Original etrinnutnitatins.
NAPLES.
Next to Venice, Naples is the most delightful
city we have seen in Southern Europe. Everybody
has heard of its beautiful bay and of the moun
tains which surround it, coming down almost to
the very edge of the water. But it is quite
impossible to get from conversation or books, or
even from pictures, a just conception of the ex
ceeding beauty of the whole scene. The city
itself is gay—the streets are thronged with peo
p'e day and night—the shops are brilliant, and
there are long streets of shops where almost
everything conceivable is exposed for sale—the
ices are famous all over the world—the cabs are
abundant and cheap, the cracking of whips is
incessan#, almost equalling the explosions of fire
Crackers on a Fourth of July—the streets are
*ell paved and generally clean—the street cries
are musical (how could they be otherwise in
that soft Italian language ?)—the harbor is
filled with vessels and the streets along shore
are thronged with sailors from all parts of the
world—the costutnes of the people are brilliant
in color and most curious in construction. The
museums are crowded with the finest specimens
of art and of many schools—the donkeys with
stacks of hay and everything else packed upon
them (the poor patient donkeys looking so meek
and humble as if apologizing continually for being
alive—for that is the expression which the face
of an Italian donkey bears)—the soldiers every
where and in all places—lounging—parading, but
never out of sight—the four-horse equipages of
the nobility—the sky—the mountains—Vesuvius
—the bay with its ever changing hues—the
Island of Capri in the distance—the soft hazy
atmosphere—the sunsets, the moonlight, the
storm on the bay, the waves dashing up almost
into the Hotel—all these make Naples what no
other city in Europe is or can be.
POMPEII
Then the excursions.- First we went to Pom
peii—that city of the dead. It is a ride of some
twelve miles—and you come to the entrance of
the city almost before you are aware of it. First
they show_ you Diomedes' villa without; the
walls of the old city—with its chambers small
tut very numerous—with its extensive wine cel
lar and some of the wine jars still there. Then
you pass into the city. At the gate is the sen
try box ; and in that box was found the skeleton
of the sentry, who died at his post. Then
through the gate into the city. Ah ! what a
scene of desolation ! How sad ! Here are the
streets with houses on.each side, the walls still
standing, covered with frescoes but roofless. Al-
most all the chambers necessary to a house then
and now are plainly diatinguisl able. There are
few or no windows on the streets, but the houses
all had an open court in the centre, into which
the doors opened. And here are• remains of
fountains and
,bativ, covered with marbles, and
paintings of exceeding grace and beauty. Here
are houses in which all kinds of domestic ar
rangements are discernible :—bakers' with loaves
of bread in the oven, and some with the mak
ers' name stamped,—and domestic mills for
grinding grain, and shops where various things
were sold,—restaurants with counters and open
ings for the dishes to be kept hot, just as you
will see in a modern city to day. Here are tem-.
pies to their gods and goddesses, with altars for
sacrifice, and the temple of Justice where their
courts were held, and the great amphitheatre
large enough to hold ten thousand persons sea
ted ! Then here are the streets, narrow but
with side-walks and exceedingly well paved. And
on these pavements are worn ; deep in some places,
the traces of wheels. All this , is plain to the
most casual observer.
It was a bright day in October when we saw
it, and the slanting sun was throwing long sha
dows across the narrow streets. Except the
visitors, and the guides, and the custodian who
watches you so closely lest you should carry off
some relic of antiquity, there was no life what
ever in the city, only some lizards and a few
common. house-flies. As to vegetable life there
was none, not a tree, nor a bush, if one may ex
cept a common species of fern which grows every
where. It was a picture of desolation and death.
For seventeen hundred years, these quiet streets
were buried by the ashes of Vesuvius,.and only
within the last hundred years have they been ex
posed to view. Less than one-half of the city
has been uncovered. The work of excavation is
going on, but very slowly. The ashes and soil
are loosened by picks and shovels, and boys carry
it off in baskets, : Co a temporary, railroad where
it is carefully sifted to separate the valuable re
lics from the mass, which -is then conveyed to
some distance from the walls. These boys are
carefully searched every night, so that no gold
ornaments or other valuables are carried off, so
exceedingly jealous is the Government of its
treasures in these antiquities.
