approach to idolatry, I see in this one feature of Popery, the infallible mark of an open apostacy from the faith. The extraordinary fondness of the people for this worst part of their creed, only increases this conviction in my mind.* O, may the time be hastened when these fatal errors shall cease, and Christ alone be again acknowledged to be Lord by all Christians! And may Protestants walk in the blessed light they enjoy, and not sink, in avoiding Popery, into the fatal gulfs of indifference, skepticism, and infidelity-the carelessness, divisions, and irreligion of professed Protestants are the scandal of Christendom. I have heard many, many worse sermons from Protestant pulpits than the one I have just told you of. May the blessed Spirit descend upon the universal church once more, and dispel Popish and skeptical darkness, as he once did Jewish and Pagan! All we want is His inspiration and His book. Send the Bible, we pray thee, O Lord, into every family, and attend it with thy sacred influences: and then truth and holiness will again flourish in the earth, the inventions of men dic away, and charity become the bond of peace amongst thy disciples! desolations occasioned by the bursting of the Dranse. It really reminded me of what the Scripture speaks of the universal deluge, when God swept away every living thing from the face of the earth. It was melancholy to see the valley, described as once so lovely, now choked and covered with masses of rocks and heaps of sand. It has been actually necessary to make a new way in many places, and in one spot to cut a gallery or tunnel, about one hundred and fifty feet long, through the granite ruin which stopped the road. It is said, that above fifty persons perished in that calamity. As we were going through the village of Orsieres we heard voices singing in the church, and on entering, found it crowded with people—it is the nativity of the Virgin Mary, who is, as I have said, the chief object of the Papists' devotion. All along the road the people are going or returning from mass in crowds. In Lyddes, where we now are, the mass being over, the street is filled with idle folks. Business and labor are wholly suspended. It is curious, that all the men in these villages have coats of the same color, a snuff brown, with large cocked military hats. If the So far as I recollect, this is the first Sunday men in these towns were taught to labor, to imwhere I have found no church of any kind except prove their roads, repair their hedges, and cultithe Catholic; as it is certainly the first time I vate their land, instead of praying to the Virgin have heard a French Catholic preacher. On the Mary; and if the women would mend their Grimsel there was no church at all; but every clothes and wash their children, and keep their where else I have found some Protestant service, houses tidy, instead of making caps and petticoats and attended it, though in German. In this town for the same lady, we Protestants cannot but think there is possibly not a creature who ever read they would be better employed than they now are. the Bible-a large proportion of the people would But every great departure from truth is attendnot know what I meant by that sacred book-ed with accumulated moral evils in one way or many would have even no idea that God has given an infallible written revelation of His will to man for his guidance and salvation. Sunday, two o'clock.-We have just had our English divine service; never did the prayers of our truly Protestant and Reformed church appear to me more scriptural and more edifying, nor the psalms and lessons more consoling and instructive, than after having witnessed the Popish ceremonies. I expounded Luke xiii. 1—5. Lyddes, canton of Valais, Monday morning, Sept. 8, eleven o'clock.-At half-past three this morning our guide came to call me. But the weather was dull; and we were so long deliberating whether to set out or not, that it was a quarter to six before we were on our mules. We have now gone sixteen miles on the way to the celebrated hospice of the Great St. Bernard. Our road has been through the valley of Entremont. For the first few miles we were passing over the The Virgin Mary is, beyond all comparison, more adored than the ever-blessed God-the worship paid to her is universal in all places, and by all people. After the VIRGIN, Some of the principal SAINTS seem to be the most worshipped; then our SAVIOUR; and lastly God, our heavenly FATHER. "Shocking as this may appear," proceeds the writer from whom I quote, "it is too true. I am sure I do not exaggerate when I say, that throughout Italy, Spain, Portugal, and every country where the Catholic is the exclusive religion of the people, for one knee bent to God, thousands are bent before the shrines of the Virgin and the saints."