432 Oh monks or priests are wont to recite the service. Again, among other assertions, she declared that We give these particulars because they prove the lengths to which the Church of Rome has gone Comment on in Italy and in permitted works. them is unnecessary; they speak for themselves. The following is a well-known legend of this particular Saint. We give it, as probably it is new to many of our readers : One day, while she was praying to God to renew her heart, Christ suddenly appeared to her, or in the words of her biographer, "her eternal spouse came to her as usual, opened her side, removed her heart, and carried it away with him! So truly was this done, that for several days she declared herself to be without any heart, pointing ont to those who objected that it was impossible, that with God nothing was impossible. After some days Christ again appeared, bearing in his hand what seemed a human heart, red and shining, again opened her side, put the new heart in, and closed the aperture, saying, "See, dearest daughter, as I took from you the other day your heart, so now I will give you mine, with And as a proof of the which you will always live! miracle, there remained evermore in her side the scar, as she herself, and her companions, had often assured Father Raymond. A further confirmation of the fact was moreover to be seen in the remarkable circumstance that from that day forth the Saint was unable to say, as she had been wont, Lord, I commend to thee my heart," but always said, "Lord, I commend to thee thy heart." But, contends the author in continuation, even if this were so, Father Raymond could not have believed it in that light; and as he meant his bearers to understand the fable literally, he is the the very nature of the malady from which unimpostor rather than Catherine, who may, from doubtedly she suffered, have been a self-deceived "As for the sleep, it enthusiast. Again, we read, may be remarked, that in the case of a person subject to daily trances and states of insensibility, it is difficult to say how many hours are passed in sleep, and what is sleep, and what is not." And then, in reference to the other events of her life, he says All the relations of visions scen in "ectasy," and of conversations held, and sensations suffered, during them, may→ due consideration being given to what we know of the patient-be accepted as not only possible, but exceedingly probable. And this category will comprise the greatest part of the whole budget of wonders. Even in those cases, in which an abiding evidence of what had happened to her in trance is said to have remained, appreciable only by her own senses, as in the case of the marriage ring, and the pain after the infliction of the stigmata, those most able to form an opinion on such matters will not think, probably, that it is attributing too much to the imagination of a cataleptic patient, living on raw vegetables, wholly without active occupation, and engrossed by a series of highly exciting thoughts on one ever-present subject of a mystical and transcendental nature, to suppose that she may have in all sincerity imagined herself to see and feel as she described. Cate We have lingered so long over this very remark. able biography that we can only glance briefly at the remainder, which fill up the volumes. rina Sforza, the illegitimate daughter of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan, comes next in the With questionable catalogue of Italian women. wisdom he legitimatised this girl, and placed her under the care of the Duchess Bona, a princess of the house of Srvoy. She was born in 1462, married to Riario, her first husband in 1477. He was murdered in 1488, leaving Catherine a There are other miraculous tales, but we have widow with six children at the age of twentyThe author points out six. not space to quote them. the important fact, that it is these points of her history which the Church of Rome, at the present Can anything more day, most loves to dwell on. plainly proclaim a lameutable intention to mislead ? for as to men of intellect believing all the wicked nonsense uttered by Father Raymond, such an idea is an absurdity. Catherine's letters to Urban VI. and Charles V. are mentioned, together with others, and the one to Charles is given at length. After enumerating her exploits and miracles, the author enters into the question as to whether she was "dupe or impostor." He says, very sensibly, that probably many of the facts related never took place, and that others may have been the result of her disease. With regard, for instance, to her living without food, he asks, "May it not be possible that the idea of her living without food may have been generated by some talk of hers in quite her usual style, of this Holy Eucharist being her only nourishment, &c., &c., meaning spiritual nourishment." In 1490 she married a second time, Giacomo Feo, the Castellano of Ravaldino; the marriage was very justly unpopular; and, in 1495, he reaped the reward of this (to him) high alliance, in being murdered by the citizens of Smola and Forli. Thus, at the age of thirty-three, Catherine was for the second time, after five years of marriage, the widow of a Not wearied of matrimony, she gave her hand to Giovanni de Medici in 1497. murdered husband. Madama was now thirty-five years of age, while Giovanni was only thirty. He had not, and has never, occupied any very conspicuous place