. Towards the end of the seventeenth century it was reported that the dome was about to give way, but on being examined it was found that there was no cause for reasonable alarm. In 1742 the report again prevailed; mathematicians and architects were called in, and gave conflicting opinions. There are now several bands of iron in the cupola; two were affixed when it was at first raised. There are cracks all round the drum, and according to Mr. Woods, they denote some enlargement in that part from the expansion of the dome. But, in spite of all the iron ties, the cracks in the buttresses are the most important, and from their direction, almost uniformly outward and downward, indicate a settlement of the whole drum upon the pendentives, while the columns, resting upon the direct arches of the nave, have retained, or nearly retained, their position. The great piers have therefore probably gone outward, and when in the building, by bringing my eye carefully, so as to compare

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the angle of a pilaster, not affected by this operation, with those of the central cupola, I think I can perceive that such an effect has taken place. Nor has the movement entirely ceased, since a dovetailed piece of marble, inserted to ascertain the fact in 1810, was found broken in 1825. Perhaps there never was any just ground of alarm; yet, as one of the iron circles, intended to contain the thrust had given way, there probably had been a considerable settlement, but not more than might have been expected, from the different periods in which the work had been carried up, and the repeated strengthenings which the solids had received. Nevertheless it was determined to insert five bands of iron, which were all let into the masonry, and made tight and sound under the direction of Vanvitelli. The broken chain was restored; but the other chain had been originally inserted in the thickness of the wall; this there was no opportunity for examining: in order to be perfectly secure, a sixth band was inserted in its neighbourhood, so that, in all probability, the dome and its drum are now secured by eight iron bands, five of which are in the drum, one at the springing of the arch, and two on the surface of the dome itself. It is doubted among the Italian architects whether the insertion of all these bands did not do more harm than any strength they could afford to the building can compensate." Dr. Burton says that the cupola of the Duomo, at Florence, has cracked even worse than that of St. Peter's; yet no iron bands have been inserted into that.

The ascent to the roof of St. Peter's is very easy. "You will stare," says a modern writer, “when I tell you that a broad paved road leads up to the top of St. Peter's, not, perhaps, practicable for carriages from its winding nature, but so excellent a bridle-road, that there is a continual passage of horses and mules upon it, which go up laden with stone and lime; and the ascent is so gentle, and the road so good, that any body might ride up and down with perfect safety." When the visiter reaches the leads on the roof, the immensity of the building appears very striking; "small houses and ranges of workshops for the labourers employed in the never ending repairs are built here, and are lost upon this immense leaden plain, as well as the eighteen cupolas of the side chapels which are not distinguishable from below." From this roof staircases lead to the ball, which is twenty-four feet in circumference, and is said to be capable of containing eighteen persons. From the balustrade on the outside of the ball, the adventurous sometimes mount to the bottom of the cross by an iron ladder, which is in part quite perpendicular.

ILLUMINATIONS OF ST. PETER'S.

Ir is the custom upon some occasions, and particularly on the eve of the festival of St. Peter, in the month of June, to light up the exterior of this enormous edifice. Simond gives a lively description of the scene and the preparations. "Soon after sunset the whole outside of St. Peter's was occupied, I might say, hung, with workmen, who were seen climbing in all directions, along the ribs of the dome, the lantern above it, the gilt globe, and the very cross at the top of all. The pediment in front, the architecture, the colossal statues, the very acanthus-leaves of the Corinthian capitals, swarmed with adventurous men, carrying lights, who, by means of ropes, slided and swung with great rapidity and ease from one point to another of the edifice, forcibly recalling to my mind the fireflies of America, on a hot Summer's evening. We understood that these men hear mass, confess, and receive the absolution before they begin, on account of the great risk they run of breaking their necks. The business being well organized, the whole surface of St. Peter's and the colonnade before it, soon shone with the mild effulgence of fifty thousand paper lanterns; but in less than an hour, and at a particular signal, a great change of scene took place; the whole edifice burst at once, as by magic, into absolute flames. This is done by means of pans full of pitch and pine shavings set on fire, and simultaneously thrust out from all parts of the edifice: the effect is quite wonderful, but of short duration. It was scarcely over before the crowd moved off towards the river, crossing the bridge, in order to occupy a situation in front of the castle of St. Angelo, and we did not without difficulty, reach the house on the top of which we had provided places. I certainly never saw fire-works at all comparable with these, for their inexhaustible variety,their force, loudness, and duration. The huge mass of the castle seemed a volcano, pouring its ceaseless deluge of fire above, below, and all around; and the Tiber in front seemed itself a sheet of fire. Long after all this had ended, St. Peter's (forgotten

