own part I have
found the _curato_ in the small subalpine villages of North Italy to be
more often than not a kindly excellent man to whom I am attracted by
sympathies deeper than any mere superficial differences of opinion can
counteract. With monks, however, as a general rule, I am less able to
get on: nevertheless I have received much courtesy at the hands of some.

My young friend the novice was delightful--only it was so sad to think of
the future that is before him. He wanted to know all about England, and
when I told him it was an island, clasped his hands and said, "Oh che
Providenza!" He told me how the other young men of his own age plagued
him as he trudged his rounds high up among the most distant hamlets
begging alms for the poor. "Be a good fellow," they would say to him,
"drop all this nonsense and come back to us, and we will never plague you
again." Then he would turn upon them and put their words from him. Of
course my sympathies were with the other young men rather than with him,
but it was impossible not to be sorry for the manner in which he had been
humbugged from the day of his birth, till he was now incapable of seeing
things from any other standpoint than that of authority.

What he said to me about knowing that Handel was a Catholic by his music,
put me in mind of what another good Catholic once said to me about a
picture. He was a Frenchman and very nice, but a _devot_, and anxious to
convert me. He paid a few days' visit to London, so I showed him the
National Gallery. While there I pointed out to him Sebastian del
Piombo's picture of the raising of Lazarus as one of the supposed
masterpieces of our collection. He had the proper orthodox fit of
admiration over it, and then we went through the other rooms. After a
while we found ourselves before West's picture of "Christ healing the
Sick." My French friend did not, I suppose, examine it very carefully,
at any rate he believed he was again before the raising of Lazarus by
Sebastian del Piombo; he paused before it, and had his fit of admiration
over again: then turning to me he said, "Ah! you would understand this
picture better if you were a Catholic." I did not tell him of his
mistake.

PIORA. (FROM CHAPTER VI. OF ALPS AND SANCTUARIES.) {275}

An excursion which may be very well made from Faido is to the Val Piora,
which I have already more than once mentioned. There is a large hotel
here which has been opened some year