opinion upon their character and propriety. Thus much for the religious portion of my essay. pp. ix-xii. This, we must take the liberty of remarking, is a rather strange avowal to proceed from a Protestant clergyman. But "evil communications corrupt good manners." To what in'nocent' and' meritorious' customs of the Church of Italy, our Author alludes, we should have been quite at a loss to conjecture, had he not instanced, in another place, the keeping open the churches during many hours every day, as a custom admirably ⚫ calculated to preserve alive an attention to religious duties, and a spirit of devotion among mankind, and which cannot but be acceptable to that Being who unfoids not the gates of the heavenly temple for limited periods, but all the day long stretches out his hand to a disobedient and gainsaying people. Of course, our Author will imitate this laudable example, and keep open the church doors in his parish, as a means of preserving alive a spirit of devotion among his parishioners. But seriously, when it is considered for what purpose the churches of Italy are kept open-not for religious instruction, not for social worship, but for idolatrous rites borrowed from heathenism, and for the gains of a corrupt and apocryphal priesthood, Mr. Blunt is guilty of something worse than forgetfulness, in representing such a custom as assuredly acceptable to the Divine Being. -The endless superstitions and overflowing polytheism of the ancient Romans advanced in the usual progress of erroneous belief. Fear, hope, the passions and infirmities of man, multiplied the objects of worship. The blight of a crop, or a plentiful harvest, the common phenomena of the winds and the waves, war and famine, perpetually increased the divinities of their pantheon. Even a fever and a cough were subjects of apotheosis. To these delusions, the craft of man contributed. Every shrine had its priest; and, as the priests were maintained by the oblations of the altar, their avarice was deeply pledged to cherish and uphold the superstition. It is lamentable,' says our Traveller, to observe in how many particulars this picture is true of modern Italy and Sicily; where, in spite of that knowledge of the one and only God which revelation has communicated, the same tendency to polytheism (for the worship of saints has all the character of that creed in practice, however ingeniously it may be explained), is still manifested; and where the same abuses as those which have been already enumerated, and from the same causes, abundantly prevail. On the one hand, impertinent and unworthy solicitations of divine interference; on the other, encouragement in such a practice by self-interested individuals. Priests ill paid, and hordes of friars, mendicants by profession, have been tempted to lay under heavy contribution the credulity of the public; and accordingly we find most cathedrals, as well as nearly all the chapels of the regular clergy, possessed of images or relics said to be endowed with miraculous virtues, while a box is at hand to receive the offerings of those who, out of gratitude for the past, or hope for the future, are disposed to give their mite for the good of the church. I have seen the poor fishermen at Catania regularly greeted on their arrival at the coast with the produce of their day's toil, by the craving voice of a Capuchin or Franciscan; nor has that been refused to the holy vagrant, which ordinary beggars, though wrung with distress, would have besought in vain. Indeed, few persons are so poor as to escape subscribing their quota towards filling the satchels of these men, or so fearless of the consequent anger of Heaven as to risk a denial. The general effects of this unhappy system have been, to degrade the worship of the Deity-to swell the calendar with saints-to extend the influence of charms--to instigate pilgrimages-to clothe the altars with votive tablets-and to give currency to numbers of miracles which have not a shadow of testimony to their truth. In short, it has made the countries of Italy and Sicily what they are, emblems of the churches in them, replete themselves with beauty, yet serving as vast magazines for objects calculated to excite the devotion of the superstitious, the pity of the wise and good, and the scoffs of the profane.' pp. 4-6. Mr. Blunt proceeds to a fertile subject, that of the Saints, and traces the various circumstances which undeniably demonstrate the close affinity of tutelar saints to the gods of old Rome. The multitude of saints and their reputed lives furnish strong resemblances to the ancient deities. A striking parallel