+ + Rome in the nineteenth century, vol. i. 22. other. I forgot to tell you, that at Martigny we saw a celebrated tower, built by the Romans (for Cæsar was at Octodurum ;) a beautiful cascade, called the Pisse-Vache, and the fall of the Trient into the Rhone, by a crevice or fente between two rocks, so narrow as scarcely to admit of the stream to pass. Í have been much delighted here (Lyddes) with a religious admonition on the subject of eternity, printed in large letters, on a folio sheet, and hung up in the salle-a-manger; a similar paper is placed in every house in the parish; it quite relieves my mind to see some one great truth of Christianity plainly taught, and without superstition. I have obtained a copy, from which I give one extract-" Understand well the force of these words-a God-a moment-an eternity; a God who sees thee; a moment which flies; an eternity which awaits you:-a God whom you serve so ill; a moment of which you so little profit; an eternity which you hazard so rashly." I dwell with pleasure on this paper, because after what I have been just observing, these are the things which moderate one's depression, and teach one charity towards the persons of individual Catholics. They lead us to hope that there are in the church of Rome numbers of humble and contrite disciples of the lowly Jesus, who substantially understand and feel the awakening truths of Christianity, who put all their confidence for salvation in the atoning blood of their Saviour, and who are guided by His Spirit in the paths of true obedience these "do not worship the BEAST, neither his image, neither receive his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands." Rev. xx. 4. Hospice, au Grand St. Bernard, Monday evening, Sept. 8, eight o'clock.-We arrived here about five, after a journey of eleven hours-twenty-eight miles. The road became more and more wild as we ascended, till at last all vegetation seemed to have ceased. We are now at the celebrated religious hospice of the monks of St. Augustine, of which you have heard so much. My curiosity is greatly excited; and as my sons could not conveniently take their journals with me, they entreat me to be as full as I can in my account to you. It is eight thousand three hundred and fourteen feet above the sea-the highest spot in Europe which is inhabited all the year round. It was founded in the year 962, by St. Bernard de Meuthon, who was the provost for forty years, and died in 1008. It is on the high Alps which separate Le Valais from Piedmont; and it was, before the Simplon and Mount Cenis' roads were made and improved by Bonaparte, one of the greatest passages between Switzerland and Italy. It is still a very considerable thoroughfare, especially for the poor Piedmontese, who cross every spring to Switzerland and France for employ. This hospice has twelve monks, and six domestics, constantly resident to receive the poor without payment, and succor the distressed traveller. They are bound to entertain these travellers for three days, and in case of illness, to nurse and attend them till they recover. out the day. Thirty horses and mules are employed nearly half the year, in fetching wood from the forests, twelve or fifteen miles from the convent. Close to the hospice was formerly a Roman temple, dedicated to Jupiter Penninus; on the site of which various antiquities are continually found. We were shown a large collection of them— amongst which were many medals of great value. When we first arrived, a monk, in a loose habit of black, buttoned down close in front, with a black cap, received us and showed us first into the dining-room, and then to our chambers. Soon after another monk walked out with us, and pointed out the chief beauties around. At one place he showed us the division between Switzerland and Italy; and made us tread at the same time on both countries. He bid us mark several spots where the dogs had discovered frozen travellers, and had been the means of saving them: one he particularly pointed out, where they had discovered a peasants family perishing in the snow; upon which one of these noble animals had contrived to take up an infant, and place it on its back, and then hastened to the hospice, to fetch persons who might rescue the unhappy parents. The story affected us almost to tears. It is not only the frosts and snow which create the danger, but the dreadful storms of wind, which come on quite unexpectedly and carry away the traveller. The Italian courier passed, a few winters ago, from Aoste to the Great St. Bernard, on a very inclement afternoon. The monks endeavored to persuade him to abandon all thought of going forward. He was determined to proceed. They then sent two servants with him, to direct him on his way. As these did not return when they were expected, another domestic, with three dogs, was dispatched in search of them. The dogs refused to move, though they were the best of the whole number: this was the sure sign that extreme danger was on the road. However, life was at stake, and the dogs were at length forced to go. That night neither men nor dogs returned; and some days afterwards they were all discovered buried under an avalanche, about half a league from the convent, perfectly dead. To support their expenses, the monks in the summer entertain