for a while) continued to shed its mild lustre over the dark ness of a cloudy night. The next day Rome appeared a desert, and the universal silence was only disturbed by the distant rattling of travelling carriages posting away to the north and to the south."

CHURCHES OF MODERN ROME.

Ir would far exceed our limits to describe even the principal of the many magnificent churches which, besides St. Peter's, are to be found in Rome; the whole number is said to be 365. We shall content ourselves with some remarks on their general style and appearance. One of the most remarkable of their characteristics is of a negative kind, the almost total absence of the Gothic or pointed style of architecture; with the exception of a few fragments and a few ornaments in this style, nothing of it is to be seen. "The Roman architects," says Dr. Burton, "have invariably studied the Grecian models, and whatever fault may be found in separate parts, it must be allowed that the churches of this city present some of the most splendid specimens of architecture which can be found in modern times."

Forsyth says that they are admirable only in detail. "Their materials are rich, the workmanship exquisite, the orders all Greek. Every entablature is adjusted to the axis of each column, with a mathematical scrupulosity which is lost to the eye. One visionary line runs upward, bisecting, superstitiously, every shaft, triglyph, ovolo bead denticle, mutile modillon, or lion's mouth, that lies in its way. But how are those orders employed? In false fronts which, rising into two stages of columns, promise two stories within-in pediments under pediments, and in segments of pediments-in cornices, for ever broken by projections projecting from projections-in columns, and pilasters, and fractions of pilasters, grouped round one pillar. Thus Grecian beauties are clustered by Goths: thus capitals and bases are coupled, or crushed, or confounded, on each other; and shafts rise from the same level to different heights, some to the architrave, and some only to the imposts. Ornaments for ever interrupt or conceal ornaments: accessories are multiplied till they absorb the principal: the universal fault is the too many and the too much. Few churches in the city show more than their fronts externally. Their rude sides are generally screened by contiguous buildings, and their tiled roof by a false pediment, which, rising to an immoderate height above the ridge, leads you to certain disappointment when you enter. Every front should be true to the interior. Such was the front of the ancient temples, a pediment resting on a peristyle and forming a fine pentagon: but such a figure would be too flat for those vaulted churches, and incompatible with their aisles................ The Romans seem fondest of those fronts where most columns can be stuck and most angles projected. Some, as Santa Maria in Portico, the Propaganda Fide, &c., are bent out and in like brackets. Quadrangular fronts, like those of St. Peter's, the Lateran, &c., are fitter for a palace than for a church. How specifically truer is the old Gothic front, which admits but one large window, similar in form to the front itself!"

"The principal churches of Rome," says the same writer, "however different their style of building and ornament may be, are distributed in the same manner. Their aisles are generally formed by arcades: over these are sometimes grated recesses, but never open galleries. The choir terminates in a curve, which is the grand field of decoration, and loaded with curiosities and glories in brass and marble. The high altar stands in the middle of the cross. The chapels of the Holy Sacrament and of the Virgin are usually in the transepts. Those of the saints are ranged on the sides; and each being raised by a different family, has an architecture of its own, at variance with the church, which thus loses its unity amid nests of polytheism."

