give true sterling value to the man, and sanctify him in the eyes of his Creator, I mean humility, self-command, temperance, industry, prudence, and fortitude, were not inferior to his public endowments. His table was for his guests; his own diet was confined to bread and vegetables; he allowed himself no amusement or relaxation, alleging that the variety of his duties was in itself a sufficient recreation. His dress and establishment was such as became his rank, but in private he dispensed with the attendance of servants, and wore an under dress coarse and common; his bed was of straw; his repose short; and in all the details of life, he manifested an utter contempt of personal ease and indulgence*. The immense charities of St. Charles exceed the income and magnificence of sovereigns. In every city in which he had at any time resided, he left some monument of useful munificence; a school, a fountain, an hospital, or a college. Ten of the latter, five of the preceding, and the former without number, still remain at Pavia, Bologna, Milan, and in all the towns of its diocese. Besides these public foundations, he bestowed annually the sum of thirty thousand crowns on the poor, and added to *That uniformity of action, demeanor, and conversation, which constitutes consistency of character, and gives to all stages of life a certain symmetry and unity of design so much admired by the ancients*, was peculiarly conspicuous in St. Charles. He lived only to serve his God, to this grand object he directed his thoughts, actions, and whole being, without one sideling glance at interest or pleasure. *Cicero De Off. lib. 1. 31. it in various cases of public distress during his life the sum of two hundred thousand crowns more, not including numberless extra benefactions conferred upon individuals whose situations claimed peculiar and perhaps secret relief. The funds which supplied these boundless charities were derived partly from his own estates, and partly from his archi-episcopal revenue. The former, as he had no expensive tastes or habits to indulge, were devoted entirely to beneficence; the latter he divided according to the ancient custom into three parts, one of which was appropriated to the building and reparation of churches and edifices connected with them, the second was, allotted to the poor, and the third employed in the domestic expenditure of the bishop. But, of the whole income, the humble and disinterested prelate ordered an account to be submitted annually to the diocesan synod. It is not wonderful that such virtues should have engaged the affection of his flock during his life, and that after his death they should be recollected with gratitude and veneration. The benevolent protestant will not quarrel with the Milanese for supposing that the good pastor at his departure cast an affectionate glance on his beloved flock, non deserens sed respectans*, that the flame of charity still burns in the regions of bliss, that he looks down upon the theatre of his labours and of his virtues with complacency, and that he still continues to offer up his orisons for his once beloved people through the common Lord and Mediator†. Cic. de Sen. + This extraordinary person died at the age of forty-six, not exhausted by his Of the statues crowded in and around this edifice I have already observed, that many are esteemed, and some admired. Of the latter, that of St. Bartholomew is the first; it stands in the church, and represents the apostle, as holding his own skin, which had been drawn off like drapery over his shoulders2 The play of the muscles is represented with an accuracy, that rather disgusts and terrifies than pleases the spectator, The sculptor Agrati may have just reason to compare himself, as the inscription implics, to Praxiteles; but his masterpiece is better calculated for the decoration of a school of anatomy than for the embellishment of a church. The exterior of the chancel is lined with marble divided into pannels, each of which has its basso relievo; the interior is wainscoted, and carved in a very masterly style. The whole of the chancel was erected by St. Charles Borromeo. Two large pulpits stand one on each side of its entrance; that on the right, appropriated to the reading of the gospel, rests upon four bronze figures representing the four mys'reob 25d 167'6 Jut bas 91 id gaiub doolt zid to moitools Khabar 7 bin 900ldig ariw botoollooo1 od bluoda godt labours or austerities as the reader might imagine, nor of the plague to which he exposed himself without precaution or antidote, (excepting the most effectual of all, abstemiousness), but of a violent fever caught in the neighbouring mountains *> He was nephew to the last Medicean Pope, Pius IV. the last Medicean Pope Pius IV and by him he was nominated archbishop of Milan in the twenty-third year of his age. He who reads his life will find few miracles to entertain hini, but will see many virtues which are much better; these virtues have extorted at reluctant compliment from Addison and even from Burnet, and when we consider on the one side the spirit of these writers, and particularly of the latter, and on the other recollect that St. Charles Borromeo was an archbishop, a cardinal, and, what is still worse, a saint, we shall be enabled to give this compliment its full value. だ terious animals of Ezechiel; that on the left is supported by the four doctors of the Latin church in the same metal. But it is not my intention to enumerate all the ornaments of this church, but merely to enable the reader to form a general idea of its magnitude and decorations. When we saw it, its magnificence was on the decline; the income destined for its completion and support had been considerably retrenched by the Emperor Joseph, and was, I believe, entirely confiscated by the French; the archbishopric and chapter were impoverished by exactions and alienations; and thus all the resources that fed the splendor of this grand Metropolis were drained or exhausted. Hence, it seemed to want that neatness and lustre which arise. from great attention and opulence united. Here indeed, as in every territory where the French domineer, appearances of irreligion too often strike the eye; neglected churches and plundered hospitals, Ædesque labentes Deorum et Horace. are frequent spectacles as little calculated to please the sight as to conciliate the judgment, that looks forward with terror to the consequences of such a system of atheism. In fact, the dilapidation of benevolent establishments and the decay of sacred edifices are neither the only nor the worst symptoms of the propagation of French principles. The neglect of education, arising partly from the want of instructors, and partly from the suppression of ancient establishments, and the early depravation of youth that results from it, are already deeply felt and lamented. The lawless example of the French soldiery dispersed over the whole territory, carries vice and impiety into every village, and literally scatters disease and death, both of mind and body, over all this country lately so virtuous and happy. Ille sitim, morbosque ferens mortalibus ægris En. 10. But to return to our subject.-The character of St. Ambrose, the celebrated archbishop of Milan, his eloquence, his firmness, and his political, as well as ecclesiastical influence, are well known; but it is not equally so, that he modelled and regulated the liturgy of his church, and that this liturgy is still in use in the Cathedral, and indeed in most of the capitular and parochial churches of this diocese. The reader, who may perhaps be acquainted with such forms of public prayer only as are of a later invention, will be surprised to hear that the Ambrosian liturgy in the fourth century, was more encumbered, as a protestant would express it, with rites and ceremonies than the Roman is in the nineteenth. It must be remembered that St. Ambrose did not institute or compose the liturgy that now bears his name, for it existed before his time, and was probably cœval with the church of Milan, but that he merely reduced it into better order, and improved it in expression and arrangement. The body of this saint lies, not in the Cathedral, but in an ancient church at a considerable distance from that is now called from him the Basilica Ambrosiana, and is said to have been that in which he generally officiated. Though ancient, |