in history; but what little we hear of him is favourable. He had fought with credit in France, under Charles VIII., and had brought back with him to Florence a French patent of nobility, and a pension of two thousand crowns a year, the gifts of that monarch. A fatality seemed to attend Catherine's nuptials, for Giovanni became seriously ill, and died in 1498, leaving his wife for the third time a widow. Troublous times were coming to Italy, and Catherine took part in them. After sundry adventures, she was taken prisoner to Rome in the year 1500. Her character was anything but commendable; she ended her eventful career in a convent in 1509, being then forty-seven years of age. A very different person was Vittoria Colonna, the celebrated Italian poetess. Although so gentle herself, she married the Signor Marchese di Pescara, who is described as a hard, cruel man, reckless of human suffering, and eminent among his fellow-captains for the ferocity, and often wantonness, of the ravages and wide-spread misery he wrought. The following anecdote is both a proof of his brutal nature and the depraved state of a country permitting such an outrage:- A soldier was brought before him for having entered a house en route, for the purpose of plundering. The general ordered that his ears should be cut off. The culprit remonstrated, and begged with many entreaties, to be spared so dishonourable and ignominious a punishment, saying, in his distress, that death itself would have been more tolerable. "The grace demanded is granted," rejoined Pescara instantly, with grim pleasantry. "Take this soldier, who is so careful of his honour, and hang him to that tree!" In vain did the wretch beg not to be taken at his word so cruelly; no entreaties sufficed to change the savage decree. was After Vittoria Colonna come Tullia d'Aragona, Olympia Morata, and Isabella Andrienni, the celebrated actress, who, says her biographer, born in 1562, two years before the birth of Shakespeare, and was, therefore, delighting the courts of Italy and France, at the same time that he was catering for the amusement of a more mixed audience in the Globe." In this memoir there is a very good description of the Italian drama of the sixteenth century, which will be interesting to those who take delight in such things. A memoir of the infamous Bianca Cappello comes next; and then we have two or three other biographies, which finish these very interesting volumes. They are valuable, as giving a picture of the social position of Italy for many a long year; and in reading the facts narrated, and studying the pictures presented to our view, we cannot but mark the degraded state of the country and the people. These tales, for so they may be called, are living romances. The world of fiction produces nothing more startling than the vicissitudes which mark the career of Caterina Sforza, or more curious than those which belong to the history of Catherine of Siena. The Healing Art: the Right Hand of the Church. THE success of medical missious has abundantly It contains some curious speculations upon the use of oil in medical treatment, but this remedy is now becoming common, and is perhaps the most efficient instrument in the struggle with the pest of our humid land. We agree with the following extract, with the exception that the Christian must delegate his duty often to other Christians. It is one of the duties which, in the great majority of cases must be done by individuals trained to the occupation. Therefore, by a medical mission alone can the Church discharge effectually the duty of caring for the sick : The duty of ministering to the sick comes down to these later days, consecrated by the command and example of Jesus. His example and precept combine to give it nothing less than a first place in the Christian system. His command was received and acted on by all his followers, whose doings are recorded in Scripture; and it is continued onwards, with all the attributes of a statute for perpetual observance. Under His blessed rule, no person, no place, no time is exempted from its operation. The objects to which it is directed are as clamant as they ever were; all manner of sickness and all manner of disease abound everywhere; and the suffering and the sorrowful are still the objects of the Divine Saviour's compassion. The means for perfectly fulfilling this command, according to its intention, are abundantly provided, and are brought, by intelligent research, fully within the reach of the followers of Christ. None but the Christian, "throughly furnished," is qualified to employ these means with full effect for the deliverance and well being of the victims of disease; for the healing of the sick, as an essential element in the alleviation of human woe, preeminently devolves upon the Church of Christ. To the faithful and engrossing discharge of this duty the Christian is called, by the most sacred and conclusive of all warrants; and upon no admitted principle of Christian action can its neglect or delegation be justified, so long as occasions for its exercise are presented, while there is a remnant of unsaved or suffering humanity. These volumes are not so well suited to the younger members of society as to those of middle age, or, at least, matured judgment. The work is remarkably well written. There is a chronological order observed, and the sketches, although perfectly disconnected, seem to glide into each