is also to be found in the supernatural powers with which the saints of the Italians and the gods of the Romans have been respectively endowed. The several ways in which the figures of both have been employed, as Lares, Dii Tutelares, charms, and the like,' furnish another remarkable coincidence. The first division of Lares,' says Mr. Blunt, of which I shall speak, consists of those that were fixed in the public streets, particularly in situations where several ways meet, and where the conflux of the populace was consequently greater. These were called Viales or Compitales, and the festival observed in honour of them, Ludi Compitalicii. I think it not unlikely that the Priapus in the principal street at Pompeii, of which so much has been said, was one of these Lares Viales. By a decree of Augustus they were annually adorned with spring and summer flowers. (Sueton. Aug. 31.) In the towns of Italy and Sicily, then, there are at this moment few streets which cannot display at least one Madonna, situated also in general, after the ancient manner, at their points of intersection, entitled therefore to the name of Compitalis, and commonly decorated with garlands and bouquets. I recollect having seen in Sicily a few withered ears of corn placed in the hand and wreathed round the brow of a Madonna Vialis; a trifling circumstance in itself, but such as could not fail, at With this was Ceres cheer'd and comforted, Gower's Translation. Around these objects of reverence little groups of persons daily assemble to sing their vespers; and for a month before Christmas, peasants, principally from Calabria, come trooping into the towns with their pipes, on which they play gratuitously a simple air before every Madonna Compitalis, and regale those also within doors for a few baiochs, which the piety of the poorest housekeeper urges him to ⚫ spend: Ante Deum matrem cornu Tibicen adunco Ovid. Ep. i. 1. 11. I am thus circumstantial, because from the passage which I have just quoted, as well as from numberless others, it is perfectly known that the Romans used to sing to the images of their gods, and that the Tibia was more especially consecrated to their service. (Vid. Ovid. Fast. vi. 652.) A word with respect to these pipes. They are of two kinds; the one of a very simple construction, in shape resembling our flageolet, with six holes, but without keys; in short, neither more nor less than the old Tibia, as it is preserved in many antique pieces of sculpture. The other is a somewhat more complex instrument. It consists of a tube through which the musician inflates a goat-skin that he holds under his left arm. Two pipes of unequal length' (Tibiæ impares) communicate with this skin by a single mouth; the shorter serving for a drone or continued bass, and admitting, I think, only one variety of modulation; the longer having three or four apertures. This rustic performer probably differs little from the Utricularius of the ancients." pp. 21-24. The mixture of sacred and profane images in the early ages. of the Church, marks the transition of the ancient, into the present practice. St. Augustine mentions a woman who offered adorations and incense to Jesus and Paul, and Homer and Pythagoras; and Alexander Severus is reported to have reckoned among his household gods, Apollonius and Christ, and Abraham and Orpheus. Ships were under the peculiar protection of the Dii Tutelares. Horace puts them into his catalogue of the ship's furniture. In his celebrated illustration of the dissentions of the state by the metaphor of a ship in distress, the vessel is de scribed as not only having lost her mast, her sails, her oars, but the gods too, who might have been invoked in distress, had been washed away. In fact, they formed an established part of a Roman ship.' Vessels also took their names from those deities. The boat in Catullus is dedicated to Castor and Pollux; and St. Paul sailed from Melite in a ship "whose sign was Castor and Pollux." In Modern Italy, the names of ships are almost invariably sacred. At Messina or Naples may be seen the Swift, the Dart, the Enterprise, or the Wellington, from Liverpool, lying beside the Santa Elizabeta, the Santa Maria della Providenza, the Santissimo Core di Jesu, &c. with corresponding figures conspicuous on the prow. At the same time in the cabins of these latter will be found a Madonna or a saint in wax, wood, or paper, with a lamp suspended before it. In Sicily the smallest boat which is paddled along-shore by a fisherman or porter, would be thought not more ill-appointed without an oar, than without a guardian angel of insurance against