"I trust "Videsne' will write long and often. Mr. R. McCully discusses Descartes and Swedenborg in a manner thoroughly new and delightful, as indeed this writer always writes. Why will not Mr. M'Cully publish in a volume his very valuable essays printed from time to time in the Intellectual Repository? How often have I wished that I might write to him and thank him directly for his brilliant and able studies in fields wholly new and unexplored by others. I know of nothing in our recent Church literature more richly suggestive and instructive. The quoted utterances of the Bishop of Lincoln on 'The Bible and the Law of Interpretation,' which make up another article in this number, are simply startling in their bold and powerful assertions of the great truths proclaimed to the New Church regarding the Word.

"The items of local intelligence regarding the doings and progress of the Church are all interesting as usual, but especially so the long communication from our good brother, the 'Rev. Adolph Boyesen, regarding the Scandinavian Mission, and what it is accomplishing. No one can read it and not want to help forward the important work being so faithfully and so devotedly carried on by the earnest but struggling little band of New Churchmen in Scandinavia. Why have we not some organized system of Foreign Missions by which we might be constantly and regularly affording some help to these most deserving efforts now making in Denmark and in Italy to plant the New Church in those countries? How much, with comparatively little effort, if systematically made, we might be helping our feeble brethren abroad and so vastly helping ourselves. But I am digressing, and making a long letter of what I only wished to offer as a return of thanks to the editor and contributors of the Intellectual Repository; and not to them either, so much as to the divine Author and Giver of the ability to write well and wisely for the instruction of others, and of the willingness to devote the best of one's mental labour and culture to the edification of the Church. FRANK SEWALL.

"URBANA UNIVERSITY, Nov. 8, 1874."

INCIDENTS OF A TOUR IN FRANCE AND ITALY.—II.

I LEFT Bourg en Bresse by train at five on a very fine morning for Culos, which is the junction station for trains coming and departing between France, Switzerland (Geneva), and Italy.

Before quitting the notice of my observations in France, I desire to mention one circumstance that touched my sympathies deeply. We

read of the legislative struggles in the Assembly of that country, of the balance of parties, and the advocacy of the Comte de Chambord by the Ultramontanes, or supporters of the Papacy; of the Orleanists, who seek a monarchy, but a moderate and constitutional one; of the Buonapartists, who would restore the Empire, with its order and activity, a considerable amount of liberty and liberality, but a prominence for military life and military glory; the Republicans, who believe that mode of government the most just and effective; and lastly, the supporters of the Septennate of Marshal M‘Mahon, who desire all parties to keep their political views in abeyance, and let the nation recover its strength by industry, peace and order. As we read in our morning papers, the long debates, the mutual watchings, the party moves, the constant fencings and recriminations, which seem to lead to nothing, we wonder at the want of practical combining power which would lead to the renunciation of what could not be done, and supporting that which was the best system practicable in the temper and circumstances of the nation.

The incident to which I allude, however, shows that what to us seems simply a tiresome waste of time and effort, to them Is A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH. A gentleman showed me in his study two large and handsome trunks, beautifully divided into compartments, and containing what he most valued. He said those were got ready during the late debates in the Assembly, and if the Comte de Chambord had been adopted, with his old papal notions and connexions, I MUST have BECOME AN EXILE AT ONCE. Such are the arrogance and intolerance of the priesthood, that life would have been unbearable here.

When will these narrow-minded bigots learn common sense, and cease to exercise lordship and bitterness in the name of Him who said it ought not to be done? When will they strive to show that they are His disciples, by exercising charity and justice to all men, whether agreeing with them in religious views or not?

After leaving Culos, the ride through Savoy, now politically a part of France, is magnificent. The people, in language and manners, are a mixture of France and Italy. The silent e of so many French words is replaced by a. Porte becomes porta, Modane becomes Modana, and so on. The scenery is splendid. Vast mountains, capped with snow, and with constant varieties of form; sweet valleys, green and fruitful, with their peaceful cattle; rushing rivers; calm and picturesque lakes, afford an ever-changing and ever-beautiful and majestic panorama. Sometimes you have Mont Blanc in view, then the neighbouring ranges come group after group, with every variety of crag and rocky peak and mountain side, until you are filled with admiration and astonishment at the grandeur through which your route is constantly advancing.