OTHER EXCURSIONS
Another pleasant excursion is to Sorrento, a
town on the southern side of the Bay of Naples.
As far as Castelamarre you go by rail so near,
for part of the way, to the bay that if the wind
is fresh and from the sea, you.may feel the spray
from the waves dashing on the rocks while yon
-sit in the railway carriage. From Castelamarre
.the journey is made in a carriage with three
horses abreast. Fur two-thirds of the way the
..road is up hill, a gradual but continual ascent.
And all the way it is cut out of the rock, for the
mountains plunge precipitously into the sea, and
at many points you could drop a stone from the
side of the road into the waves breaking hun
dreds of feet below you. .It is truly a rock
bound coast. At Sorrento are comfortable hotels,
and it is a most curious old town—built on the
rocks as steep up from the water as stone walls.
Here you ride or walk through orange and
lemon, and fig, and olive orchards, and all these
fruits we plucked ripe from the trees. They
wbo have not eaten oranges plucked ripe, have
not yet tasted all the good things of this life.
Vesuvius was silent. Volumes of smoke were,
however, continually pouring out of his capacious
mouth. I went to the Hermitage (and drank
the famous wine) which is at the foot of the great
cone, on horseback, but as the mountain was
buried in clouds that day, and the further as
cent must be on foot, and excessively disagreea
ble yielding nothing in remuneration but stifling
sulphurous smoke. I abandoned the ascent,
knowing that I could see a smoking crater on the
other side of Naples with less expense of time
and labor.
Not the least interesting of our excursions was
that to Pozzuoli and to.Baim. On the way we took
the nearly extinct crater of Solfatara, where the
crust of the earth sounded hollow as we passed
over it, where the ground was so hvt we could
hardly stand upon it, where when the surface
was scraped off with your foot, you might have
cooked an egg—the sulphur oozing up through
the loose soil—and from a great opening the
smoke rushed up in yellow masses with a roar
like a tremendous furnace !
But I stood on the mole at Pozzuoli the Pate
oli of the 28th chapter of the Acts and looked
on the scene with inexpressible interest. For it
was here, if not on this mole, certainly on the
landing place of the town only a few yards off,
that the Apostle Paul landed from the ship which
brought him from Syracuse where he had spent
the winter after his shipwreck in that awful au
tumnal storm. Across this lovely bay of Naples
he must have sailed, between Capri and the head-.
land of Sorrento, before a stout wind which must
have blown almost a gale, as it did, indeed, while
I stopped there. The same landscape was before
his eyes then as meets the gaze now.
As the vessel came up from Rhegium the pre
sentßegydo, heading due north, the various points
on the coast of Italy were passed in rapid suc
cession, until, towards the close of " the_next
day," they glided past the bold headlands which
bound the southern coast of the Bay of Naples,
when leaving the island of Capri on the left,
Naples itself . came into view throned in the am
phitheatre at the base of her hills—then Vesuvius
possibly then in eruption—then the cities of
Herculaneum and Pompeii, lying between the
shore and that terrible mountain, and then in
less than an hour his feet stood on the shore--
his long voyage over at last and himself within
a few days' journey of the Rome which he so
longed to see.
Our last sight of the Bay of Naples, for we
left the city in the night was in a storm. We
had seen it under the brilliant blue of the Ital
ian sky with the unclouded sun beaming upon it
—with scarcely a breeze to ripple its surface—
we saw it under the glorious light of the full
moon, its waves gilded,with her. silver light—we
saw it under the influence of a three days' Si
rocco from Africa, such as blew St. Paul from
Rheginm one day, to Puteoli the next, and we
saw it at last under a thunder storm working its
broad bosom into billows of foam, the, lightning
darting its brilliant flashes down into its un
measured and tideless depths. B. B. C.
FEMALE EDUCATION.
