nature of the religion of ancient Rome. It may be remarked, that Gentilism comprehended a vast variety of female deities, some of which were not less powerful, nor placed in a lower rank in the scale of divinity, than the greatest of the gods of the other sex. On the contrary, the superiority of females was established in Egypt as a civil and religious institution; and the same order is observed in Plutarch's treatise of Isis and Osiris. A precedence thus given to the female deities in Egypt, would probably have its operation in Italy also a proposition of which no person will entertain much doubt, who has observed the proportion which the gods of the Nile bear, in every museum of Italian antiquities, to those of Greece and Rome. Indeed, when Isis and Serapis were united in one temple in the capital of Italy, priority of place was assumed by the queen. It is natural, therefore, to suppose, that mankind, long retaining a propensity to relapse into idolatry, would endeavour to find some substitute for an important class of beings, which had for so many years exercised undisputed empire over the minds and passions of men, who, from climate and temperament, were perhaps peculiarly disposed to render the fair portion of the inhabitants of Heaven a chivalrous obedience. The religion of Christianity, however, as it was taught by our Saviour and his immediate followers, afforded no stock on which this part of Heathen mythology could be grafted. None of the three Persons of the Trinity could, without much effort, be moulded into the form of a goddess; and the circumstance, that some ancient heretics actually did maintain the Holy Ghost to be a female, only serves to shew the reluctance with which mankind bade adieu to that sex as objects of worship." It was but natural to expect, that the Virgin would be fixed upon to succeed all those favoured female deities in receiving worship and bestowing favour; and as early as the fourth century, mention is made of a sect named Colyridians, "who offered cakes to the Virgin Mary as a goddess, and the Queen of Heaven." Her being called OOTOROS and Mater Dei-the propriety of which was, after a long controversy, allowed in a great public council must also have contributed to blend the mother of our Saviour with the heathen deities; especially with Cybele, to whom these epithets had been generally applied. And that the Madonna has succeeded Cybele, and become identified with her in traditional rites and modes of reverence, a great many curious proofs are adduced in this volume. The first is, the coin cidence of the monks begging for the Madonna, as it was an ancient practice to beg for the Mother of the Gods. Aristoxenus is applauded for an answer which he once made to one of these applications. "I feed not the Mother of the Gods, whom the Gods themselves support." And it is a striking circumstance, that a law is mentioned in Cicero, allowing persons in the service of Cybele, the exclusive privilege of collecting alms. The next coincidence mentioned, is, the use of the Galli in the worship of Cybele, and the use of a similar class of people in the Church of Italy. "There is yet another coincidence equally singular. Our Lady-Day, or the Day of the Blessed Virgin of the Roman Catho lics, was heretofore dedicated to Cybele. It was called Hilaria,' says Macrobius, on account of the joy occasioned by the arrival of the Equinox, when the light was about to exceed the darkness in duration; and from the same author, as well as from Lampridius, it appears that it was a festival of the Mater Deûm. Moreover, in a Greek commentary upon Dionysius, cited by Dempster in his Roman Antiquities, it is asserted that the Hilaria was a festival in honour of the Mother of the Gods, which was proper to the Romans." The pipers that play before the images of the Virgin in Italy, might also have been mentioned as a parallel observance with that used towards the Mother of the Gods. "Ante Deûm matrem cornu Tibicen ad unco Cum canit, exiguæ quis stipis aera neget ?" And the author of Roma Moderna, quoted by Middleton, boasts of the ingenuity of the faithful, in dedicating to the Virgin Mary the Temple of the Bona Dea. Without attributing any very heinous intentions of idolatry or backsliding towards Paganism, to those old Christian priests, who lived in those ages when Paganism was blending with Christianity, we may accuse the dull rogues with having been too much given to punning and barbarous jokes. For to so innocent a species of pedantry, is no doubt to be attributed this mighty seeming adoption of Pagan rites and names, for which our divines pour upon them the heavy phial of their wrath. Thus, a church built on the site of Apollo's Temple, is dedicated to St Apollinaris ; on an ancient Temple of Mars stands the Church of St Martin; all for a pun. Witness the verse. Martyrii gestans virgo Martina coronam, Ejecto hinc Martis numine, Templa tenet. What shall we think of such saints as Baccho, Quirinus, &c., or poor Soracte, wrested into St Oraste, and taken from Apollo, to be placed under the protection of a saint without any more real existence than the anagram of its own old name? Middleton's account of the Saintships of Amphibolus and Veronica, is highly amusing; the one a cloak that