visiters, who make presents to the institution. Last Wednesday, forty strangers, mostly English, breakfasted here. The domestics go out almost every morning during the winter, on different routes, to search for pilgrims who may have lost their way. They take with them dogs of a Spanish breed, called the St. Bernard dogs, very large and powerful, who have a sagacity so unerring, that they discover and follow the tracks on the mountains, though covered with eight feet of snow. They go before the domestics, clearing a path with their heads and feet; and as soon as a traveller is near, they invariably smell him out, and lead the servant to him. The domestic is furnished with bread and wine; and sometimes a dog is sent out alone, with a basket tied to his neck, containing these necessaries. The number of lives saved is incredible. Last winter an old man was found quite frozen, whom they restored to life. Two other men had been carried away by an avalanche of snow, and would undoubtedly have perished but for the hospice. One single dog has saved the lives of five persons; his name is Jupiter; there are four others, named Lion, Turk, Pallas, and Castor. We had them called to us, that we might caress them, for they are good-natured and generous animals. In the course of last year twelve thousand travellers passed some time at the hospice. Last night there was four or five hundred persons who slept here. It was a double festival. All the chambers, halls, passages, floors, were crowded with guests. The snow falls almost all the year; it freezes commonly in the The conversation was most friendly and agreemorning, even during the height of summer; and able. I was placed next the provost. I conceivthe lake behind the house is frequently frozen ed that our hosts might be men of some theoloover even in July. This afternoon the thermo-gical learning, and turned the conversation to the meter was 44; whilst yesterday at Martigny it was nearly 80. There are not above ten days in the year when the sky is perfectly clear through At seven o'clock this evening the bell rang, and we were ushered into the salle-à-manger. I was all eagerness to observe their manners and customs. All the monks, or chanoines, as they call themselves, were present. Latin prayers were said with much devotion; the English staring.— The monks each placed one or two of us between them at the table, and an excellent supper was served up-abundant without extravagance; it consisted of soup, various hashes, and some game. The wine light, but good. subject of religion, and to the doctrine of Augustine, the founder of their order. I told them I agreed with that great writer in his defence of quested us to state, that the hospice never collects contributions, except in their own country, Switzerland. I just add, that a regular journal of the state of the weather at the hospice, with the principal events that occur, and especially the lives saved, is published once a month in one of the pe the doctrine of grace and his opposition to Pela- is painful to think, that some impostors went about gius, and generally in his exposition of Christian Europe a few years since collecting alms, as they truths and duties. I added, that St. Augustine pretended, for the hospice. They came to Engwas esteemed by Protestants as one of the great land and were at Oxford. They were Piedmonlights of the church; and was constantly appealed tese. Efforts were made by many benevolent to in their articles and confessions. The provost persons to raise subscriptions for them; but the immediately asked me if I was a minister of reli-fraud was at length detected. The provost region, and what became of my parish during my absence. On my telling him that I was a master of arts of the university of Oxford, that I had been ordered to travel abroad on account of my health, and had committed my duties at home to a valuable and pious fellow-clergyman, who would discharge them with conscientious fidelity, he pur-riodical works at Geneva, I think the "Bibliosued his inquiries no further. There was an in- theque Universelle." It is generally observed, that tense curiosity apparent in all he said. I assured when the thermometer is 62° at Geneva, it is 32° him that all good Protestants loved their Catholic here. It is impossible to keep oneself warm. My brethren who, like Nicole, and Pascal, and Fene- friend even found his breath a good deal affected lon, believed truly in our Saviour, and obeyed this evening. You would be amused to see me simply and humbly his commands. I added, that at this moment sitting trembling with cold in my I hoped the time would soon come when the Holy small Popish chamber, attempting to write at an Spirit, being poured out on Christendom, a gene- old wooden desk, affixed to the wall by hinges ral agreement on essential TRUTH would prevail, which have this instant given way and overturned and a holy CHARITY as to non-essential. I could my paper, ink, and whole apparatus. But I must not discover, however, from his replies, that he hurry to rest, after such a