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to place a body of Swiss to keep back the crowd. This precaution, however, was rendered futile, for they opened a door to give ingress to the Princess of Roccella, a lady of high distinction and a penitent of the Father; the mob made a rush, precipitated themselves after her, and filled the vast church. The bier with infinite difficulty was brought to the middle of the church; the funeral service commenced-the pressure of the multitude interrupted it, and the Fathers, surrounded by soldiers, carried the bier into the chapel of the Santissima Trinita, which is defended by strong iron railing, where the service was concluded. This timely removal probably saved the body from being torn to pieces by the superstitious mob. The church could not be cleared until late at night, and the next day the crowd returned with increased density. The chapel where the body lay was besieged, particularly by the diseased and sorrowing: others ran to break the Father's confessional box in pieces, to preserve as miracleworking relics; but here the Jesuits had been before them; it was deposited in a place of safety, and only a few persons were admitted to kiss it. A little girl, who had been a cripple several years, had the good fortune to sit down on the seat of the said confessional-she rose up perfectly cured. Miracles, of course, were worked after his decease, for it is the working of miracles after death that gives a title to beatification and canonization: the two following were those which were proved in the Roman court, and which merited him the title of Beato; they are given in a style which has a close resemblance to that of the advertisements of puffing quack-doctors-the latter one will recall to the reader one of Prince Hohenlohe's miracles in Ireland, which has lately been so much noised.

A short time after the death of Padre Francesco, D. Giovanni Ambroselli, of Castronovo, in the kingdom of Naples, professor of medicine, who had been congregated under the direction of the holy man, was unfortunately wounded, by the bursting of a blunderbuss, in his left hand and arm: seveIral bones were fractured, the nerves were lacerated; in a few days the wounds began

to gangrene; he was reduced to extremeties; he received the sacraments, and was given over to the assistance of the priests. At a moment when he was more than ever tormented by spasmodic pains, he turned to God with faith, imploring succour through the merits of his servant Padre di Girolamo, whose death he was yet ignorant of, and anon the spasm was tranquillized, and he was surprised by sleep. During his sleep Padre Francesco appeared to him, animated him to hope health in God, and then touched with his dress the wounded Ambroselli awoke at this hand and arm.

act, and feeling himself perfectly cured (guarito perfettamente da ogni incommodo), to the joyful surprise of all present rose from his bed, thanking the Lord, who thus healed him by a prodigy; and as only through the merits of Padre Francesco had the scars of the wounds remained, as a memorial of the grace he had received, he repaired on foot to Naples, where he better intimated his gratitude at the tomb of his beneficent deliverer, at the same time publishing through that great city the miracle, and authenticating it in his person.

Nor less prodigious was the cure that D. Maria Rosalia Rispoli, a nun in the monastery Dell' Annunziata, at Massa, near Sorrento, acknowledged to have obtained through the mediation of our Padre di Girolamo. She had for many years been molested by an hypochondriac, hysterical affection, that caused her most acute pains in the head and bowels, and was at last surprised by a violent apoplectic stroke that paralyzed all her left side, so that she could neither stand nor move without the aid of two or more of her sisters. Thus oppressed by an evil, declared by the physicians to be incurable, as she had heard of the numerous prodigies that were operated by God through the intercession of the recently deceased Padre Francesco, she was inwardly moved to have recourse to his protection, and forthwith procuring one of his relics, she crossed her side with it in great faith and fell asleep. In her sleep it seemed to her that she saw the servant of God apply his hand to her side, and restore her lost motion. Her dream was verified in fact: as soon as she awoke she felt herself perfectly cured, and so agile that she leaped from her bed, dressed herself without any help, and rapidly betook herself, all gay and smiling, and astonishing all the sisterhood, to the choir, where with great devotion she rendered thanks to God, who, through the intercession of Padre di Girolamo, had restored her to perfect health, con un tanto strepitoso prodigio," with so noisy a prodigy."*

We hasten with pleasure from

The society has published a detailed life of the Beato, in folio. It contains a vast number of miracles operated by his means, not only in Italy, but in Germany and elsewhere.

