ing the following passage from Sir RC Hoare's Classical Tour in Italy and Sicily. The traveller visited the celebrated valley of Enna, the spot, where mythologists placed the rape of Proserpine. In the town of Castro-Giovanni he recognises the site of Enna, where the bride of Pluto was worshipped in a temple not far remote from that dedicated to her mother Ceres. According to vulgar tradition, the garden of a convent there is the site of the Tem ple of Proserpine:" and Ceres," my author observes, "came hither from her temple, which stood on the other side of the city, to pay an annual visit to her daughter. A similar custom prevails under the Christian dispensation; for the Madonna is removed from the Chiesa Madre to that of the Riformati every year, and makes an annual stay of fifteen days; during which time a great concourse of people assembles, and continued feastings are held on this plain." Hoare's Classical Tour, vol. 2, p. 250.

To this example of ancient superstition engrafted on modern, and not discountenanced by the pastors of an ignorant people, allow me to add from the same author an instance of similar aequiescence in popular delusions. In the first volume of the same work mention is made of the celebration of a certain festival in honour of S. S. Cosmus and Damianus at Isernia, a town of Abbruzzo, in the kingdom of Naples. To the intercession of these canonized professors of the healing art miraculous cares of various diseases are ascribed, and the blind credulity, which blind leaders have fostered, has led to the custom of votive offerings, symbols of the supposed cure. Among these the most remarkable clearly indicated, that the gross rites of Priapus retained a strong hold on the minds of the people, and had in some mea'sure been continued till towards the close of the 18th century. It clearly appears, that the ecclesiastics of the district derived no small gain from

the popular superstition, and it is observable, that the dread of censure, as the custom became more generally known, rather than conviction and princpie occasioned the modification of the local celebrations by retrenching the indecent relics of Pagan sensuality. The circumstance is stated at length by Sir R. C. Hoare, vol. 1, p. 235, 236. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, Cler. Gloc.

To the Editor of the Remebrancer.

Sir,

As the building and enlarging of churches is very extensively promoted in the present day, both by public and private bounty, you will perhaps spare a little space in your useful publication for a few remarks relating to that subject.

In the building of modern, and the alteration of old churches for the purpose of obtaining additional seat room, I have been struck with the appearance of what I consider a defect. I allude to the position of the pulpit and reading desk exactly before the altar, by which the latter is in most instances kept very much, and in some, where the space enclosed by the rails is small, completely out of sight. It is very desirable that a part of the church, in which so solemn a service is performed, a service, which none ought to neglect, but of which very many seldom think, should be within view of the whole congregation; the sight of it would have the effect of reminding all of their duty, and of upbraiding those who turned their backs upon it. This seems to have been the opinion of our forefathers; and the disposition of this and other parts of the church where other offices were to be performed was in conformity thereto. We have evidence of this in the ancient parish churches and parochial chapels, which continue as they were ori

ginally built. The entrances are at the west end, from the north and south sides: and the first thing which presents itself is the font, which reminds us every time we enter or leave the church of the solemn manner in which we were ingrafted into the body of Christ, and of the important engagements we then entered into. This, I doubt not was the intention in placing it in this situation. Proceeding onwards we see the pulpit and desk on one side, and the altar at the end; the service and instructions of the former forming the best preparation for a profitable attendance on the holy mysteries of which we are partakers, commemorated at the latter. It is true the altar is sometimes found at the end of a long chancel: but the approach to it is never impeded by any obstacle, nor the view of it hid from any part of the congregation. In modern built churches, where the pulpit is placed exactly in front of the altar, the latter is but imperfectly seen by almost all the congregation, and to some it is quite invisible.

There are only three modern churches which I have seen, nor have I heard of any other, in which a remedy has been devised for the defect of which I have spoken. The first is All Saints' in Oxford. But here there was no difficulty; there are no galleries in this church; the situation of the pulpit and desk is, if I recollect aright, diagonal: some vards before the north-east corner, leaving the view of the altar open to every part of the church. The second is St. Peter's in Manchester. The construction of this church is very peculiar: the greatest length is from north to south at each end are two entrances, from which two aisles run the whole length of the church. The sides are built with a recess in the centre: that on the east contains the altar, exactly opposite to which on the west side are the pulpit and desk; a cross aisle, from the former to the latter divides the whole church, The length of

all the pews is from east to west; so that no part of the congregation sits facing the minister: they are as it were on both sides of him; but I am not certain that this is an inconvenience either to him or to them; the space is quite open, without the obstruction of pillars....There is a small gallery at each end, having not more than two or three pews in depth.

The third instance which I have to mention is that of the last new church built in Preston, dedicated I believe to the Holy Trinity. The interior of this church is on the usual plan, with galleries on each side and at the west end. To remedy the defect of which I have spoken, the pulpit is erected against the western wall, at one end of the space enclosed by the rails of the altar, and the desk in a similar posi tion at the other end. The elevation of both desk and pulpit is nearly if not precisely the same. They are of course very near the front of the galleries on their respective sides: and further, it may perhaps be the case, that the persons who sit on certain parts of the back seats under the galleries, are precluded from a view on one side, of the preacher, and on the other, of the reader; but of this I am not certain.

Which of these plans is best adapted for the object, which the projectors of them seem to have had in view, is a subject for consideration, as also whether an improvement upon them is not within possibility.