fatiguing day; it is was much acquainted with these topics. Prac- past eleven, and I was awake between three and tical benevolence seems the only business of these four this morning, and have been writing now worthy monks, whose early education and se-nearly two hours. I wish my dear Ann and Elicluded habits must leave them to the full influence of first impressions. One of them, however, on the other side of the table observing my conversation with the provost, began to talk with me on the French preachers, and the striking sermons of Brydayne, just published. He agreed with me, in admiring the fine, affecting appeals which abound in this writer; but still I did not observe any distinct ideas of devotion or spiritual feeling in what he said, even in the sense of the Roman Catholic writers, though I was really quite delighted with him and my other hosts, and anxious to judge of them in the most favorable way. za could have been here. My sweet little girl would have so liked to have seen these fine dogs, which are almost as large as heifers, and live upon a sour sort of soup, made on purpose for them; their fame is spread throughout the world, and pictures of them are multiplied. One of them, who saved twelve or thirteen persons, was stuffed after his death, and is now at Bern. I saw a beautiful engraving at Paris, of the dog in the act of saving the infant before mentioned. Lyddes, half-past twelve, Tuesday morning.— We had a simple breakfast provided for us this The provost afterwards told me that, in the morning by the monks at St. Bernard. We visit year 1800, Bonaparte passed the Great St. Ber-ed the chapel, which is neat and commodious; and nard. He had sent over thirty thousand men from my friend and I, between us, dropped, with delight, France to Italy, with artillery and cavalry, who five louis d'or into the poor's box. The hospice were three weeks in crossing. The cannons re- itself was built in 1550, and has been enlarged quired sixty or seventy men each to drag them up several times. The walls are enormously thick the ridge. Many horses perished in the precipices. the ground floor is all arched; and the walls are He came himself afterwards on a mule, for which strengthened by strong buttresses on the side of he gave thirty louis at Martigny; it stumbled on the the lake. In the chapel is a monument erected way, and, but for the guide catching him in his to the memory of General Dessaix, by Bonaparte. arms, he would have fallen down the precipice. Our chambers were convenient-the furniture He afterwards rewarded the man for his prompt-old-the beds good-the windows with double ness, who was known ever after in the village by the name of Bonaparte. Napoleon staid two hours and a half at the hospice; he was dark and thoughtful; said only a few words; ate of the provisions he had brought with him; accepted a little of their wine; appeared lost in silence; asked if they knew the strength of a neighboring fort; went down to Italy, and fought the battle of Marengo! He treated the convent as well as he could; but the monks lost every thing during the war, even to their linen and furniture. After supper, Latin grace was again said; the provost beginning, and the other monks making responses. We retired to our rooms directly after supper. I conceive there are few institutions so valuable, in a humane point of view, as this. It glass sashes-crucifixes in the rooms. The provost, or head of the convent, together with the prior, breakfasted with us; the rest of the monks had each a pewter dish of soup, which they ate standing. We again saw our friends the dogs before we went; two are of a brown speckled color, and three white, with fawn ears; their heads are very large; enormous teeth; necks thick, and with flesh hanging down like a bull's; front feet amazingly strong; they stand very high upon their legs; the haunches and hind legs are like those of hounds; they add to all their other qualities, that of being excessively gentle. Thus have we visited this remarkable establishment, which has afforded us more pleasure, perhaps, than any thing we have seen during our whole journey. Two or three hundred years of Brieg, at the foot of the Simplon, seventy miles uniform and laborious beneficence has raised this from Martigny, seven o'clock, Wednesday evening. convent to an unequalled height of celebrity. The-We have arrived here, after twelve hours' drivmonks seldom are able to live many years at St. ing. We have come post. By voituriers we Bernard. The provost was going down to the should have been two days and a half. At Sion, lower lands to-day. The hospice is very damp where we dined, I went to see the cathedral and for a considerable part of the year. Some attempts the church of the Jesuits, (for they have been reare making to raise a fund for rebuilding it. Win-stored,) who have the direction of the education ter will set in in ten days. Sometimes all the do- here; they have built a new church within these mestics, all the dogs, and all the monks, are out three years. I met several of the