suffered martyrdom; the other a veil: both, however, promoted by the infallibility of the Popish Church, to all the rights and properties of defunct flesh and blood. It puzzled them, seemingly, to procure a saint who might succeed Romulus in his little temple under the Palatine; at last they found one in St Theodore, who was exposed, &c. like the founder of Rome. "Thus," says Middleton, "the wor ship paid to Romulus being now transferred to Theodorus, the old superstition still subsists; and the custom of presenting children at this shrine, continues to this day without intermission; of which I myself have been a witness, having seen, as oft as I looked into this church, ten or a dozen women, decently dressed, each with a child in her lap, sitting with silent reverence before the altar of the saint, in expectation of his miraculous influence on the health of the infant."-Letter from Rome. Mr Blunt's next chapter is on the festival of St Agatha at Catania; the ceremonies of which, he compares with, and finds similar to, those in honour of Ceres; which goddess, by the by, was as peculiarly revered at Catania, in the olden time, as St Agatha is at present. But the festival of St Agatha little differs from that of any other patron saint at his or her own town. There are pony-races, processions of monks and candles, &c. &c. at Rome, and everywhere else, as well as at Catania. They may have been all borrowed from the Eleusinian ceremonies, but the Agatha is certainly not the sole heiress of Ceres's divinity. Mr Blunt is too special, too local, and not general enough in his observations; nevertheless, he makes out numerous and curious points of coincidence between the rites of goddess and of saint. The festival commences, as do the last days of carnival at Rome, with a pony race. "The ponies destined for the contest have no riders; but, by means of wax, ribVOL. XIV. bons are firmly attached to their backs; Invictas supero,' Catana Regum,' Now Ovid, says the author, declares a horse race to have made part of the rites of Ceres. "Primaque ventosis palma petetur equis. Hi Cereris ludi." But horse races were not confined to the rites of Ceres, nor to those of Neptune; and, in fact, made part of every festival that could furnish an excuse for them. Torches are next adduced as a coincidence in the rites of saint and goddess; the act of kneeling in worship might as well have been brought forward for examples of coincidence, as those common appendices to all ceremonies, Jewish, Catholic, and Pagan. The priests of both religions happening to be dressed in white, is just as little wonderful. Indeed, it would be difficult, as well as astonishing, if the habits of the ministers of different and successive religions did not resemble one another; or if the modes of adoration did not agree in many points. Worship will be like worship, and procession can differ little from procession; nor need we wonder that the figure of the Virgin in those countries is brought forth peruked and gorgeously ornamented, in a chariot drawn by oxen. 2 K "Qualis Berecynthia mater Invehitur curru, Phrygias turrita per urbes." The chapter on the Arrangement and Furniture of Catholic Churches, their every-day Ceremonies, &c., has been anticipated by Middleton, who has traced the incense, the holy water, &c., to their proper sources. There is here an account of one classical saint which we cannot pass over; and the origin is doubtless correctly given, considering the popularity of Ovid, whilst the better authors of his time were yet in oblivion. "At a short distance from the old La vinium, or Pratica, (as it is now called,) is a chapel, dedicated to St Anna Petronilla. Here we have, no doubt, a corruption of Anna Perenna, the sister of Dido, who was cast ashore upon the coast of Italy, near the Numicius; a point corresponding with the situation of this little church. On that occasion, having accidentally met with Æneas and Achates, and rejected all terms of reconciliation with them, she was warned by the shade of Dido in a dream, to escape from the treachery of Lavinia. In the sudden consternation excited by this vision, she is said to have precipitated herself into the Numicius, of which she became the protecting nymph, whilst games, described at length by Ovid, were instituted to her honour. Placidi sum nympha Numicî, Thus Anna, the sister of the Virgin, has The mendicant orders our author derives from the priests of Isis and Serapis. That such resemblance between these two descriptions of persons should exist, will seem less remarkable when we recollect that the country to which the worship of Isis and Serapis peculiarly belonged, was that in which the monastic life originated, and that this happened before divine honours had ceased to be paid to those Egyptian deities. The worship of Isis too, says Mr Blunt, was tolerated by Christians with more patience than that of any other deities. This may have been the case in Egypt, but we believe the worship of Isis at Rome was not all such as to conciliate the favour of the early Christians-Nay, so early as Tiberius, we believe the priests and vo taries of Isis were banished for licentiousness. The points of coincidence between the orders of St Francis and Isis, are their begging, one with