calamity. A friend of mine who, in conjunction with some others, bad hired a sparonara to convey them from Naples to Rome, (communication by land being at that time difficult, in consequence of the advance of the Austrian army,) was put to considerable inconvenience through one of these protectors. The head of the saint having been unfortunately knocked off by some operation in managing the boat, fell into the sea. Nothing could persuade the master to proceed till it was found; which, from the motion of the vessel, and the drifting of the head, was not soon done. Meanwhile a foul wind sprang up, which prevented them from making Ostia, till after a most tedious and troublesome delay: and indeed, it is but too frequently that the passenger has occasion to lament the blind reliance on supernatural aid, which leads an Italian crew to neglect altogether those ordinary means which the wise Governor of the World has placed within their reach; and upon the use or neglect of which he may, in his providence, have ordained their fate to depend.' pp. 32-34. Few phenomena in the Christian world are more extraordinary than the adoration of the Virgin in all Catholic countries. Mr. Blunt ascribes it to the religion of ancient Rome, which recognised a vast variety of female deities. The religion of the New Testament, he remarks, afforded no stock on which this 'part of heathen mythology could be grafted.' But when we consider the natural disposition of nominal converts from Paganism, to mingle the rites of the religion they had quitted, with that which they had adopted, and the willingness which many of the early Christians displayed to come to an accommodation with the Pagans, in hopes that time and knowledge might purify their faith, it is not much to be wondered at, that so many of the rites paid to the old female divinities should be transVol. XX. N.S. 2 Q ferred to the Madonna. This error was probably confirmed by the title, Mater Dei, which was uniformly assigned to the Virgin, until the famous Nestorian controversy brought the subject into debate. The Council of Ephesus, in 428, decided after all, that the term might be used with propriety. Now this epithet was, in Pagan times, that of Cybele, and it was inevitable that some confusion in the minds of half-enlightened persons would ensue, in consequence of such an identity. Mr. Blunt has brought together several independent facts in support of his opinion. Among which, not the least striking is, that our Ladyday, the day of the Blessed Virgin of the Roman Catholics, was heretofore dedicated to Cybele. As Mars was once the defender of Rome, Ceres of Enna, Diana of Syracuse, so now, every Christian town in these countries has a protecting saint. Our Author traces the honours paid to St. Agatha at Catania, to the honours formerly paid in the same city to Ceres. The festival of this saint lasts many days; and the different ceremonies appropriated to each day, present many striking coincidencies. The chapter on the churches of Italy and Sicily, is an ingenious and learned exposition of many other points of resemblance. The conversion of heathen temples into churches, opened a wide door for the admission of the old superstition. In these temples, a variety of ceremonies had been practised for ages. Here was the Aquaminarium, or vessel of purifying water, at the doors; here were paintings, altars, censers, tripods, the usual furniture of a heathen temple. These, as too valuable to be destroyed, were naturally transferred. Many temples were consecrated to the same deity under differeut titles, as, in ancient Rome, the temple of Jupiter Custos, of Jupiter Feretrius, of Jupiter Sponsor, of Venus Calva, Venus Verticordia, Venus Cloacina, &c. &c. &c. So, in modern Rome, we find a church of Sa. Maria degli Angeli, of Sa. Maria Imperatrice, of Sa. Maria Liberatrice, of S. Pietro in Vaticano, of S. Pietro in Carcere, &c. &c. &c. Again, heathen temples were often dedicated to two divinities, as to Venus and Cupid, to Isis and Serapis, &c. So, there are now churches to Jesus and Maria, to S. Marcellinus and Peter, to Celsus and Julianus, &c. &c. Sometimes more deities, each having his separate altar, were worshipped by the Gentiles under the same roof. In St. Peter's, there is, in like manner, an altar ascribed to S. Leo, another to the Madonna della Colonna, and many more. But a still more remarkable connexion is, in many cases, to be traced between the ancient temples and the modern churches, in the corresponding attributes of the deity and the saint. Thus, the temple of Vesta is now the church of the Madonna of the |