young Jesuits in in the middle of the night for hours, when travel- the streets. We eyed each other with mutual lers are in particular danger; and it has happened surprise. They were quite young men, florid, inthat an avalanche, as I have said, has carried them telligent, firm in their love. They wear the cleriall away, without the possibility of their being cal dress. The most striking proof perhaps of succored. their spirit is, that there is not one bookseller in Sion; no, nor is there one in all the canton of One building which the monks showed us was the Valais, though containing a hundred thousand the chapel of the Bone-House-an apartment souls. The fact seems incredible; but I was sowhere the bodies found in the snow are deposited, lemnly assured of it by the printer at Sion, to in order to be owned by their friends. The good whom the guide took me when I inquired for the monks perform the funeral service, indiscriminate-booksellers. This printer, by the by, is allowed ly, over all that they find; and the cold is so in- to work only under the direction of the Jesuits, tense, that it is many years before the bodies are and prints nothing but books of Catholic devodried up, for decomposition seldom takes place. tion. We looked through the sad grating of the room, and distinctly saw the heaps of bodies, like mummies, covering all the place; it was a melancholy sight. The benevolence and courage of this kind fraternity amount, therefore, to a sort of devotion quite extraordinary. This is the only convent which Bonaparte spared. It is curious, that by this same route, by which Bonaparte invaded Italy, Hannibal is supposed, by some, to have led the Carthaginian forces, for a similar design, two thousand years ago. Such are the vicissitudes of human glory and ambition! Martigny, six o'clock, Wednesday morning.— We returned here last night at seven, and found one of our carriages sent, as we had requested, to meet us from Lausanne. Thus has our second little tour to Chamouny of eight days terminated. The weather has been most fine the whole time, We have seen some of the greatest curiosities in Switzerland and Savoy: the Valley of the Cluse, Chamouny, Mont Blanc, the Mer de Glace, and, above all, the Great St. Bernard. We might now return to Lausanne in a day; but we are tempted to make a detour into Northern Italy; we are only about three days' journey from Milan; whither our kind fellow-traveller wishes us to accompany him, on his way to Rome. We are going off then, not on mules, but in the carriage with post horses, towards this splendid city. May God be pleased to direct, over-rule, and bless this extension of our journey, to the further instruction of our minds and establishment of our healths! Sion, Wednesday noon, September 10.-This is the capital of the Valais-two thousand five dred inhabitants. A most ancient city; the Romans found it already a considerable place, wher. they first penetrated into Helvetia. We arrived here at half-past ten to dinner. The road has been beautiful, between the rocks which crown each side of the valley. Any one of this range | would form an object of extreme interest; but we are here so surrounded with beauty and grandeur, *hat it is impossible to dwell on the details, The vines Mountains, where eboulements are often falling: On the whole, this valley, the largest in Switzerland, reaching from Geneva to the glacier of the Rhone, and bounded by chains of diversified mountains, with snowy Alps perpetually rising above them, fertile beyond conception, and watered by the Rhone, has more than equalled all our expectations, except as the folly and vice of man have impeded the bounties of a kind Providence. The inhabitants are proverbially indolent, negligent, and dirty. No branch of trade flourishes.Even as to agriculture, they are far behind their neighbors. Their fertile plains are left exposed to the inundations of the Rhone. The canton is exclusively Catholic. The doctrine of the Reformers had gained many adherents in the sixteenth century; but early in the seventeenth they were all banished. Education is neglected.— Every thing seems on the worst footing. The day has been most fine, and nothing but the dust has annoyed us. The goîtres now are quite distressing; we have seen some literally hanging down upon the breasts of the sufferers. The thermometer has been about 80°. We have had to regret the indisposition of our friend, who has been attacked with pain in his face; my dear sons and myself are quite well. A friend has given me a copy of the following beautiful hymn to the Holy Spirit, which he translated from the Latin prayer-book of the Great St. Bernard, probably composed from some of the writings of St. Augustine, the founder of their order: "Come, Holy Spirit, and send from heaven a ray of thy light! Come, thou father of the poor, thou giver of gifts, thou light of the world, the blessed comforter, the sweet guest of the soul, and its sweet refreshment; thou, our repose in labor, our coolness in heat, our comfort in affliction! Oh, most