Last Sabbath the Rev. E. R. Raffensperger,
who, in the absence of the pastor, is supplying
the pulpit of the Cohocksink church, preached,
in that church, a most remarkable discourse on
the importance of a high, order of 07tristian edu
cation for females. HiS statistics and facts were
full of information; his arguments solid and un
answerable; and his whole presentation of the
subject so excellent and impressive, that we ear
nestly wish the discourse might be repeated in
every Presbyterian church in the city.
With all that Romanists and other erroneous
sects are doing to allure our daughters to their
institutions, that these may educate them out of
the true faith, and into false views, both of life
and religion, it is high time that Presbyterians
awake to the right views of this important sub
ject, and to the indispensable necessity to the
true welfare of . the Presbyterian Church Of a
higher order of thorough and Christian educa
tion for our daughters.
If Mr. Raffensperger's discourse could be
heard by every Presbyterian church in the land,
it would - waken attention to a subject too much
overlooked and unconsidered.
A PRESBYTERIAN.
—The news comes frotn Chili that c , in the
Chamber of Deputies, on the 30th ult., there were
interruptions, protests, calls to order, and all
manner of Parliamentary sallies on occasion of
the debates upon the appropriation of the sum of
$20,000 for the expense of the Bishops' journey
to Rome. - A sharp opposition has been made to
the 'grant, and as the question has not been settled
it would not be surprising if the day for the
Bishops' departure arrives without the bill having
been passed."
PHILADELPHIA, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1869.
THE PAPAL SYLLABUS.
The Papal Syllabus of modern errors published
by Pius IX in December, 1864, will probably
give tore to the coming Ecumenical Council. It
is called : " TITE SYLLABUS OF TIIE PRINCIPAL
ERRORS OF Oti R TIME, WHICH ARE STIGMATIZED
IN THE CONSISTORIAL ALLOCUTIONS, ENCYCLI
CAL, AND OTHER APOSTOLIC LETTERS OF POPE
Plus Ix."
L Pantheism, Naturalism, and Absolute Ration-
1. There exists no Divine Power, Supreme
Being, 'Wisdom and Providence distinct from the
universe, and God is none other than nature, and
therefore immutable, In effect, God is produced
in man and in the world, and all things are God,
and have the very substance of God. God is
therefore one and the same thing with the world,
and hence spirit is the same thing with matter,
necessity with liberty, true with false, good with
evil, justice with injustice.
2 All action of God upon man and the world
is to be denied.
3. tluman reason, without any regard to God, is
the sole arbiter of truth and falsehood, of good
and evil; it is its own law to itself, and suffices
by its natural force to secure the welfare of men
and of nations.
4. All the truths of religion are derived from
the native strength of human reason; whence
reason is the master, rule by which men can and
ought to arrive at the knowledge of all truths of
every kind.
si. ,Divine revelation is imperfect, and there
fore subject to a ,continual and indefinite pro
gress, which corresponds with the progress of
human reason.
6. Christian faith is in opposition to human
reason, and Divine revelation not only does
not benefit, but even injures the perfection of
man..
7. The prophecies and miracles uttered and
narrated in the Sacred Scriptures are the fictions
of poets, and the mysteries of Christian faith the
result of philosophical investigations. In the
books of the two Testaments there are contained
mythical inventions, and Jesus Christ is Himself
a mythical fiction.
IL Moderate RatiOnalism
8. As human reason is placed on a level with
religion, so theological matters must be treated
in.the, same manner as philosophical ones.
9. All the dogmas of the Christian religion
are, without exception, the object of natural sci
ence or philosophy; and human reason, instructed
solely by history, is able, by its own natural
strength and principles, to arrive at the true
knowledge of even the most abstruse dogmas;
firovided, such dogmas be proposed as subject
matter for human reason.
10. As the philosopher is one thing, and phi
losophy another, so it is the right and duty of
the philosopher to submit himself to the autho
rity which he shall have recognized as tide; but
philosophy neitherkin nor ought to submit to
any authority.
11. The Churoi not only ought never to ani
madvert upon philosophy, but ought to tolerate
the errors of philosophy, leaving to philosophy
the care of their correction.
12. The decrees of the Apostolic See and of
the Roman Congregation fetter the free progress
of science.
13. The method and principles by which the
old, scholastic doctors cultivated theology, are no
longer suitable to the demands of the age and
the progress of science.