There is besides this in many churches, what I doubt not will be generally acknowledged a serious defect. I allude to the narrowness of the pews of which I have often felt the inconvenience. I have been in pews where there is scarcely room for a hassock or kneeling form: if there was any thing meant to serve for one, all the use which could be made of it was to place the knees against it, by sitting on the edge of the form: that posture of devotion which our Church pre

2

ed to them; and we give him over utterly to the power of the devil, and we pray to our Lady, and St. Peter and Paul, and all Holy Saints, that all the senses of his body may fail him, and that he may have no feeling, except he comes openly to our beloved Priest at Stapehill in time of Mass, within thirty days from the third reading hereof by our beloved Priest there, and confesses his heinous, heretical, and blasphemous crimes, and by true repentance make satisfaction to our Lady, St. Peter, and the worshipful company of our Holy Church of Rome, and suffer himself to be buffeted, scourged, and spit upon as our said dear Priest in his goodness, holiness, and sanctity shall direct and prescribe.

Given under the seal of our Holy Church at Rome the 10th day of August, in the year of our Lord Christ 1758, and in the first year of our Pontificate.

C-. R-."

8th Oct. 1758, pronounced the first time.

15th Ditto the second time. "22d Ditto the third time."

There is still a convent of the order of La Trappe at Stapehill, within my parish; and I see by the register the said Henry Goldney died two years afterwards, and by

tradition without heed to the foregoing terrific censure,

SOUTHEY ON IMMORAL
WRITINGS.

THE following extract from the Preface to Mr. Southey's Vision of Judgment, entitles him to the best thanks of every friend to morality. mule 1 am well aware that the public are peculiarly intolerant of such innovations; not less so than the populace are of any foreign fashion, whether of foppery or convenience. Would that this literary intolerance were under the influence of a sane

judgment, and regarded the morals more than the manner of a composition; the spirit rather than the form! Would that it were directed against those monstrous combinations of horrors and mockery, lewdness and impiety, with which English poetry, has in our days, first been polluted! For more than half a century English literature had been distinguished by its moral purity, the effect, and in its turn, the cause of an improvement in national manners. A father without apprehension of evil, might put into the hands of his children any book which issued from the press, if it did not bear, either in its title page or frontispiece, manifest signs that it was intended as furniture for the brothel. There was no danger in any work which bore the name of a respectable publisher, or was to be procured at any respectable bookseller's. This was particularly the case with regard to our poetry. It is now no longer so; and woe to those by whom the offence cometh! The greater the talents of the offender, the greater is his guilt, and the more enduring will be his shame. Whether it be that the laws are in themselves unable to abate an evil of this magnitude, or whether it be that they are remissly administered, and with such injustice that the celebrity of an offender serves as a pri vilege whereby he obtains impunity, individuals are bound to consider that such pernicious works would neither be published nor written, if they were discouraged as they might, and ought to be, by public feeling; every person, therefore, who purchases such bocks, or admits them into his house, promotes the mischief, and thereby, as far as in him lies, becomes an aider and abettor of the crime.

"The publication of a lascivious book is one of the worst offences which can be committed against the well being of society. It is a sin, to the consequences of which no limits can be assigned, and those conse

of

"These remarks are not more severe than the offence deserves, even when applied to those immoral writers who have not been conscious any evil intention in their writings, who would acknowledge a little levity, a little warmth of colouring, and so forth, in that sort of language with which men gloss over their favorite vices, and deceive themselves.

"What then should be said of those for whom the thoughtlessness and inebriety of wanton youth can no longer be pleaded, but who have written in sober manhood and with deliberate purpose? Men of diseased hearts and depraved imagi

* “ Summi poetæ in omni poetarum saculo viri fuerunt probi; in nostris id vidimus et videmus: neque alius est error a verilate longiùs quàm magna ingenia magnis necessario corrumpi vitiis. Secando plerique posthabent primum, hi mahgnitate, illi ignorantiâ; et quum aliquera inveniunt styli morumque vitiis notatum, nec inficetum tamen nec in libris edendis parcum, eum stipant, prædicant, occupant, amplectuntur. Si mores aliquantulum vellet corrigere, si stylum curare paululum, si fervido ingenio temperare; si morte tantillum interponere, tum ingens nescio quid et verè ac epicum, quadraginta annos natus, procuderat. Ignorant verò febriculis non indicari tires, impatientiam ab imbecillitate non differre; ignorant a levi homine et inconstante multa fortasse scribi posse plusquam mediocria, nihil compositum, ardam atermum."Savagius Lander. De Cultu atque Usu Latini Sermonis,

This essay, which is full of fine critical Aemarks and striking thoughts, felicitously expressed, reached me from Pisa, while

nations, who, forming a system of opinions to suit their own unhappy course, of conduct, have rebelled against the holiest ordinances of hu man society, and hating that revealed religion which, with all their efforts and bravadoes, they are ut terly unable entirely to disbelieve, labour to make others as miserable as themselves, by infecting them with a moral virus that eats into the soul! The school which they have set up may properly be called the Satanic school; for though their productions breathe the spirit of Belial in their lascivious parts, and the spirit of Moloch in those loathsome images of atrocities and horrors which they delight to represent, they are more especially characterized by a Satanic spirit of pride and audacious impiety, which still betrays the wretched feeling of hopelessness wherewith it is allied.

This evil is political as well as moral, for indeed moral and politi cal evils are inseparably connected. Truly has it been affirmed by one of our ablest and clearest reasoners*, that the destruction of governments may be proved and deduced from the general corruption of the subject's manners, as a direct and natural cause thereof, by a demonstration as certain as any in mathematics.'

"There is no maxim more frequently enforced by Machiavelli, than that where the manners of people are generally corrupted, there the government cannot long subsist, a truth which all history exemplifies; and there is no means whereby that corruption can be so surely and