indefinite term; and, the sooner we obtain just and clear ideas respecting its true foundations the better. Civilization should be viewed in distinct aspects, as it relates to physical, intellectual and moral things; and we should learn to appreciate it in its different states and degrees, according to their relative value. An American feels the difference between our moral and intellectual condition and that of Southern Europe, when he witnesses scenes like that above depicted, which daily and hourly occur in thousands of Romish churches. Probably every one of our readers, at such a sight, would make the reflection: "These people are wholly unlike us." We never see such an expression of countenance, such degraded postures, such a look of abject subjection, mingled with a stolidity of aspect, which likens the human countenance to that of the brute. Yet such is one of the natural effects of idolatry, imposed by a priesthood, whatever be the age, the country, or the object.

These persons, attracted by the reputed sanctity, or miraculous powers of the image enclosed in the case before them, or driven, by the commands of their confessors to do penance before it, are engaged in several different acts of devotion. The greater part of the number are kneeling and repeating prayers; while the man in the foreground appears to be making an offering of some thing he values, or raising it to receive some holy influence by the touch. All this 's done under a belief in superstitions which we utterly reject, and with pity, contempt, and abhorrence:-contempt for their childishness and want of evidence, abhorrence for their opposition to the commands and the honor of God, and pity for the poor victims of ignorance and imposture.

Sometimes a glass case is put up in a church or a convent, in which a living saint is exhibited, as an object of worship. Some poor devotee, emaciated to skin and bone, by a long course of fasting, wakefulness and perhaps hard labor, is declared to be in a state of heavenly extacy, with the soul absent from the body; and such

persons have been occasionally exhibited, as of great sanctity, and whose emanations of miraculous influence, communicate benefits of different kinds to those who approach, touch, or pray to them.

Now the Saxons were ignorant and superstitious; and Christianity had been corrup ted long before the Norman Conquest. But the Normans were more superstitious, and much more subjected to Rome. By introducing and confirming Romish influence, they did a great and lasting injury to England, the remains of which we are not at a loss to perceive at the present day. There are those even among us, who still prefer that old system of superstition and ignor. ance, with the exaltation of an arrogant priesthood, and the degradation of the people under the soles of their feet, so long after the Bible has overturned it in England, and founded, on this side of the Atlantic, a powerful and prosperous state, on principles of a nature exactly the opposite. One bible would be enough to drive from the idol every one of its devotees; and a few copies of the Word of God, as the Pope seriously assures us in his late Bull, would shake the whole system of Rome, throughout the peninsula of Italy.

Whatever, therefore, the views with which superficial minds may regard the conquest of England by the Normans, intelligent Christians can hardly fail to concur with Mr. Sullivan, in that forcible passage which we have already quoted, in the 28th number of the American Penny Magazine, (page 443d.,) in which he says:

"So far as can be discerned, in looking back through the obscurity of ages, it was a grievous and unmitigated misfortune to the Saxon race, to England and to the world, that William the Conqueror had not been conquered and slain himself, instead of Harold, at the battle of Hastings."

The use of barley in preparing fermented liquors is very ancient. Its invention is ascribed to the Egyptians. In Nubia the green ears are boiled in water and eaten with milk. The beer of the Greeks was called barley wine. The ancient Germans also made wine of it. It was the general drink of the Anglo

Saxons, wine being the drink of "elders and the wise," they did not, however, use hops in their ale, as these were first used in the Netherlands, in the beginning of the 14th century, and in England two centuries afterwards. There are more than 30 millions of bushels of barley annually converted into malt in Great Britain, and more than 8 millions of barrels or 288 millions of gallons of beer made, of which four-fifths are strong beer.

One would think from this-and certainly not without reason-that, in addition to the vast quantities of wines and ardent spirits made, imported and drank in that country, that it must be a "land of drunkenness ;" and when we find this statement accompanied by the following remarks from the professedly pure and philanthropic source from whence it is derived, the fact is not more startling than the conclusions are mortifying. "This is," says the commentator, "a consumption by the great body of the people of a favorite beverage, which indicates a distribution of the national wealth, satisfactory by comparison with the general poverty of less advanced periods of civilization in our own country, and with that of less industrious nations in our own day."