14. Philosophy must be treated of without
any account being taken of supernatural revela
tion.
N. B.—To the rationalistic system belongs, in
great part, the errors of Anthony Gunther, con
demned in the letter to the Cardinal Archbishop
of Cologne.
Indifferentism, Latitudinarianism,.
15. Every man is free to embrace and profess
the religion he shall believe true, guided by the
light of reason.
16. Men may in any religion find the way
of eternal salvation, and obtain eternal salva
tion.
17. Wp may entertain at least a well-founded
hope for the eternal salvation of all those
who are in no manner in the true Church of
Christ.
18. Protestantism is nothing more than another
form of the same Christian Religion, in which it
is possible to be equally pleasing to God as in the
Catholic Church.
IV. Socialism, Communism, Secret Societies,
Biblical Societies, Clerico:Liberal Societies.
Pests of this description ,are frequently re
buked.
V. Error's Concerning the Church and her
. Rights.
19, The Church is not a true and perfect, and
entirely free society, nor does she enjoy peculiar
and perpetual rights conferred upon het* by her
Divine Founder, but it appertains to the civil
power to define what are the rights of the Church
and the limits within which she may exercise the
same.
20. The ecclesiastical power must not exercise
its authority without the permission and assent
of the civil government.
21. The Church has not the - power of defining
dogmatically that the religion of the Catholic
Church is the only true religion.
22. The obligations which bind Catholic teach
ers and authors apply only to those things
which are proposed for universal belief as dogmas
of the faith by the infallible judgment of the
Church.
23. The Roman Pontiffs and CEcumenical
Council . have exceeded the limits of their power,
have usurped the rights of Princes, and have
even committed errors in defining matters of faith
and morals.
24. The Church has not the power of availing
herself of force, or any direct or indirect tempo
ral power.
25. TA addition to the authority inherent in
the Episcopate,
a further and temporal power is
granted to it by the civil authority, either ex
pressly or tacitly, which power is, on that ac
count, also revocable by the civil authority when
ever it pleases.
26. The Church has not the innate and legiti
mate right of acquisition and possession.
27. The ministers of the Church and the Ro
man Pontiff ought to be absolutely excluded
from all charge and dominion over temporal af
fairs.
2S. Bishops have not even the right of promul
gating the Apostolic letters without the permis
sion of the Government.
29. Dispensations granted by the Roman
Pontiff must be considered null, unless they
have been asked for through the civil govern
ment.
30. The immunity of the' Church and of
ecclesiastical persons derives its origin from civil
law.
31. Ecclesiastical courts for the temporal causes
of the clergy ought by all means to be abolished,
even without the concurrence and against the
protest of the Holy See.
32. The personal immunity exonerating the
clergy from military service may be abolished,
without violating either natural right or equity.
Its abolition is called for by civil progress, espe
cially in a community constituted upon principles
of liberal government.
33 It does not appertain exclusively to eccle
siastical jurisdiction, by any right proper and
inherent, to direct the teaching of theological
subjects.
34. The teaching of those who compare the
Sovereign Pontiff to a free Sovereign acting in
the Universal Church is a doctrine which pre
vailed only in the Middle Ages.
35. There would be no obstacle to the sentence
of a gentral council or the act of all the univer
sal peoples, transferring the Pontifical Sove
reignty from the Bishop and city of Rome to
some other bishopric and some other city.
36. The definition of a National Council does
not admit of any.subsequent discussion, and the
civil power can regard as settled an affair decided
by such national council.
37. National churches can be established,
withdrawn, and plainly separated from the au•
thority of the-Roman Pontiff.
38. Roman Pontiffs have, by their too arbi
trary conduct, contributed to the division of the
Church into Eastern and Western.
VI. Errors about Civil Society, considered both in
itself and in its Relation to the Church.
39. The Commonwealth, as the origin and
source of all rights, possesses rights which are not
circumscribed by any limits.
40. The teaching of the Catholic Church is
opposed to the well-being and interests of society.