blessed Spirit, fulfil the hearts of thy faithful people! Without thy influence there is nothing in man which is not weakness and guilt. Oh, cleanse that which is sordid; bedew that which is dried up; heal that which is wounded; bend that which is stubborn; cherish in thy bosom that which is cold; guide that which is wandering; and grant unto thy servants, putting their trust in thee, the merit of thy righteousness; grant them final salvation, grant them everlasting joy! O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come unto thee!" In this sublime and affecting prayer, there is not an expression in which the devout Protestant would not heartily join, except, perhaps, that which implores of the Holy Spirit "the merit of his righteousness," which savors of the sentiment embraced by St. Augustine, and held till the period of the Reformation, that justification was a habit of grace infused into the soul-an error, however, which, when united with an exclusive trust in the forgiving mercy of God, through the death of Christ, for everlasting salvation, cannot be thought to be fundamental. I add another prayer from the same offertory, free from any savor of superstition; the expressions concerning our Lord's body being warranted by the terms of Scripture, though they may be open to abuse, and are, in fact, abused, as we know, by the Catholic interpreters: LETTER XIII. Simplon, Sept. 11.-Milan, Sept. 14, 1823. Brieg-Simplon-Road-Persal-Descent into Italy- Domo d'Osola-Priests-Contrast between Swizerland and Italy-Lago Maggiore - Borromean Isles-Colossal Statue of BorromeoMilan-Scale of Vegetation on Alps-Marble Cathedral-St. Ambrose-St. Austin. BRIEG, 296, miles from Lusanne, Sept. 11, 1823, Thursday morning, half-past 5. derable extent; I should think it has three hunTHIS town of Brieg, my dear sister, is of considred houses; it is about two thousand feet above the sea. It is one of the most beautiful spots in all the Valais. The Jesuits' church is conspicuous, being covered with a brilliant green stone, striped with bright yellow. The houses of the place are tiled with a white slate glittering like silver. When the sun gilds the mica-roofs, the view from the windows of the inn, which is on a hill, is quite novel. It is here that the celebrated road of the Simplon properly begins, though it may be said to commence as far back as Geneva; the road from Geneva to Brieg having been widened and improved, at the same time that it was carried on over the Alps to Italy. Simplon is the name of a village on a mountain of the Haut Valais, in the chain of Alps between Switzerland and Italy. The road was begun by Bonaparte in 1801; he employed thirty thousand men upon it for four or five years. The side next to the Valais was executed by French engineers; that next to Italy, by Italian. These last had the greatest difficulties to surmount, from the hardness of the rocks. It is twentyfive feet wide everywhere a prodigious work, rivalling the labors of ancient Rome. The highest point is six thousand one hundred and seventy-four feet above the sea, and the ascent is only of about two inches and a half in six feet, a rise so gradual as to be easy to the heaviest wagons. Persal on the Simplon, half past 10.-We have now come the first stage on this celebrated road, which is gentle in its rise beyond all conception; and as smooth as our Bath road. The plan in forming it was adjusted with such skill and care, by following the sides of mountains, as always to preserve the same gradual ascent. Large portions of the road were made by blowing up rocks, and building terraces from the valleys, with bridges over the ravines. Granite stones are placed at short intervals on each side, with strong railing on the edge of precipices. The prospects, as you “O blessed Lord Jesus Christ, I pray that thy ascend, are soft and pleasing. The valleys and most holy name may be the last word that my the town of Brieg stretching before the view at mouth shall ever utter! O gracious Jesus, I pray an immense distance below, varying with the difthat thy most sacred body may be my last refresh-ferent turns of the scenery, form a new and enment, and the sustenance which I shall enjoy and feed upon for ever! O gracious Lord, I pray that my last sigh may be the last pain I shall endure to all eternity! O gracious Lord, I pray that thy most blessed face may be the first object which my soul shall behold, when it is released from this mortal body! O gracious Lord, I pray that thou thyself wouldest be my guide and my companion from this land of exile, to my eternal home and country! Amen!" chanting picture at every tenth step. The mountains of firs form a sort of back ground. The conception and execution of this road, reflect an honor on the name of Bonaparte, which all his military schemes never deserved. Every traveller of every country, forgetting his ambitious motives, applauds the ingenuity, hardihood, and usefulness of the interprise. Domo d'Osola, in the Valley of Osola, six o'clock, Thursday evening.-We have now passed the re |