Among the churches of modern Rome there are seven which are called basilicas, and are supposed to possess a peculiar sanctity. The name basilica is derived from the circumstance of their being generally formed out of the basilica of ancient Rome, which have been already mentioned. These seven are St. Peter's, Sta. Maria Maggiore, St. John Lateran, and Sta. Croce in Gerusalemme,which are within the walls,-and St. Paul's, S. Lorenzo, and St. Sebastian's, which are without them. The reason assigned for the preference is the following. Upon a certain occasion the four patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Constantinople, came to Rome; and four principal churches were assigned to them during their

residence. These were St. Paul's, Sta. Maria Maggiore, S. Lorenzo, and St. Peter's. The pope, who was superior to them all, reserved for himself St. John Lateran, which was then, and is still, higher in rank than St. Peter's, being in fact, the metropolitan church of Rome, and "the principal temple of the Catholic world," as Vasi says. This circumstance imparted a peculiar sanctity to the five churches, and the people frequented them more than any others. St. Sebastian and Sta. Croce were subsequently added to the number, because in going from St. Paul's to the Lateran, it was necessary to pass by St. Sebastian, and in continuing the visitation from the Lateran to S. Lorenzo, Sta. Croce had the like good fortune to be in the way. "Such," says Dr. Burton, "is the reason assigned by an antiquary and dignitary of the Romish church, which, perhaps will not seem very satisfactory."

RELICS OF PAGANISM IN MODERN ROME.

MIDDLETON, in his celebrated Letter from Rome, after expressing the resolution which he had taken to employ himself, during his stay in the capital, chiefly in observing its antiquities, and to lose as little time as possible in taking notice of the fopperies and ridiculous ceremonies of the present religion of the place, goes on to say, "But I soon found myself mistaken; for the whole form and outward dress of their worship seemed so grossly idolatrous and extravagant oeyond what I had imagined, and made so strong an impression on me, that I could not help considering it with a particular regard; especially when the very reason which I thought would have hindered me from taking any notice of it at all, was the chief cause which engaged me to pay so much attention to it: for nothing, I found, concurred so much with my original intention of conversing with the ancients; or so much helped my imagination, to fancy myself wandering about in old heathen Rome, as to observe and attend to their religious worship; all whose ceremonies appeared plainly to have been copied from the rituals of primitive paganism; as if handed down by an uninterrupted succession from the priests of old to the priests of new Rome; whilst each of them readily explained and called to my mind some passage of a classic author, where the same ceremony was described as transacted in the same form and manner, and in the same place where I now saw it executed before my eyes: so that as oft as I was present at any religious exercise in their churches, it was more natural to fancy myself looking on at some solemn act of idolatry in old Rome, than assisting at a worship instituted on the principles and framed upon the plan of Christianity."

"Many of our divines," he adds, “have, I know, with much learning and solid reasoning charged and effectually proved the Crime of Idolatry on the Church of Rome; but their controversies, (in which there is still something plausible to be said on the other side, and when the charge is constantly denied, and with much subtilty evaded,) are not capable of giving that conviction which I immediately received from my senses; the surest witnesses of fact in all cases; and which no man can fail to be furnished with who sees popery as it is exercised in Italy, in the full pomp and display of its pageantry; and practising all its arts and powers without caution or reserve. The similitude of the popish and pagan religion seemed so evident and clear, and struck my imagination so forcibly, that I soon resolved to give myself the trouble of searching to the bottom; and to explain and demonstrate the certainty of it, by comparing together the principal and most obvious parts of each worship." He then expresses an opinion that he shall have matter enough to tire both himself and his correspondent, "in showing the source and origin of the popish ceremonies, and the exact conformity of them with those of their pagan ancestors." We select his remarks on the use of incense :

"The very first thing that a stranger must necessarily take notice of, as soon as he enters their churches, is the use of incense or perfumes in their religious offices; the first step which he takes within the door will be sure to make him sensible of it, by the offence that he will immediately receive from the smell as well as smoke of this incense, with which the whole church continues to be filled for some time after every solemn service,-a custom received directly from paganism; and which presently called to my mind the old descriptions of the heathen temples and altars which are seldom or never mentioned by the antients without the epithet of perfumed or incensed.