41. The civil power; even when exercised by
an infidel sovereign, possesses an indirect and
negative power over religious affairs. It there
fore possesses not only the right called that of
exequatur, but that of the so-called appellatio ab
abusu.*
42. In the case of conflicting laws between the
two powers, the 9ivil law ought to prevail.
43. The civil power has a right to break and
to declare and render null the conventions (com
monly called concordats) concluded with the
Apostolic See relative to the use of rights apper
taining to the ecclesiastical immunity, without
the con.ent of the Holy See, and even contrary
to its protest.
44. The civil authority may interfere in mat
ters relating to religion, morality, and spiritual
government. Hence it has control over the in
structions for the guidance of consciences, issued
conformably with their mission, by the pastors of
the church. Further, it possesses power to de
cree, in the matter of administering the Divine
sacraments, as to the • dispositions necessary for
their reception.
45. The entire direction of public schools, in
which the youth of Christian States are edu- -
cated, except (to a certain extent) in the case of
Episcopal seminaries, may and must appertain to
the civil power, and belong to it, so far that no
authority whatsoever shall be recognized as hav
ing any right to interfere in the discipline of the
schools, the arrangement of the studieq, the
taking of degrees, or the choice and approval of
the teachers.
46. Much more, even in clerical seminaries,
the method of study to be adopted is subject to
the civil authority.
47. The best theory of civil society requires
that popular schools be open to the children of all
classes, and generally all public 'institutions in
tended for instruction in letters and philosophy,
and for conducting the education of the young,
should be freed from all ecclesiastical authority,
government, and interference, and should be
fully subject to the civil and political power, in
conformity with the will of rulers and the pre
valent opinions of the age.
48. This system of instructing youth, which
consists in separating it from the Catholic faith
and from the power of the Church, and in teach
ing exclusively, or at least primarily, the know
ledge of natural things and the earthly ends of
social life alone, may be approved by Catholics.
49. The civil power has the right to prevent
ministers of religion and the faithful from com
municating freely and mutually with each other
and the Roman Pontiff.
50. The secular authority possesses, as inher
ent in itself, the right of presenting Bishops, and
may require of them that they take possession of
their dioceses before having received canonical
institution and the Apostolic letters from the
Holy See.
51. And further, the secular government has
the right of deposing Bishops from their pastoral
functions, and it is not bound to obey the Roman
Pontiff in those things which relate to Episcopal
Sees and the institution of Bishops.
52. The Government has of itself the right
to alter the age prescribed by the Church for the
religious profession both of men and women;
and it may, enjoin upon all religious establish
ments to admit no person to take solemn vows
without its p4rmission.
53. The laws for the protection of religious
establishments, and securing their rights and
duties, ought to be abolished; nay, more, the
civil government may lend its assistance to all
who 'desire to quit the religious life they have
undertaken, and break their vows. The Govern
ment may also suppress religious orders ' col
legiate Churches, and simple benefices ; even those
belonging to private patronage, and submit their
goods and revenues to the administration and
disposal of the civil power.
54. Kings and princes are not only exempt
from - the jurisdiction of the Church, but are an-
* The power of authorizing omcial acts of the Papal
power, and of correcting the alleged abuses of the
same.
perior to the Church in litigated question s
jurisdiction.
55 The Church ought to be separatel from
the State, and the State from the Church.
VII. Errors concerning sutural and Christian
56. Moral laws do not stand in need of the
divine sanction, and there is no necessity that
human laws should be conformable to the laws of
nature, and receive their sanction from God.
57. Knowledge of philosophical things and
morals, and also civil laws, may and must be in
dependent of divine and ecclesiastical authority.
58. No other forces are to be recognized than
those which reside in matter; and all moral
teaching and moral excellence ought to be made
to consist in the accumulation and increase of
riches by every possible means, and in the enjoy
ment of pleasure.
59. Right consists in the material fact, and all
human duties are delusive and all human acts
have the force of right.
60. Authority is nothing else but the result of
numerical superiority and material force.
61. An unjust act, being successful, inflicts no
injury upon the sanctity of right,
62. The principle of non-intervention, as it is
called, ought to be proclaimed and adhered to.
63. It is allowable to refuse obedience to
legitimate princes; nay more, to rise in insur
rection against them.