The people that have inhabited these regions must have been wonderfully industrious. Not only are the valleys cultivated and well supplied with cattle, but wherever a ledge on the hillside could be made serviceable, there vines are planted and carefully cultivated, and where nothing else can feed, you will see goats browsing on the scanty

vegetation, and preparing the household milk. Both sheep and goats have small bells round their necks, and sometimes from above, and sometimes from below, you hear the tingle which fills the air with a pleasant and musical sense of life.

The route through Savoy to Modane, and thence to Turin, yields interest and beauty worth the whole expense and trouble incurred by a journey from England. Nature appears in her grandest forms, and each successive scene seems to disclose fresh features ever striking, ever charming, and ever new.

At Modane you leave the French carriages and enter the Italian. You have your luggage examined for purposes of duty. You can change your money; and after about forty minutes' delay, you enter upon your course through Mount Cenis, which is just above you. The mountains around are many of them constantly covered with snow. The line does not enter direct at the foot of the mountain, but goes along a rising incline for about a mile, then turns, still rising for about another mile, and then enters the tunnel, which starts thus at a considerable elevation. There is a short tunnel, then an opening, and then you enter the Grand Tunnel.

The passage through the tunnel takes half an hour. There is a double line, a lofty arch, plenty of room, and good air and gaslight in the carriages, as well as gas-lights fixed against the sides of the rock at short intervals. The fuel is prepared charcoal, in blocks about a foot long, and there is no unpleasantness in the atmosphere.

You can read comfortably as you go along, if you prefer that to conversation, or to watching the lights as the train passes them, and there is no sense of danger or discomfort. At length you emerge, and, if seated at the left side of the train, you will see a grand view upwards to the mountain tops, and downwards to immense depths in the Alpine valleys, of which you now get glimpses. But you very shortly enter another tunnel of respectable length, and when you leave that get another vast deep into which you peer, and so on, for about thirty miles, until you come to Susa. The whole route is surpassingly wonderful. It is a fine specimen of engineering, and opens a succession of marvels of beauty. From Susa to Turin the landscape becomes more of an ordinary type, but would have been considered striking if you had not been passing through a region so very extraordinary. The station at Turin is spacious, grand, and convenient, worthy of the line and of the city. It opens upon a broad boulevard called the Corso del Re, and on all sides there are comfortable well-managed hotels, ready and very willing to minister to the requirements of the traveller.

I purposely arrived on Saturday evening, intending to spend a quiet Sunday in Turin with Professor Scoccia, and also to enjoy service in the Waldensian Church, which was erected in that city twenty years ago.

Having had a good night's rest, and an excellent breakfast, I waited upon Professor Scoccia, and received a hearty and affectionate welcome from him and his excellent wife.

We discoursed of the Professor's labours and prospects, of the news of the Church, and of his proposed removal to Florence. His attempts to establish a congregation in Turin had not been successful, which Professor Scoccia considers is owing to the immorality and general indifference to religious thought prevalent in the city. The people are content to live on in sensual indulgence, moderated by politeness, fashion, and regard to their power of expenditure. And as for the requirements of religion on special occasions, they are content for the priests to do the accustomed ceremonies, and be paid for it.

A similar account of the general state of religious indifference was given me by one of the ministers of the Church of the Waldenses. The Waldensian congregation has had a handsome church capable of containing 800 persons, and have laboured in it with two very earnest and competent ministers for twenty years, holding services both in Italian and French, yet at each of the two services I attended the number present amounted only to about 150.

While, however, no public New Church worshipping body has been gathered in Turin, it is pleasant to find that the number of the subscribers to the Italian magazine, La Nuova Epoca, continues undiminished in Italy, and that very cheering letters from sincere and grateful minds are frequently received. I translate one, which is a

specimen of many others, and which shows that the good seed is finding its way into good ground:

"Most excellent Mr. Editor,-Towards the middle of the current month I received by post the golden work of The Angelic Wisdom concerning the Divine Providence by E. Swedenborg, translated into Italian, as the promised prize to the subscribers of the Nuova Epoca.