"In some of the principal churches, where you have before you in one view, a great number of altars, and all of them smoking at once with steams of incense, how natural is it to imagine oneself transported into the temple of some heathen divinity, or that of the Paphian Venus described by Virgil ?

Her hundred altars there with garlands crown'd,

And richest incense smoking, breathe around
Sweet odours," &c.

Under the pagan emperors, the use of incense for the purpose of religion was thought so contrary to the obligations of Christianity, that in their persecutions the very method of trying and convicting a Christian was by requiring him only to throw the least grain of it into the censer, or on the altar.

Under the Christian emperors, on the other hand, it was looked upon as a rite so peculiarly heathenish, that the very places or houses where it could be proved to have been done, were by a law of Theodosius confiscated to the government.

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The Rev. Mr. Blunt, in his Vestiges of Ancient Manners and Customs, &c., points out several marks of resemblance between the ancient and the modern superstition. Not the least curious is the analogy which may be observed between the names of the pagan temples of Ancient Rome, and the Catholic churches of Modern Rome. Of temples, there are said to have been formerly in Rome four hundred and twenty sacred to the pagan gods; of churches there are now in the modern city and its suburbs, upwards of a hundred and fifty sacred to Christian saints. "And as heretofore many temples," to use the words of Mr. Blunt, were consecrated to the same deity under different titles, so now are there many churches devoted to the same saint, or to the Madonna, distinguished only by a diversity of epithets." Thus in Ancient Rome, there was a temple of Jupiter Castor, of Jupiter Feretrius, of Jupiter Sponsor, of Jupiter Stator, of Jupiter Tonans, of Jupiter Victor, &c., of Venus Calva, Venus Capitolina, Venus Erycina, Venus Cloacina, Venus Victrix. So in Modern Rome we find a church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, Santa Maria di Araceli, Santa Maria Imperatrice, Santa Maria Liberatrice, Santa Maria della Consolazione, Santa Maria Egyptiaca, Santa Maria dell' Anima, &c.; S. Pietro in Vaticano, S. Pietro in Montorio, S. Pietro in Vincoli, S. Pietro in Carcere, &c. Again, the heathen temples were often dedicated to two divinities, as to Castor and Pollux, to Venus and Cupid, to Venus and Rome, to Honour and Virtue, to Isis and Serapis, &c. In like manner, there are now churches to SS. Marcellinus and Peter, to Jesus and Maria, to Dominicus and Sistus, to Celsus and Julianus, to SS. Vincentius and Anastasius. Upon this same point we refer the reader to the remarks which we quoted from Middleton's Letter, in our description of the Pantheon, which from being formerly dedicated to all the gods of pagan Rome, is now dedicated to all the saints of Catholic Rome.

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Mr. Matthews remarks, that some traces of the old heathen superstitions are constantly peeping out from under their Catholic disguises. "What is the modern worshipping of saints and images but a revival of the old adoration paid to heroes and demi-gods;-or what the nuns, with their vows of celibacy, but a new edition of the vestal virgins? Wherever we turn, indeed, all is old, and nothing new. Instead of tutelary gods, we find patron saints and guardian angels, and the canonization of a saint, is but another term for the apotheosis of a hero...... The very same piece of brass which the old Romans adored, now with a new head on its shoulders,-like an old friend with a new face,-is worshipped with equal devotion by the modern Italian.

"It is really surprising to see with what apparent fervour of devotion, all ranks, and ages, and sexes, kneel to, and kiss, the toe of this brazen image. They rub it against their foreheads, and press it against their lips, with the most reverential piety. I have sat by the hour to see the crowds of people who flock in to perform this ceremony, waiting for their turn to kiss ;-and yet the Catholic would laugh at the pious Mussulman who performs a pilgrimage to Mecca to wash the holy pavement, and kiss the black stone of the Caaba;—which, like his own St. Peter, is also a relic of heathenism."

LONDON

JOHN WILLIAM PARKER, WEST STRAND. PUBLISHED IN WEEKLY NUMBERS, FRICE ONE PENNY, AND IN MONTHLY Panre, PRICE SIXPENCE.

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