other, in a manner producing harmony in the whole. Robert Mornay. BY MAX FERRER. We recommend these volumes as amongst the most interesting, novel, and instructive of all recent publications. We certainly recommend the essay as an exposition of one of the first duties that our common nature claims and our faith instructs us to perform. Loudon Chapman and Hall. Pp. 858. LÂ called Mabel, and she returns his passion, but the course of it not running in the direction of the altar they don't get there, but instead, Mabel continues in her mother's house, and Robert Mornay, (the innamorato, starts on a yachting expedition.) After some time he reaches Florence, and falls in love a second time, with a fruit girl. He moralises with himself in pretty much the same style as all other faithless young gentlemen; and he gives his opinions to the public, which, like many other gratuities, are not worth having. However the following is good, and quite worthy of quotation. The author is speaking of self-denial, and he says How few men practice it, and yet how few there are who require to look back more than twelve short months to perceive how the exercise of it, either in this case or in that, would have saved them present pain, disappointment, embarrassment, or failure of some object they had wished to obtain. There is nothing very new in that, but it is a valuable truth, and cannot be too forcibly impressed. And the following, although not very clearly expressed, is commendable. : To say "I will refuse myself," is easy enough, but the difficulty is, standing to confront the desire face to face, and then to say, "I do refuse myself." The despot, in slicing a piece off his neighbour's territory, may promise his conscience not to do so again; the statesman may say, "This shall be my only deceit; the orator, seduced by its presence, finds pungent sarcasm irresistible, and proceeds unjustly to lacerate another with it, but, repentant, says to himself, "not to be done again;" the critic finds wit too tempting not to exhibit it at the expense of the author, and so reviews not impartially, but is constantly about to restrain; the gambler always procrastinates with "once moreonce more ;" and the penniless dandy, firm in his resolutions, walks down the street defying the lures of trade, till opposite one shop he says, "I must have this my last extravagance." And so, one and all, saying the "will" and shunning the "do," proceed either to moral or worldly ruin. : He is right" Hell is paved with good intentions." However, we go on with the story. The hero, by accident, inflicts a gun-shot wound on his second love, and stops to cure it, and that gets him into no end of trouble. However, he gets out of the trouble by getting out of Italy and into England, where, being off with the one love, he renews his attentions to the other-his first love-but receives his dismissal, the lady having heard of the Florentine episode. Then a great many other people fall in love with cach other, and a great deal of mischief ensues, but it all comes right in the end. The hero makes it up with Mabel, and they marry and live pretty;" while the Florentine young lady drives about in a brougham, and is called Madame Silvio! Silvio being her maiden name! Some people can see through a mill-stone, and "some people" may be able to read the meaning of that! Those who like "love," will like the book-for our own part, we must say we find it insufferably dull. TAIT'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. AUGUST, 1859. 3 THE PEACE. hussars, who were not engaged until the fight was nearly over. Francis Joseph would not allow himself to be beaten in appearance early in the day, and therefore he was beaten in reality towards nightfall. Benedick met a sturdier resistance than was anticipated from the Piedmontese, although he was in the end successful ; and the left wing of the Austrians had never got rightly into the fray. All that Hess could accomplish with the springs of his trap, therefore, late in the evening, was to cover the retreat of the centre, and save a rout. His cavalry accomplished that object. THE battle of Solferino has been followed by a treaty. When the allied armies advanced to the Mincio, they were allowed to cross without opposition. The French Emperor sent a message afterwards to the Emperor of Austria, from his headquarters on the left bank of the Mincio, respecting the death of an Austrian colonel, who was, moreover, a Prince. This message was followed by another, regarding an interchange of prisoners. Then messages on this subject became frequent. At last, the Emperor of the French proposed an armistice. After some reluctance had been expressed by the generals, Francis Joseph adopted the armistice to When the Allies crossed the Mincio, noon on the 16th current. General and entered the quadrangle, old Marshal Hess probably opposed the measure. He Hess had welcomed them in his own heart, is a man of snares-a trapper; and he thinking of the malaria that would arise had considered the allied army pretty from the marshes always there, over which much as the spider did the fly, after that he had no control, and the more extensive animal complied with its enemy's invita- marshes that he could make. He had tioncalculated much on fevers and pestilences, from long sieges, and was willing to allow the French Marshals time to develope these dangerous allies before he struck. Just then