234

Re-establishment of the Jesuits in Naples.

these shallow, worn out tricks, to
other details, although they in their
turn have little to conciliate us.

The company has not been able to
re-establish their college De' Nobili,
which once monopolized the educa-
tion of nearly all the young men of
family; nor have they the means of
boarding their present pupils in the
house, a circumstance which they
must much regret, as the boy that goes
home daily to his family, and has the
city open before him, is not at all
likely to be so docile a disciple as
one shut up from year to year, with-
in the walls and under the eyes of
the society. The present number of
these pupils is somewhat more than
a thousand; the far greater part of
them are children of men holding in-
ferior situations under government,
who, in an anxiety to keep their
places, seize every opportunity of
conforming to the spirit and taste of
the rulers that be. The plan of study
they profess to follow is, the Ratio
Studiorum, one of the most luminous
efforts, one of the columns of the je-
suit order; but this plan, in fact,
they do not pursue, being incapaci-
tated by their present lack of means,
and the circumstances of their pu-
pils: we might, perhaps, go further,
and say, that the fathers established
here have not mental capacity suf-
ficient to realize the scheme of their
ingenious predecessors, which, after
all, would be futile or pernicious,
practised on poor lads who will be
obliged to engage in the inferior oc-
cupations and toils of society. To
them the day-schools established on
the French form (many of which have
been suppressed by government, that
took no heed of the masters thus re-
duced to want) were incontestably
better adapted. The system of en-
seignement mutuel, so long and so
loudly deprecated by the whole body
of the catholic priesthood,* has, cu-
rious to say, been largely drawn up-
on by the Jesuits; their school, how

[March,

ever, is not half so orderly as one of our establishments for the poor, and tion is worse than nothing: it is without order this mode of instructrue, their subjects are Neapolitans, but our children are of a far inferior stage of society; they, too, wield the awful terrors of religion to repress vivacity, make use of means potent on the spirit of childhood, which our pedagogues can never handle.

figure distorted and smeared with An immense crucifix, the blood, ever hangs at the end of the school-room, which is purposely kept rather dark, and the physiognomies of the teachers, their voices, their motions, are studied, to produce awe and respect and then, what a dif ference is there in the costume of a Jesuit and the dress of one of our schoolmasters! Before they begin school in the morning the children are employed half an hour in genuflections, and in repeating, all together, a certain set of prayers; the afternoon studies have a similar prelude, and are wound up by the singing of a long rosario. When, after all this, we see that the children are neither respectful, obedient, attentive, nor quiet, are wanting in those talents or qualiwe must conclude that the brethren ties that command and conciliatethat they are unfit for the duties they have taken upon themselves.

previous to the vacation, the Jesuits In the month of September (1822), gave a public display of the success of their labours, which did not answer the ends they proposed, much sion. As they had not sufficient room more than their unfortunate procesin the monastery, they resorted to their spacious church; the high altar was screened, the space immediately before it was furnished with a stage, and benches and chairs were placed in the body of the church for the aucleverest boys had to sustain the dience. A picked number of the scena, which opened by a disputative

Shortly after the fall of the constitution, and while the affairs of police were in the hands of that wiseacre, Signor ***, a poor man who had established a school on this system, in Strada Santa Brigida, was visited one morning by some sbirri, and some Austrian soldiers, who conducted him to the presence of the dreaded minister. how is this?" said Signor ***, 66 -forbidden!" The affrighted pedagogue explained the use of those signs; that they you make use of signs in your school-signs wicked "Ah! were children who used them; that his school doors were open, &c. won't do," cried Signor ***, "Carbonari make use of signs-Masons make use of signs-signs are prohibited by his majesty's decree." The school was put down and "It won't do-it the master was glad to get off so cheaply.

