vice, which is observable among the laity; consequently the priests do not possess any exclusive spiritual gifts, but are as subject to error and to sin as the laity.

CHAPTER XIV.

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On the following morning Henry examined the essay which he had written in Frankfort, to see what arguments remained in reserve in defence of his secession to the Roman Church. He found only two points, namely, that the Catholic mode of worship is prefer able to the Protestant, and that the Roman Catholic Church receives a peculiar dignity from the saints and martyrs. He certainly felt rather doubtful on these two points, but he determined to communicate them to his family, and to hear their opinion, in order finally to come to a perfect understanding with them and with himself; he, therefore, on the following evening, led the conversation to the Roman Catholic mode of worship, and ascribed to it two advantages over the Protestant service, the one, that it observes a much greater number of festivals, and gives, therefore, a stronger incitement to devotion, and the other, that it addresses itself more to the senses, and by its splendour and its rites becomes a more lively and impres sive image of invisible things, and personifies them to the feelings. But he soon wished that he had rather remained silent on the number of festivals in his Church, because this was the very point which his family objected to the Roman Church. The festivals, they said, have been so accumulated, that their number has impeded the progress of business and the industry of the people, so that even Catholic princes have been obliged to acknowledge this, and to render the introduction of new religious festivals dependent on their

opinion. They also remarked that many festivals refer to circumstances which must undoubtedly be considered as historical or religious errors, as, for example, the festival of the spotless conception of the Holy Virgin, Corpus Christi, the Assumption of the Virgin, All Saints, All Souls: (namely, those in purgatory,) the numerous festivals of saints and martyrs, many of which refer to very unauthentic legends. They opposed to him the commandment in the old covenant, Six days shalt thou labour and do all that thou hast to do," and although the celebration of the seventh day has been abolished in Christendom, and the first day of the week has been appointed as the Lord's day, yet the ordinance of the six days of labour still deserves to be highly venerated, and to establish festivals almost equal in number to working days must be contrary to the will of God.

The second point, the superiority of the Roman Catholic worship, in the impression it produces on the senses of mankind, was discussed more at large. Henry referred to the strong impression which the Church solemnities in Rome produce on so many foreigners, and which Schiller, in his tragedy of Mary Stuart, has so eloquently depicted in the character of Mortimer. But he received in answer, that Rome was no standard for the impression of the Roman Catholic worship in general. "In a city," said his father, "where the primate is at the same time a tem poral prince, and his person, when he appears publicly as priest, is surrounded by all the temporal majesty of a throne, where the inferior priests are at the same time the principal officers of the state, and where the Church ceremonies are invested with all the magnificence which the uncontrouled will and wealth of a monarch can command, divine service will naturally be performed with a splendour which can no where else be found. But the city of Rome, with her dome of St. Peter, is not the Catholic world, and the king

tholic Church. We must, therefore, view the ceremonies in themselves, and not as they are performed in Rome.".

"But quite independently of Rome," said Henry, "the rites and services of the Catholic Church are calculated to make a far stronger impression on the mind than the ordinances of the Protestant Church. These occupy the understanding alone, not the religious feeling; they are, therefore, only adapted for the inhabitants of the cold north, where sensibility and imagination are chilled, and not for the animated French, Italians, Spaniards, and the southern nations in general; these require entertainment, something to attract the senses, and to excite the imagination and the feelings."

Father. I have already often heard this argument, particularly from the enemies of the Protestant Church in France, and I have always been not a little astonished at it, because it is completely overthrown by the single example of the Mahometans. No religion in the world has such simple and so few rites as the Mahometan. Their mosques are void of all ornament, all images, all that can excite or intoxicate the senses, and are only adorned with verses from the Koran. Their worship consists in fasting, ablutions, and prayers. They are perfectly satisfied with this plain and simple mode of worship, and are fanatically enthusiastic for their religion. And yet they live not only in the warm but in the hot regions of the globe, compared to which Italy, Spain, and France, must be considered as cold; you find them in Asia Minor, in burning Arabia, in hot India, in Persia, in Egypt, with its sky eternally serene, in the interior of Africa, and in its burning deserts. The argument, therefore, that the climate of France, Italy, and Spain, require the worship of God in spirit and in truth to be made a spectacle, and that there can be no devotion there without the aid of pilgrimages, processions, mass, images of saints and the Virgin, has always been very offensive

to me, and is a degradation of these distinguished nations. The populace certainly is every where alike, and is delighted with all that attracts the eye or charms the ear. The taste of the populace, however, must not become a law to us, but we must endeavour to improve it. That this can be done, even in southern countries, you see by the reformed in France and Switzerland, who, with a far more simple worship than ours, are still zealous followers of the Gospel, and have in France repeatedly proved themselves steadfast martyrs to their faith, and have withstood all temptations of deserting their creed. And has it been found necessary to establish another mode of worship for the Dutch and English in their colonies, situated even in the torrid zone, in the West Indies, South Africa, the East Indies, and the Indian Peninsula, because they live under a burning sun, and are not surrounded by the cold mists of the mother countries? But if it were true, as you say, that the south cannot dispense with religious spectacles, and that the North produces only men of mere cold understandings, then the Creator himself would thereby intimate to us that Roman Catholicism is not adapted to the North, and you would have no right to condemn and persecute us. All this is perfectly groundless: if the inhabitant of the South have a lively imagination, we ought not to call the aid of religion to foster his dangerous dis position, to give him nothing but religious spectacles, and to encourage his excesses by endless absolutions and ever ready indulgences. By these means his levity is only increased, while the innumerable festivals nourish and foster the inclination to idleness, engendered by the climate. We ought rather to give him a mode of worship which may cool his imagination, moderate his warmth, and accustom him to reflection, and not to the indulgence of reveries.

Henry. If I even allow this, dearest father, there still remains one point, namely, that the Roman Ca