the sistum, the other with his alms-boxno wonderful similarity for poor and religious societies. The possession and use of relics, peculiar to the votaries of Isis, who gathered up the fourteen pieces of her husband's body, agree very well with the stores of the same kind carried about by the mendicant monks. Miraculous cures, too, were common to both; their dress, as we know from some ancient bas reliefs, were much alike; and, above all, the most striking point of resemblance is the tonsure, avowedly and clearly borrowed from the priests of Isis by the early Christian priests. "It is clear," says St Jerome," that we ought not to be seen with our heads shaved, like the priests and worshippers of Isis and Serapis; nor, on the other hand, to suffer the hair to grow luxuriously long, after the manner of soldiers and barbarians." Many of these coincidences are too strong, too manifestly borrowed one from the other, to admit of that argument of Warburton's, which so annoyed Middleton, that such customs, however alike, were not traditional, but newly invented by similar people in similar circumstances. Much of the Roman Catholic rites must have been borrowed from paganism; nor do we think that a casual resemblance, in cases not especially forbidden, is of any mighty importance to the salvation of souls. Mr Blunt, in his anxiety to establish his theory by many examples, frequently overdoes the proof, and brings forward customs as handed down among the Italians, which are mere innovations of their conquerors. For instance, the throwing of the poor into a common grave, and that outside the walls-not permitting tomb-stones, &c.-then an introduction of the French into Italy. 'Twas they who built the Campo Santo at Naples, at Milan; and they would have done the same at Rome, had not bigotry been too strong for them. It was the decree, establishing such at Milan, that called forth the poem of the Sepolchri from Ugo Foscolo; what the poet lamented has been verified-the remains of Parini lie undistinguished, and blended with his brother poor, in the burying-ground near Milan. The chapter, with which the volume concludes, on Coincidences in Character between the Ancient and Modern Italians, and which ought to have been among the most interesting, is exceedingly lame. A propensity to gambling is no coincidence, that will not extend to all people-particular games, however, may be. The Morra, or finger counting, a play very common in Italy, and rendered more difficult in France by the guesser having a split stick on his nose, is affirmed by Mr Blunt to be antique. "There cannot be a doubt that the micare digitis' of the Romans, was the self-same amusement; and the force of their expressions for an honest man, that he was one with whom fingers might be counted in the dark-quorum micare potes in tenebris, becomes sufficiently intelligible." Panem et Circenses, is a desire traditionally handed down, if ever any was, from Roman to Roman. The games of the Circus, greatly shorn of their splendour, still exist in part, however. In the Mausoleum of Augustus are daily held fights between men and cows, dogs, bulls, &c.-called the Giostra. The men advance to the ox with a red flag before them, which the animal runs at, and the man, leaving his flag to the fury of the animal, escapes. But the whole business is wretchedly got up. The dogs are sneaking cowardly curs, and the bulls generally lean cows (forgive the bull.) We have ourselves witnessed a very ludicrous combat in the said Mausoleum, between a dozen broken-backed little men and a young hornless calfNeither Liston nor Grimaldi ever called forth such bursts of laughter and applause; and the little calf, upsetting the huddled bossus like a pack of cards. Another ludicrous fight is between the bull and the man in the wicker bottle, -the bottle has an opening at both ends; by one opening it hangs on his neck-out of the other appears his feet; and thus he fidgets about the arena. When attacked by the bull, he sinks like a snail into his shell or bottle, which lies much in the shape of a buoy, and the animal beats and tosses the wicker bottle with abundance of vain and ludicrous rage. Mr Blunt, we believe, could find no parallel for all this. Alas! the Circus is fallen, and its celebrated factions of blue and red no longer convulse the world and its capital. Before quitting Mr Blunt, we must mention one curious and palpable instance of coincidence: and it is wonderful how it could have escaped him. We mean the picture of the ass exhausted from over-fatigue, found in Pompeii, and now in the Museum at Portici-the indentical clitella, or packsaddle, still used, is on its back-the oblong, mis-shapen bell, round its neck, precisely as now worn. In short, the whole picture might as well pass for a representation of the nineteenth, as of the first century. BARTHOLOMEW FAIR. "In holiday time, when the ladies of London Walk out with their husbands, or think themselves undone." "BARTLEMY FAIR" carries the prestige over all shows and exhibitions for September. Liston's attraction at the Haymarket flags; the Devil (though at half-price) brings no money to the Lyceum; and even the Reverend Mr Irving (if he preached on a week-day) would chance to be shorn of one-half his