oses,
Would I saw you dish'd by scores!

Herod slaughter'd harmless sucklings,
Not with tongues like yours to vex;
Were he here, ye Devil's ducklings,
I would bid him wring your necks.

_Metropolitan_.

* * * * *

DRAMATIC CHARACTER OF THE CATHOLIC RELIGION.

The religion of the south of Europe is still essentially dramatic; and it
may be questioned how far this adaptation to the genius of the people has
tended to perpetuate the influence, not only of the Roman Catholic, but
also of the Greek church. Even in the pulpit, not merely does the earnest
preacher, by vehement gesticulation, by the utmost variety of pause and
intonation, _act_, as far as possible, the scenes which he describes; but
the crucifix, if the expression may be permitted, plays the principal part;
the Saviour is held forth to the multitude in the living and visible
emblem of his sufferings. The ceremonies of the Holy Week in Rome are a
most solemn, and to most minds, affecting religious drama. The oratorios,
as with us, are in general on scriptural subjects; and operas on themes of
equal sanctity are listened to without the least feeling of profanation.
Nor are the more audacious exhibitions of the dark ages by any means
exploded. Every traveller on the continent who has much curiosity, must
have witnessed, whether with devout indignation or mere astonishment, the
strange manner in which scriptural subjects are still represented by
marionnettes, by tableax parlans, or even performed by regular actors. In
the unphilosophized parts of modern Europe, these scenes are witnessed by
the populace, not merely with respect, but with profound interest; and if
they tend to perpetuate superstition, must be acknowledged likewise to
keep alive religious sentiment. But if this be the case in the nineteenth
century, how powerfully must such exhibitions have operated on the general
mind in the dark ages! The alternative lay between total ignorance and
this mode of communicating the truth. For the general mass of the clergy
were then as ignorant as the laity; and as the wild work, which in these
sacred dramas is sometimes made of the scripture history, may be supposed
to have embodied the knowledge of a whole fraternity, we may not unfairly
conjecture the kind of instruction to be obtained from each individual.
The state of language in Europe must have greatly contributed to the
adoption of public instruction, by me