We might enquire, perhaps, without being charged with presumption, if "the annual distribution" of 40 millions of bushels of barley, thus in our opinion infinitely worse than wasted, to hungry millions of poor, would not "indicate" a far more "satisfactory distribution of the national wealth?"

55,000 acres of land were occupied in 1838 in the cultivation of hops, and the malt on which duty was paid was 40,505,566 bushels; and in 1836, 44,397,719 bushels. Estimating the product at 30 bushels the acre, the land which this must occupy, is 147,959 acres, to which add that occupied by hops, and the land employed for the purpose of producing malt liquor, would be 202,959 acres of prime soil. Calculating the soil to produce the same number of bushels of wheat as of barley consumed, as above, and each bushel at 60lbs., the product would be 2,663,263,140 lbs. Now, estimating 500 lbs. to support one person, or as equal to 480 lbs. of flour, the estimated annual consumption of each individual, and this land would support 5,326,526 persons! who are, in fact, deprived of bread by this "satisfactory distribution of the national wealth!"-to say nothing of its wretched and destructive effects; or, to use more apt words, the poverty of less advanced periods of civilization!"

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The beer manufactured in Great Britain and Ireland, according to the returns of 1830, which are the last, was over 9,500,000 barrels! or 342,000,000 gallons (!) the proportion for Ireland being estimated at one million of barrels, or 36,000,000 of gallons. In view of such facts, another eminent British writer says, "Barley ranks, in importance, next to

wheat, as affording an innocent and invigor ating fermented liquor."

Besides this there were imported into Great Britain, in 1840, 8,518,489 gallons of wine, 6,451,743 of which were retained for home consumption. There was also imported during the same year 8,011,017 galls. of ardent spirits. If these amounts be added to the foregoing, viz.: 9,500,000 barrels, or 342,000,000 gallons of ale, beer and porter made and sold in Great Britain and Ireland, as per returns of 1830, the result is (deducting, say two million gallons of spirits for exportation,) 354,462,750 gallons! of these alcoholic liquors drank there annually! But this does not include the large quantities of gin, wine and rum, manufactured throughout the kingdom, or the many thousands of private breweries. Chapin's Hand Book of Plants.

The changes produced in plants by the assimilation of the various substances of which they are composed, are the results of chemical action, and are traceable from the germ to the full-grown plant and fruit. Water and carbon are resolved into their constituent parts, and these enter into new forms and combinations to constitute their solid portions. The hydrogen of the water unites with the carbon, received through the leaves from the air, to form oils, resins, sugar, etc. The oxygen of the water combines with fluids to form acids, etc., and is also given off from the leaves in the form of gas.

The reproduction of plants is by evolution, which in process and effect is similar to that of animals. They are endowed with organs which distinguish sexes and which are generally observable, but which change after evolution. The polen or farina, the seminal principle of plants, is contained in vessels called anthers. A part of this penetrates the stigma, the head of the pistil, and is conveyed to the ovary of particular plants, and there the germ or ovules are affected. Both sexes are united in one flower in most plants; in others they are separated, and the former is therefore called a perfect flower, while the latter is called male and female. These last stand on one stem, or are attached to different plants. Evolution is consequently most perfect and most readily effected in the perfect flowers, as they are called, and likewise when the stem has male and female blossoms. But where the two sexes are entirely separated, evolution takes place only where the plants are suffi ciently near for the polen of one to be carried by the wind, by insects, or by artificial means to the other. Should this not take place, the germ falls off, or the partial fruit is incapable of germination. Glands within the flowers secrete honey and attract insects which powder parts of their body with polen, and when visiting flowers of another kind they deposite it. In others it is said also, where perfect flowers of the two sexes are not near, small flies being attracted by the honey of one flower, are suddenly enclosed by it, and, in their en

deavors to escape, necessarily deposit the polen obtained from other flowers. On this system of sexes, Linnæus founded his arrangement of plants. Further outlines of this will be found in other parts of this treatise, and scientific terms will be defined by the glossary at the end of the volume. We have, however, studiously avoided technical language where it has been possible, wishing to render vegetable physiology as entertaining as it is useful.-Hand Book of Plants.