dialogue between two of them (nei ther was fourteen years old) on edu eation, the merits of the Jesuit sys tem, that pursued by the innovators of modern date, &c. The arguments forced into the memory, and extorted .from the mouth of the advocate for oggigiorno (present days) were wild and absurd: the pleader for the Jesuits, on the contrary, was very well furnished with dialectic and rhetoric; he showed as clear as the sun at noon-day, that nothing profitable had been done for education since the third Jesuit General, Acquaviva, and his six co-laborating monks, had formed the ratio studiorum; that it had been hurrying to ruin ever since the iniquity of man had persecuted the society of Jesus, and shut up their schools; and that religion and virtue, honour and morality, had been deteriorating with it; and this brought his speech to its natural conclusion of a diatribe against modern philosophes, which was done with sarcasm, peremptoriness, and sufficiency, real ly worthy of an Encyclopédiste. His opponent, as may be supposed, had no weapons put in his hand, and as his part comported, he owned him self vanquished, and confessed, that "cosi dev' essere" (so it must be). Another boy then came forward and recited a sonnet, which was addressed" in the name of all his companions and of himself to the blessed Virgin, the seat of all wisdom." After this a class came on the stage, and translated about a sentence each boy, from Cornelius Nepos, and, this was followed by a little parsing another class handled some of Ovid's elegies, and talked a little about mythology-another class wrote a theme on holiness of life, in Latin and Italian-another underwent an examination in geography. But it would be useless and tiresome to follow the order, particularly as it was a long affair, the examination having been repeated for three successive days: it is enough to say, that Greek, Latin, and Italian, among languages; history, sacred and profane, ancient and modern geography, chronology, composition in prose and verse, mathematics, arithmetic, &c. &c. were made to strut and fret upon the stage, to show, what they did not, the astonishing capabilities of the instructors, and the rapid pro

gress of the instructed. This sort of exhibition must ever be inconclusive and faulty-this particular one was unfair and paltry: two or three boys had evidently been picked out, and duly prepared by learning certain things by rote, which they pronounced, most probably without understanding, and the other lads were left to dangle their hands undisturbed. The extravagant pretensions of the fathers seemed ridiculous, when it was considered, that these boys had been but a few months under their tuition, that they affirmed they had received them in a state of mas➡ sima ignoranza, and that now they brought them forward as Hellenists, Latinists, philosophers, and mathematicians.

Since that time they have had no scenes of eclat, but the number of novices has regularly increased, as also that of their penitents and devotees; so that there is at present a flourishing nursery of the future members and partizans of the order. They have renewed their esercizi spirituali, among which is the objec tionable practice of having ritirati, which was one of their customs, that in other times, formed serious points of accusation against them-points of accusation as reasonable as serious; for the blinded individuals, who at their persuasion retire for a time from the vanities of the world, are sequestered in lonely cells, among the fearful objects, which bigotry, or rather cunning, has found calculated to dispose weak minds to fanaticism, or to unhinge their intellects: those temporary anchorets, for example, are exposed to the contemplation of skulls, perhaps the most frightful of the relics of mortality, and are placed between two banners, on one of which is depicted our Saviour, on the other the arch-enemy, and thus with ag gravated susceptibilities they are left to dwell on the mass of superstitious horrid doctrine of their teachers→→→ the effect of all this has frequently been that persons have come out of those ritirati with disordered and alienated intellects. The govern ment asserts that it proposes to amend the morals of the people, and believes the Jesuits to co-operate in so very proper an undertaking; but certainly the means hitherto employed by

them are not calculated to attain so

honourable an object, but rather to inspire the people with an ignorant and superfluous respect for the external forms and artifices of devotion, and this, when they are already too much attached to the forms and too little to the essentials, in a country where superstition goes hand in hand with crime, and where the brigands conceal upon their persons at the same time the instrument of their crimes and the object of their miserable idolatry: the dagger and the image of the Madonna lie in peaceful league upon the same bosom! And not only is the spirit of these Jesuits' proceedings unnecessary and prejudicial, but it is also in opposition to the spirit and the letter of their institutes, which order them expressly to avoid all pageants, and to take part very sparingly in processions, miracles, and other objects of excitation. Here are two sentences from their book of laws. "In your preaching make use of all the means that may move to piety and repentance, but never of such as inspire enthusiasm and fanaticism." "Adapt your manners and proceedings as far as justice and reason permit, to the time and country in which you live." Both these commandments are enforced with great earnestness; how admirably does the conduct of these men here, who have now been under our observation for more than two years, conform to them!