an armistice was made. Will you walk into my parlour? Said the spider to the fly. The Austrian generals have set snares during all June, and made little of them. Magenta was a great trap, and would have been a pernicious one for the French, if Gyulai had not been crossed by Hess, and the march of two divisions suspended, who should have been early on the ground. Solferino was another trap, set by Hess, who expected to crush the wings of the Allies, and allow their centre to break through upon his battery of one hundred and four guns, and a cloud of hulans and Worse calamities than an armistice might have happened. Both parties were to maintain their position. The passage of provisions to Mantua and Peschiera was secured. New works were not to be undertaken by either party. The Austrians were stationed within their entrenched camps; the French had to live in tents. The Adige flowed swiftly from the mountains, clear and cool, past the Austrian encampment; the Mincio sunned itself for weeks on the banks of the Lake di Garda, in shallow spots, before it came almost boiling, certainly steaming, around Peschiera to the French. Louis Napoleon was bent on a Parisian visit; but his army would remain, and before the 16th August, many of them would be useless. Marshal Hess probably did not quarrel with the suspension of hostilities for a time. Fever would make no armistice. Any other pestilence that might appear on the Mincio would not come to terms. There could be no negociation with cholera. Marshal Hess knew these facts and would be content with that knowledge. Then, unhappily, came that dark meeting, for his hopes and his schemes, secrets, and traps, on the 11th July-Monday the 11th July. The aged people in this country who recently recounted to children the horrors of the mirk Monday, have died out. To the Commander-inChief of the Austrians in the quadrangle, that Monday will take its place. He had, doubtless, capital devices in store. An Austrian general is never caught without plans in his pocket. Unfortunately, they are more frequently there than in his mind, where it would be better to keep them. Still, the confidence of the Austrian in his quadrangles had in it reason and sense. The position was strong because of its weaknesses. An army might be as well ordered to beleaguer in a Java jungle a grove of upas trees, as to capture Mantua with Verona watching. Louis Napoleon meant peace from the night after Solferino. The Piedmontese were miserable sufferers in that battle. The French lost an immense number of men. Both armies had struggled with difficulty through a dreadful fight. Like its predecessors of the campaign, it had closed in a victory; but one that was scarcely won. The allied armies were more likely to adopt pacific terms pleasantly at that than at another time. The experience of the quadrangle for some weeks might have rendered the soldiers more willing to hear the last of "wild war's dreary blast;" but that period might not have completed a commenced task-and Napoleon deemed it better not to begin a new effort of the campaign, than, beginning a siege, not to end it well. This supposition does not, in any man ner, cloud his character, such as it is, for honesty and integrity. He might have found the difficulties before him more serious than he had once supposed. In these circumstances he might have sought a safe outlet from the position, without tarnishing his fame and his victories. He might have formed this purpose in good faith, loyalty, and truth. At any rate, he accomplished it at his meeting with the Emperor Francis Joseph. That interview ended with a treaty. The negociations were decisive and short. In referring to them, we have the use of statements made to their subjects by the two Emperors. Francis Joseph says that he adopted the treaty, because it contained better terms than he could hope to procure through the mediation of his natural allies. He had been made acquainted, then, with their terms. We now, therefore, understand that Britain and Prussia would have given more to the Italians than they have received from France and Piedmont although it is unnecessary to insult the Piedmontese or Sardinian Government, by supposing that they had any complicity in, or were consulted on, the matter. They were merely bound to take the good the Emperors should send them, and wait for whatever might turn up in their favour. The friends of Italy have the avowal of the Emperor Francis Joseph that his natural allies would have done more for them than his natural enemy. They now understand the value of French friendships; only they will accumulate their learning and lessons for some time yet. Louis Napoleon assures his soldiers that the war assumed, or threatened, to take proportions inconsistent with the interests of France, and therefore he brought hostilities to a termination. He does not favour them with any notion of what those proportions were, that had become irreconcileable with French interests. The question does not concern us materially. It is sufficient to know that the generous and magnanimous ally of Piedmont fought for his own hand, and having fought long enough for his own interests, he declined to fight longer. And the course is quite reasonable. A man may assuredly make peace who has made war. The Emperor may not consider himself bound to consult the opinions of those who took no part in the struggle. The people and the rulers |