tude! They dined publicly in the refectory only once a week, and conversed together on that Thursday only, for a short period. The rest of their time was spent in their oratories, or in the church, or study, or garden; which last is the only appendage to their separate dwellings which bears even the semblance of luxury. Such sacrifices, made, as they thought, to obtain Heaven, should affect the consciences of those, who, better instructed, count inferior exertions too arduous.

The Emperor, Joseph II., finally suppressed this monastery in 1782, and sequestrated its immense revenues. The magnificent building itself is threatened with ruin, since the lead has been taken from the roof. It is to be hoped that it will be an object of care to the government of the Lombard-Venetian kingdom, as Austria styles her rich province in Italy.

MILAN.

MILAN is very well built; the streets in the outskirts, and near the canal, are wide and elegant. The first object that strikes the eye, and the great ornament of the city, is the Cathedral, il Duomo. It is said to be the largest church in the world, except St Peter's and St Paul's; and is superior even to the first in one point, that it is built entirely of marble. The interior seemed to me very gloomy, though it is not in the heavy style of the Gothic architecture. The painted windows intercept too much of the light; and from its antiquity, the walls are so blackened, that instead of the grave aspect suitable to the place, it has a cavern-like appearance. The exterior is very beautiful, erring perhaps in the extreme of the most florid Gothic style.

The numerous figures with which it is ornamented, (and there are said to be more than four thousand statues in the several niches,) prevent the effect which the exposure of such an immense mass of building, if unbroken, would produce.

From the spire, the prospect is most extensive over the plain of Lombardy, and only bounded on the north by the Rhætian Alps. The building itself from this point exhibits a splendid result of human labour. All the pinnacles of each arch are worked to the very top with perfect exactness, and crowned at their summits with marble statues. Not only the large niches are filled, but from the finish of the smaller figures as you ascend, you are astonished at each step with the minuteness as well as grandeur of the labour.

A gilded statue of the Virgin crowns the summit of the spire; and from this height you look upon the work of nearly five centuries, as upon

a field of marble. The reflection of the sun's

rays from it is quite overpowering.

Upon a descent again into the church, we find that this cathedral is not behind other consecrated buildings, in this land of legends and reliques, in its sacred treasures; one most esteemed possession being a nail from the cross, which is suspended near the roof behind the altar, and is taken down yearly, and carried in procession around the city, followed by the Archbishop, his retinue of clergy, and the populace.

Here is also preserved, at one of the altars, the crucifix which St Charles bore in procession at the time of the pestilence. I found numerous devotees kneeling before it at their prayers.

But the tomb of this St Charles Borromeo is one of the greatest wonders of the Catholic church. The descent into it is just in front of the great altar under the dome. It is very splendidly hung with gold cloth; the most me

morable actions of his life are carved in silver; and the body itself is preserved in a case of rockcrystal, magnificently attired, and set off with precious stones. The contrast is shocking between the richness of the vestments, and the corruption of the body-the face being exposed, decayed and black. It is the most that man can do for his idol, to decorate the senseless remains. I never before had so vividly presented to my view the vanity of wealth, here so profusely scattered in this worthless honouring of bones ;—the vanity of the best earthly honours, from which we must soon fly away; the vanity of the most splendid of earthly abodes, which cannot be richer than this sepulchral chapel, and must soon, at latest, hold only our lifeless organs ;—in short, the vanity of the men that once lived, and of the men that live now; -vanity of vanities,-all is Vanity!

I felt it a degradation of the nature in which I have a share, that in this case the law of rea