congregation. But the Smithfield festivities commenced, this year, on a Wednesdayan auspicious beginning for his worship the Lord Mayor; for, when proclamation has to be made on a Monday or Friday, really, what between the mud and the mad bulls, his lord ship is in a manner put to his trumps. By the way, it is time, we think, that some arrangement was come to upon this point. The beasts, or the buffoonery, one or other, on such an occasion, should give way. It is only two years ago that an unbred Essex calf interrupted Sir Newman Knowlys (the common-serjeant) in the middle of his exhortation; the Lord Mayor's own coach was menaced by a cow with a crumpled horn; the Remembrancer forgot everything but the care of his own safety; and the Sword-bearer seemed the only man paratus of the party. We mention this now, because proclamation will fall again on market day (should the world last so long) two years hence; and we think, in our known affection and respect for the city of London, that such dilemmas are derogatory to its magisterial dignity. But the last fair-day (that is, the 6th of September) is always the high day at Cow-Cross-when the swings, and the sausages, and the bluebottles, and the young women, are all in full buzz and activity. What a convocation of jugglers and gingerbread bakers there are! and what a collection of knaves and ninnies to admire them! They are fine things, past question, these shows. We doubt if Queen Mary, even when she roasted the Pro testants, ever attracted larger assemblages into Smithfield than now attend the roasting of pigs. And, in the way of legitimate spectacle, we maintain that the scene is a curiosity. Few situations would more bewilder a stranger to London, than the being set down, about noon, at Smithfield bars on a fair-day. Every sense is so assailed, and on every side, at the same moment! The eye becomes unsteady amid a variety of objects; and has not time to pause for a second upon one, before it is caught up, willy-nilly, by another. In front, we see a company of comedians; behind, a troop of horseriders. Here, a grotesque fellow dances upon a rope; there, a motley ruffian curvets upon a wire. Then, the roar -the shout-the deafening, incessant, unrelaxing din, of twice ten thousand voices, in more than twice ten thousand keys! Of ravings, male and female-howlings, human and animal -whoopings, joyous and angry-besides noises non descript, of wilful or accidental production, swelling and aiding the great general uproar! There are fruit-sellers, showmen, ballad-mongers, and pie-projectors; dealers in toys, strong waters, porter, and pastry; fiddlers scrape, ginger-beer corks pop, children weep, and nursemaids giggle! Then comes the yelling of wild beasts-the swearing of their keepers-the creaking of wheels the crashing of round-abouts-the ringing of bells the blowing of horns-the whirling of rattles-and the cries of "Take care of your pockets!" "The smells are infinite in habit here too." Peppermint drops, and "Sir Robert Burnett's best," prevail in the morning; but the frying-pans have it, we think, towards the heat of the day. If the cooks burn the meat, however, (as is reported of them,) that would be foul play. 66 There is a case upon the booksSquintum versus Blinkum-where a man was refused the prize for grinning through a horse collar, on its being proved that he made use of verjuice, clandestinely, during the exhibition. We have our law, you see, reader, as well as our neighbours. But away with references to matters past. What brain in Bartholomew Fair can stand against the present appeals to its attention ? Here, fortune lifts her bandage, and actually ogles you out of a lucky bag."-" This is the true lottery," says the priestess, "for people to adventure in. Here they are; all blanks, and no prizes!"—All prizes, and no blanks, she means to say; but she speaks truth, for once, without knowing it. “Will you try?-You win a save-all. Dip again. You have got an extinguisher." So provoking! Things that one doesn't want! There is a tea-caddy in the old lady's basket too. That there is, and has been every fair for the last twenty years.-Will you try no more? Then turn round; for there is a fellow spitting fire close to your ear. See the rogue! He is clad in flame-coloured taffeta"-powdered with soot, and perfumed with brimstone. Look! now again he vomits ribbons by the yard! What versatility of talent! Time was 66 "the good old times!"-when such a man would have been burned; but fashions are changed in all things. The most he can hope for now, is to be hanged! Mercy on us, who is that female so loud upon our right? Of a surety, she must be the original woman who hired the devil to teach her to out-scold all her neighbours. Hark how clear and shrill her tone! She has an Irish Colossus, and two dwarfs, by way of foil, to delight the eyes of the curious; and (it is now noon) she has cried at this same rate since seven o'clock in the morning. The Colossus is a terrible fellow indeed! A man to take the wall of the Lord Mayor's giants, if he met them. But they, as luck will have it, do not come to the fair. Hark! the trader in tall men cries still. The exhibitor opposite has a speaking trumpet; but she drowns him completely. Now we catch what he says. "The |