If we trace carefully the cause of the original suppression of the Jesuits, it will be seen that the severity exercised against their order was not occasioned by the general misdemeanour of its members, since even its greatest enemies can accuse but few Jesuits of notorious crimes, and no order of men can exist without being occasionally polluted by members who are a disgrace to it, and to the world at the same time: it was not therefore a general evil effected by the Jesuits which caused their expulsion, but a fixed and reasonable fear founded on the nature of their institution which aimed at the esta blishing of an intellectual and consequently a tremendous despotism over men; a despotism apt to become a

mighty instrument of evil in the hands of evil men or even of one evil man, since the Jesuit General exercised a more absolute rule over the order, than perhaps can by any contrivances or violence be exercised by a tyrant over a people.

The ordinary causes of power and security were, in the case of the Jesuits, the proximate causes of their downfall; they were hated, and hated most energetically, by all the other orders, of the Catholic church, for their riches, their talent, their ambition, their real or affected austerity, and their unsociability.

In the present position of affairs, to judge from those settled here, who are all foreigners and selected men, no fear is or need be entertained of the Jesuits; they are no longer powerful in the talents which shed a lustre over their rise, nor in the wealth which was a chain to the multitude, a bait to royal covetousness, and a reproach to monkish poverty; they may add some little to the foppery of religion; but the people upon whom they are likely to exert any influence, are not well able to become more superstitious or more loyal than they are already, and all those who can justly estimate the modern Jesuits' might, smile at their stale tricks, sable dresses, downcast eyes, and demure and unavailing hypocrisy. The friends of liberal opinions may be assured that the illumination of the human mind cannot now be darkened by these antique extinguishers-their imbecility is a guarantee for their harmlessness: but though their sudden apparition need cause no alarm, yet it certainly is not a subject of exultation, which it almost seems to have been considered by certain modern writers, for if they were now what they were in former times, no reasonable man could contemplate their progress with tranquillity, supposing his bosom to be warmed by an honest love of his species; and if their imbecility relieves us from fear on their account, it at the same time makes them obnoxious to our slight regard, not to say our contempt.

GERMAN EPIGRAMS.

The Germans possess a great number and variety of short epigrammatic compositions, from which an interesting Anthology might be wreathed. We propose to give a few specimens from time to time.

Is it a wonder-with his pelf,

That Tom his friends remembers not?
For friends are easily forgot

By him who can forget himself.-Wechkerlin.

THE CHANGED LAIS.

O Venus! whelm'd in sorrow o'er,
My broken glass I bring to thee;
For what I was it shows no more,

And what I am I dare not see.-Wechkerlin.

EPITAPH.

Here lies, thank God, a woman who
Quarrell'd and storm'd her whole life through;
Tread gently o'er her mouldering form,
Or else you'll rouse another storm.-Weckherlin.

Who noble is may hold in scorn
The man who is but noble born.-Zeiler.

TO A SCOUndrel.

Witness against thee !-wheresoe'er thou goest
Thou bearest thy accuser, as thou knowest.-Zeiler.

PRUDENCE.

Seamen on the surge who rise

Court the wind and court the tide,

Force alone no victory brings ;-
They who aim at noblest things,
Should aspire to wisdom's light;

Wisdom's mightier far than might.-Zinkgreff.

HONORABLE SERVICE.

If one have served thee, tell the deed to many;
Hast thou served many, tell it not to any.-Opitz.

EPITAPH ON A MISER.

Here lies old father Gripe, who never cried, "Jam satis,”
"Twould wake him did he know you read his tomb-stone gratis.

I never dine at home, said Harry Skinner;

True! when you dine not out, you get no dinner.-Opitz.

Better to sit in Freedom's hall,

With a cold damp floor and a mouldering wall,
Than to bend the neck, and to bow the knee,
In the proudest palace of slavery.-Olearius.

Opitz.

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