aintings I
have seen here. I remarked a picture of the Virgin said to be
possessed of miraculous powers; and that part of it visible, is not
destitute of merit as a painting; but some of her grateful devotees,
having decorated her with a real blue silk gown, spangled with tinsel
stars, and two or three crowns, one above another, of gilt foil, the
effect is the oddest imaginable. As I was sitting upon a marble step,
philosophizing to myself, and wondering at what seemed to me such
senseless bad taste, such pitiable and ridiculous superstition, there
came up a poor woman leading by the hand a pale and delicate boy,
about four years old. She prostrated herself before the picture, while
the child knelt beside her, and prayed for some time with fervour;
she then lifted him up, and the mother and child kissed the picture
alternately with great devotion; then making him kneel down and clasp
his little hands, she began to teach him an Ave Maria, repeating it
word for word, slowly and distinctly, so that I got it by heart too.
Having finished their devotions, the mother put into the child's hands
a piece of money, which she directed him to drop into a box,
inscribed, "per i poveri vergognosi"--"for the bashful poor;" they
then went their way. I was an unperceived witness of this little
scene, which strongly affected me: the simple piety of this poor
woman, though mistaken in its object, appeared to me respectable; and
the Virgin, in her sky-blue brocade and her gilt tiara, no longer an
object to ridicule. I returned home rejoicing in kinder, gentler,
happier thoughts; for though I may wish these poor people a purer
worship, yet, as Wordsworth says somewhere, far better than I could
express it--

"Rather would I instantly decline
To the traditionary sympathies
Of a most rustic ignorance,--
This rather would I do, than see and hear
The repetitions wearisome of sense
Where soul is dead, and feeling hath no place."

The Ave Maria which I learnt, or rather _stole_ from my poor woman,
pleases me by its simplicity.

AVE MARIA.

Dio ti salvi, O Maria, piena di grazia! Il Signore e teco! tu sei
benedetta fra le donne, e benedetto e il frutto del tuo seno, GESU!
Santa Maria! madre di Dio! Prega per noi peccatori, adesso, e nell
'ora della nostra morte! e cosi sia.[G]

* * * * *

_Sunday._--Attended divine service at the English ambassador's, in the
morning, and in the eveni