CHAPTER XXVI.

Money Changers-San Francesco-Church of Prince SanseverinoChiselled Net-A veiled Statue of Christ.

You see here, in every street, women sitting at a table covered with columns of copper, and other coin, ready to give change to all comers. They instantly recalled that well-known act of our Lord-" He found in the Temple changers of money sitting, and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables." Had the Greeks this custom? Where there are so many foreigners and arrivals from all the shores of the Mediterranean it seems very convenient.

One sees frequently an ox and a horse drawing together: the horses wear a curious horned brass ornament, covered with nails. The meaning of an old Roman proverb, which has long puzzled the learned, has, it seems, been discovered in this brass ornament. The proverb, referring to a stupid man longing for the reward of genius, speaks of the ox longing for the iphia of the horse.

We now determined to take a view of the churches. Opposite the King's palace, a church is now much advanced, called St. Francesco, or the Duomo. Its form, in the centre, is that of the Pantheon. The portico is supported by ten fine Carrara marble pillars; and there are two colonnades, formed by forty-four columns of stone from

Solfatara, the cornices of which are, they say, of calcareous stone from Gaeta, a species of lava. We were much interested in seeing the workmen forming and finishing the capitals. The light will fall into the church from an opening in the dome. We could not help longing that that word, the entrance of which giveth light, could find its entrance there. It is a beautiful structure. Oh, that mental purity and spiritual knowledge kept pace with the arts amongst this feeling people!

"In all, save form alone, how changed! and who

That marks the fire still sparkling in each eye,—
Who but would deem their bosoms burned anew
With thy unquenched beam, lost liberty!"

A church, erected by the Prince Sangro de Sanseverino, interested us exceedingly. One of its princes, Raimondo, Patriarch of Alexandria, added to its magnificence. The mother of Raimondo is represented as Prudence, covered with a veil: its transparency and folds are very remarkable. It is said that the Greeks never sculptured a face entirely veiled, yet so as perfectly to shew the features. The sculptor here is Corradini. On the opposite side of the altar is the statue of the father, who, on the death of his wife, disengaged himself from the world, and entered a monastery.

In this sculpture a man is represented entangled, all but his bust, in a net, from which he is endeavouring to disengage himself with the assistance of an angel, who is pointing to a book and the world. One might fancy the angel saying, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and ye shall be my sons and my daughters." The net is chiselled so well, that it is not till you have felt its coldness, and examined it, that you can

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persuade yourself that it is not really formed of rope; and being cut with the statue from one block, while it touches the figure but in few parts, the skill of the artist is most conspicuous. The determination to get free is finely expressed: "But he is the freed man whom the truth makes free, and all are slaves beside." There is a yet more striking marble here. Amidst the ruins of an earthquake, which shook this chapel almost to destruction, with a countenance full of composure, and covered with a veil, is the representation of a dead Christ, reposing calmly on a bier: fragments of stone are on every side. The form and muscles are clearly seen beneath a veil, caused apparently to adhere by the dews of death. The eye is flattened—the nostril has fallen-the mouth is drawn. The veil is so draped as to have its folds where they do not hide the muscles the hands are the very hands of death. It is deeply affecting; and one gathers comfort only in recollecting that Christ has triumphed over death, and that in far other form will he appear when, starting from the grave, we shall say

"Hark! universal nature shook and groaned,

'Twas the last trumpet, see the Judge enthroned."

Canova is said to have offered the weight of the statue in silver for its purchase, and, was refused. We passed from this chapel to a very different scene. "La Chiesa Cattedrale di San Gennaro." This, the finest Christian church in this city, was erected on the site of a temple of Apollo. (As affording picturesque objects, I can conceive nothing finer than this coast of Italy in early times, every one of its noble bays and promontories being ornamented by a temple of beautiful architecture.) Under the high altar of this cathedral is said to be preserved the body of St.

BLOOD OF ST. GENNARO.

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Gennaro, brought from the hill overlooking Puteoli, in the amphitheatre of which he suffered martyrdom.

The chapel of the treasures of St. Gennaro contains immense riches (or did so), viz.: thirty-six silver busts of the holy protecting saints of Naples! On the high altar of God is the statue of St. Gennaro, seated, in the act of blessing the people! In the centre is a little sacred tabernacle, with silver doors, where is said to be preserved the head of the saint, and two phials of his blood, saved by a Neapolitan lady at the time of his decapitation. This blood is said miraculously to dissolve every time it is brought before the head. A clergyman, a friend of mine, saw the pretended miracle. He told me that the higher clergy allow that it is an imposture, but that the people insist on its performance from time to time. He said their vehemence was incredible till it was accomplished,—the women in hysterics, the men yelling, till the liquefaction brought forth shouts of joy. How guilty are the clergy in not educating the lower orders, and thus rendering such folly impossible! Three times a year say the Neapolitans, “Si fa la funzione di questo gran miracolo. Quando subito il sangue si liquefa, l' allegrezza del popolo giunge ad un segno da non potersi esprimere. La Città di Napoli si e vedutà più volte in pericolo d'esser subbissata dal Vesuvio, dal terremoto, e da altre calamità di guerra, e di peste. Ma del gran prottettore San Gennaro è stata sempre difesa e liberata"!!!

The building is whitewashed, and, though the best church here, is the poorest cathedral I have yet seen on the continent. On the first day in Lent, we came to this church to hear a capuchin preach. Across the church, from the pulpit to the pillars, a large sail-cloth was ex

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tended, in lieu, I suppose, of a "sounding-board." The pulpit was on the right hand of the middle nave: on the edge of the pulpit a carved hand-in it a crucifix. The flagellating cord, the brown dress, the rosary, the shorn head of the capuchin, seemed intended to proclaim one long since dead to the world. We were too late for the text, but when we entered he was stating the advantages possessed in the Roman Catholic church above all others. First, its political benefit. In other churches," said he, with a voice of thunder, "these wholesome chains are broken. Yes! these wholesome chains have produced all the renowned virgins and hermits, and men of monastic virtue which grace our list of saints,—men of like passions with ourselves, who have been enabled to subdue all their affections-to consecrate themselves to God. In vain should we search, in other states, in other kingdoms, for the charity inculcated by the Roman Catholic church-no church like this, which has taught men the truth through the medium of successive miracles-miracles continued, renewed day by day-a church that brings us to submit our understandings to the sublime mysteries it teaches." For half an hour he continued with further exhortations to political obedience. The whole of this very edifying discourse was delivered in a monotonous Stentorian voice, first at one end of the long pulpit and then at the other, with unchanged features, (very unlike the generality of the mountebank monks on the Mole,) and apparently without one feeling of pity for his fellow-men, whom he addressed with a tone to which the cathedral absolutely re-echoed. How explicitly does the declaration of God answer such doctrine!" In vain do you worship me, teaching for doctrine the commandments of men."