LIVING SKETCHES OF ITALY-No. 9.

The Miracles of Saint Filumena, the newest Romish Saint.

We commence to day a brief history of the great impostures now actively and extensively playing off in all quarters of the world, under the name of a New Saint; and we wish our readers to bear in mind through the whole course of what we shall have to say on this subject, that we give nothing of our own, not a word from any opponent of the system which we are exposing, but that every statement is taken without any misrepresentation or coloring whatever, from a book composed and published by a devotee of Rome, and accompanied by the official recommendation of Romish Bishops. That work is a small and cheap volume in French, designed for circulation among the people; printed in Switzerland, and procured in Canada. The preface informs us that it is an abridgement of two much larger works in the Italian language, published by Don Francisco de Lucia, of which large editions are said to have been published. Now, as the history of St. Filumena as here presented, developes enough of the machinery by which certain classes of Romish impostures are commenced, carried on, extended, and perpetuated, we have felt a particular desire to have our countrymen acquainted with the latest of the Acta Sanctorum, "Lives of Saints," referred to in the last number of the American Penny Magazine. (Page 559.)

Our readers will see, in what is to follow, that the whole of this great system of imposture has been "got up," as we vulgarly express it, as a mere money speculation, by a man from Naples, who went to Rome for the express purpose of "raising the wind" by a new trick on an old plan; that he brought into his scheme a variety of business operations, particularly the manufacture, puffing, and sale of books, lithographic pictures, images of different sizes, cards and what not, that he op

erated through the superstitions of many, and probably the cupidity of not a few, to enable and to aid him in his schemes; that this man, this author, publisher, puffer and hawker of books-this distributor of pictures and utterer of wonderful tales of miracles, this exciter of villages and cities, this leader of processions, procurer of banners, shrines, and statues, and their seller also; this companion of monks, priests, bishops and cardinals, and he who induced many of them to lend their countenance and aid to his schemes, by doing much of his work in their convents, parishes, dioceses, &c. this truly business character, so skilled in procuring recommendations and certificates of miracles, signed by persons of influence, and a warm eulogium of his "wonder-working" Saint Filumena, and who has succeeded in extending her worship, as the book informs us, to "the most illustrious and populous cities of Europe," and "by zealous missionaries into China, Japan, and many Catholic establishments of America and Asia,"-this man is A JESUIT!

A word more on the authority of the work from which we take the following statements. One of the Italian books from which it was compiled, "bears the imprimatur of the Holy Office," (that is, the formal approbation of the Inquisition,) and the little work itself is accompanied by the official certificate of "Pierre Tobie, Bishop of Lausanne and Geneva."The passages which we have translated literally, will be distinguished by quotation. marks.

Discovery of the Relics of Saint Filumena.

"The body of Saint Filumena was found in 1802, on the 25th of May, during the excavations which are annually made at Rome, in places consecrated by the burial of Saints.They were made that year in the Catacombs of Saint Priscilla, on the new Salarian Way. A singular sepulchral stone was first discovered; it was made of baked earth and presented several mysterious symbols which had allusion to a virgin and a martyr. These were divided by a transverse line, formed by an inscription, the first and last letters of which apReared to have been effaced by the tools of the workmen in attempting to detach it from the tomb. It was thus:

"(FI) LUMENA, PAX TECUM. FI (AT).*"

[The name Filumena is now generally supposed to be of Latin origin, from filia luminus, the daughter of light.

"History of the Martyrdom of Saint Filumena." [ Also, the symbols and the visions, by the aid of which they are interpreted.]

"The martyrdom of Saint Filumena is known only from the symbols drawn upon the sepulchral stone of which we have spoken, and the revelations made to different persons by the same saint. Let us begin with the former."

