conceal from me.
Yours is serious and rigid--ours, cheerful and tender. It is generally
believed that Catholicism is more rigorous than Protestantism; and that
may be true in a country where a struggle has subsisted between the two
religions; but we have no religious dissensions in Italy, and you have
experienced much of them in England. The result of this difference is,
that Catholicism in Italy has assumed a character of mildness and
indulgence; and that to destroy it in England, the Reformation has armed
itself with the greatest severity in principles and morals. Our
religion, like that of the ancients, animates the arts, inspires the
poets, and becomes a part, if I may so express it, of all the joys of
our life; whilst yours, establishing itself in a country where reason
predominates more than imagination, has assumed a character of moral
austerity which will never leave it. Ours speaks in the name of love,
and yours in the name of duty. Our principles are liberal, our dogmas
are absolute; nevertheless, our despotic orthodoxy accommodates itself
to particular circumstances, and your religious liberty enforces
obedience to its laws without any exception. It is true that our
Catholicism imposes very hard penance upon those who have embraced a
monastic life. This state, freely chosen, is a mysterious relation
between man and the Deity; but the religion of laymen in Italy is an
habitual source of affecting emotions. Love, hope, and faith, are the
principal virtues of this religion, and all these virtues announce and
confer happiness. Our priests therefore, far from forbidding at any time
the pure sentiment of joy, tell us that it expresses our gratitude
towards the Creator. What they exact of us, is an observance of those
practices which prove our respect for our worship, and our desire to
please God, namely, charity for the unfortunate, and repentance for our
errors. But they do not refuse absolution, when we zealously entreat it;
and the attachments of the heart inspire a more indulgent pity amongst
us than anywhere else. Has not Jesus Christ said of the Magdalen: _Much
shall be pardoned her, because she hath loved much_? These words were
uttered beneath a sky, beautiful as ours; this same sky implores for us
the Divine mercy."

"Corinne!" answered Lord Nelville, "how can I combat words so sweet, and
of which my heart stands so much in need? But I will do it,
nevertheless, because it is not for a day that I love Cori