"This is an invaluable gift in all respects, and you may conceive with what desire and delight I have perused it from beginning to end.

"I don't know how to express my gratitude to you, sir, for your labours which have secured in Italian the possession now of the third work of the distinguished author, E. Swedenborg, nor to thank sufficiently the excellent Swedenborg Society, British and Foreign, at whose expense this work has been printed.

"I pray that our Lord will bless in every possible way both you and the Society for the great lights which are thus being spread over the earth.

"I pray the Lord also that you may receive every needful assistance to be enabled to continue to procure for us the blessing of having in Italian successively the other precious works of the same author, which so much abound in comfort and delight.

"Please to accept a post-order for L.8 (7s. 6d.) for an additional copy of each of the three works of E. Swedenborg already translated, that I may have them to lend, so that other friends may read them.

"BARI, 16th August 1874.

D. d'A."

Such letters are encouraging evidences that, amid the general religious deadness in the central seat of papal prostitution of religion to ceremonialism for the sake of the lust of power, there are souls seeking for more light, that they may come into true charity and real heavenly obedience.

Some priests are among the subscribers, and receive the truths of the New Dispensation; but, as a class, the Italian clergy are too content to live obsequiously on the poor pittance they receive, and be submissive to those who lord it over them, to inquire deeply into Divine

things. They rest content with their rubbishy relics, their poverty and their dirt, and are not very promising ground.

I spent three days in Turin, and was pleased, as I have ever been, with it as a city. It is laid out in straight lines like an American city. It abounds in spacious streets, splendid squares, containing fine monuments of citizens who have deserved well of their country, and of those distinguished in arts and science, as well as of such as have been famous in arms. There are noble museums in Turin, very complete in specimens, and admirably arranged. It is altogether a beautiful city, and contains more than 200,000 inhabitants. Many of the churches are very handsome, and the environs of the city are picturesque and commanding. The river Po flows by, and adds to the beauty and salubrity of the situation.

I bid my worthy friends good-bye, and left for Milan, the capital of Lombardy, and a city that is to Turin something like what Glasgow is to Edinburgh. It is much larger than the capital of Piedmont, and more commercial. There is a vigorous, energetic air about the Milanese which strikes the observant traveller at once. Milan is not so regularly

laid out as Turin, and in the centre a great improvement is being effected by the removal of narrow, crooked, old streets, and substituting grand openings and noble buildings in the vicinity of the Duomo or Cathedral. An English company is carrying out a large portion of the work under the direction of the municipality, and is making a splendid alteration. The Galeria between the square of La Scala and the Duomo is a magnificent series of arcades, with the outlines like the Piedmontese cross, having the arms of equal length. The shops are so large, brilliant, and lofty, the promenades so extensive, and covered in by glass so that the people are protected from unpleasant weather, that it has no equal in Europe, and is crowded every evening.

In the square of La Scala is a very splendid monument, lately finished, to Leonardi da Vinci. The great painter was also distinguished for his scientific attainments generally. He was in the service for many years of the Duke of Milan, and established an academy of arts in that city.

Milan has been distinguished in the history of the Christian Church. Here Ambrose, esteemed one of the four great doctors of the Roman Catholic Church, was Bishop in the fourth century. At Milan, probably a little after his time, the grand hymn Te Deum Laudamus was first introduced. Ambrose obtained great admiration for his courage in excommunicating the Emperor Theodosius for a cruel slaughter of his people on occasion of a riot in Thessalonica, and forbidding his entrance into the Church at Milan until he had shown great penitence for his bloodthirstiness. The Church of Ambrose is not the present Cathedral, but a large ancient church about two miles from the present centre of the city, with an extensive court and cloisters in front.

There are curious chapels, altars, relics and tablets, but all are old, fading, and forsaken.

The present Archbishop of Milan is a Cardinal, and his escutcheon,