The symbols are described and interpreted in the following order and manner:

1st. An anchor, indicating death by drowning. 2d. An arrow, to show that this weapon was used to wound. 3d. A palm, to intimate victory in death. 4th. A whip, such as was sometimes loaded with lead. 5th. Two other arrows, showing a repetition of punishment."One with its point reversed, denotes a miracle, like that performed on Mount Gargano, when an oxherd who had thrown an arrow at a bull in a cave, where he had sought refuge, and since consecrated to the arch-angel Michael, saw it rebound and fall at his feet.6th. Finally a lilly, the symbol of a virgin and innocence, "which invites the Church to honor her under the glorious titles of martyr and virgin."

"Let us now see whether the revelations of which we have spoken agree with these different signs."

[The book then proceeds, with a gravity perfectly ridiculous to a reader of any intelligence, to narrate the following tales, without giving a single witness or piece of evidence to support them. Yet, so degraded is the mind of man under Romish education, that he gains credit in Italy.

This inscription was interpreted, or partly deciphered, by the assistance of (a very disinterested personage!) Father Marion Parmenio-a Jesuit.]

The stone having been removed, the precious relics of the holy martyr were presented to view; and close beside them was a glass vase, extremely small, half entire and half broken, whose sides were covered with dry blood. * * While the persons present were occupied in detaching the blood from the pieces of the vase, and were putting these, with the greatest care even the smallest bits, in an urn of cut glass, several men of cultivated minds among them were astonished at seeing the urn all at once sparkling in their sight. They came nearer-they considered the prodigious phenomenon at their leisure, and with sentiments of the liveliest admiration, united with the most profound respect, they gave thanks to God who glorifies himself in his saints."

The sacred particles on falling from the vase into the urn, transformed themselves into different precious and brilliant substances; and it was a permanent transformation.”

[This wonderful appearance of the particles is regarded by the writer as a fulfilment of the passage in the Wisdom of Solomon, 3. 7. "The just shall shine as the sun,-and

like stars." He says that a somewhat similar phenomenon is mentioned in the life of St. John Nepomucene, whose body having been thrown into water, appeared at night as if wrapped in a garment of fire.]

"It is well to remark, first, that these revelations were made to three different persons; the first of whom was a young artisan, very well known to Don Francisco de Lucia, who, in his work which has been circulated by thousands of copies in the kingdom of Naples and the surrounding states, bears public witness to the purity of his conscience and his solid piety.

The second is a zealous priest, now a canon, whose devotion to the holy virgin, whose praises he sounds everywhere, deserves very special grace.

The third and last is one of the young women consecrated to God in a rigid cloister in Naples, about thirty-four years of age.

In the next place it is to be remarked, that these three persons were unacquainted with each other, having never held any kind of intercourse, and dwelling in very distant places.

And finally, the recitals which they have given, whether in conversation or writing, evidently agree in the main outline, and in the principal circumstances with the epitaph we have explained above, and give it a developement both clear and edifying, by the details which they furnish."

[1st. VISION. By a young artisan. Given as in his own words.]

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"I saw the tyrant Dioclesian, deeply in love with the virgin Filumena. He condemned her to different torments, and continually flattered himself with the hope that their severity would overcome her courage." But seeing that all his hopes were vain, and that nothing could conquer the resolute will of the holy martyr, he fell into an excess of madness, and in the rage which then agitated him, he complained that he could not make her become his wife. Finally, after having put her to the endurance of several tortures, (and he mentions particularly the same which are indicated by the sepulchral stone, and of which he had absolutely no knowledge,) the tyrant had her beheaded. This order had hardly been executed, when despair seized his soul, He was then heard to exclaim: It is all over then, Filumena will never be my wife! She was a rebel against my will to the last breath. She is dead; how can I survive her! while saying these words, he seized hold of his beard in fury, fell into frightful convulsions, and throwing himself from the summit of his throne down upon the pavement, seized with his teeth everything near him, and said he would be no longer emperor."

And

"Such, in few words, is an outline of the vision with which it has pleased God to visit a simple, ignorant man: a vision which is in conformity with what history teaches us of the last years of Diocletian, (or at least of what it gives us to understand of them)." [p. 27.)