64. Tne violation of a solemn oath, even every
wicked and flagitious action repugnant to the
eternal law, is not blamable, but quite lawful, and
worthy of the highest praise when done for the
love of country.
VIII. Errors Concerning Christian Marriogc
65. It cannot be by any means tolerated to
maintain that Christ has raised marriage to the
dignity of a sacrament.
66. The sacrament of marriage is only an ad
junct of the contract, and separable from it, and
the sacrament itself consists in the nuptial bene
diction alone.
67. By the law of nature the marriage tie is
not indissoluble, and in many cases divorce, pro
perly so-called, may be pronounced by the civil
authority.
68. The Church has not the power of laying
down what are the diriment impediments to mar
riage. The civil authority does possess such a
power, and can do away with impediments to
marriage.
69. The Church only commenced in later
ages to bring in diriment impediments, and then
availing herself of a right not her own, but bor
rowed from the civil power.
70. The canons of the Council of Trent,
which pronounce censure of anathema against
those who deny to the Church the right of
laying down what are diriment impediments,
either are not dogmatic or must be understood
as referring only to such borrowed power.
71. The form of solemnizing marriage pre
scribed by the said Council does not bind, under
penalty of in cases where the civil law
has appointed another form, arid where it decrees
that this new form ahallielfcftte a valid -
mar
riage. • -
72. Boniface VIII. is the first Who declared
that the vow of chastity pronounced at ordina
tion annuls nuptials.
73. A merely civil contract may, among
Christians, constitute a true marriage; and it is
false either that the marriage contract between
Christians is always a sacrament, or that the
contract is null if the sacrament be excluded.
74. Matrimonial causes and espousals belong
by their very nature to civil jurisdiction.
N. B.—Two other errors may tend in this
direction—those upon the abolition of the celib
acy of priests, and the preference due to the
state of marriage over that of virginity. These
have been proscribed, the first in the Encyclical
" Quipluribns," Nov. 9, 1846 ; the last in the
Letters Apostolical, " Multiplices inter," June
10, 1851.
IX. Errors regarding the Civil Power of the
Sovereign Pontiff.
75. The children of the Christian and Catho
lic Church are not agreed upon the compatibili
ty of the temporal with the spiritual power.
76. The abolition of the temporal power,
which the Apostolic See possesses would con
tribute in the greatest degree to the liberty and
prosperity of the church.
N. B.—Besides these errors expressly noted,
many others are impliedly rebuked by the pro
posed and asserted doctrine, which all Catholics
are bound most firmly to hold, touching the tem
poral sovereignty of the Roman Pontiff.
X. Errors Having Reference to Modern Lib-
eralism
77. In the present day it is no longer
gi expedi
ent that the Catholic relion shall bebeld as the
only religion of the State to the exclubion of all
other modes of worship. 114-
78. Whence it has been wisely provided by
law, in some countries called Catholip, that per
sons coming to reside therein shall enjoythe pub
lic exercise' of their own worship.
79. Moreover it is false, that the civil liberty
of every mode of worship and the full power
given to all of overtly and publicly manifesting
their opinions and their ideas of all kinds what
soever, conduce more easily to corrupt the mo
rals and minds of the people, and to the propa
gation of the pest of indifferentism.
80. The Roman Pontiff can and ought to re
concile himself, to and agree with progress, lib
eralism, and modern civilization.
---" T. L. C.,". in The National Temperance
.Advocate, opposes " the third party" movement,
for, several reasons. He says : "In the third
place, we hold that it is unwise to neglect the
teachings of the past. And it is an u ndeniable
fact that none of the. prohibitory legislation yet
gained in any State was ever secured by a
' third political party.'" Such laws as those in
Maine, Vermont and Massachusetts, and such as
formery existed in Michigan, New York and
Connecticut, were not enacted by men elected
by a " prohibition party" separate and distinct
from the two great parties of the day. His last
argument, that a great amount of popular educa
tion must first bedone, before' such a party has
any chance, is a fallacy. -There is no better
way of educating the people, than by the stir
and agitation which a vigorous third party would
cause.