Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
same period , and still more strikingly at the close of the preceding century ^ while , in the departments of literary and philosophical inquiry , Florence boasted a list of names superior perhaps to those of any other capital of Europe , theological inquiry seemed not even to be dreamed of ; and the purest taste and noblest powers of reasoning stooped , unconscious of degradation , to the task of adorning and spreading the fame of the waking
dreams , and puerile fables , and preposterous dogmas of the Church . To afford a single specimen , Anton Maria Salvini , —a natural philosopher and critic , one of the most elegant scholars of his age , bound by no ties of professional attachment to the church , —a distinguished ornament of the Accademia delta Crusca , whose name and motto might have suggested to him to * ' sift the chaff from the wheat "—of the Accademia del Cimento , i . e . of experiment and proof , —and of that of the . / Ipatisti , or Apathists , ( dispassionate
inquirers after truth , )—Anton Maria Salvini , as a member of one of those religious confraternities of laymen of which we shall presently have occasion to speak , having to pronounce an oration on the anniversary day of St . Nicolas , Bishop of Mira , " prostrating himself , " as he expresses himself , " at the tomb of his admirable saint , " implores of him " that he would pour a flood of eloquence on the lips of the orator , in like manner as his venerable bones 1
annually distilled miraculous oil . * Professing himself quite oppressed with the multiplicity of the miracles he had with too much presumption under- * taken to commemorate , he goes on to remark , " and indeed the causing massive columns of stone to perform voyages ( viaggare ) on the waters , to recall to life the defunct , to reunite the minutest atoms of bodies torn in
pieces , and infuse into them renewed existence and activity , to rule the elements and act the Lord over nature fsignioreggiarej , are indeed convincing demonstrations of his being full of nature ' s Great Author . " This saint , according to his eulogist , appears to have begun to perform prodigies betimes , for , " not being as yet able to stand on his feet , on hearing the gospel read ,
by an impulse of grace which had pre-elected him , he stood upon his feet - " 9 and , as " a marvellous lesson to us , on stated days of the week on which the church intimates to us the duty of abstinence , while yet in his cradle , he voluntarily fasted "—that is to say , he refused his mother ' s milk on Fridays and Saturdays !
The reader will suppose Salvini meant to turn St . Nicolas and other saints of the same description into ridicule ; yet the solemnity of the occasion and his amiable simplicity ( which distinguished him no less than his learning and critical acuteness on subjects on which he allowed himself to employ this latter quality ) forbid this supposition . If , in the literary history of Italy , we find Atheism laughing in purple sleeves and sneering under the triple crown , it abounds likewise in examples of cultivated minds bowing in dishonourable bondage beneath the sceptre of superstition .
The desire of Ricci to devote his days to religious retirement , being communicated to his relatives , met with a decided refusal ; as their views of family aggrandizement through his means would thus have been entirely frustrated . He was recalled to Florence , and in order to divert him from forming an undue attachment to the Jesuits , and prosecuting his scheme of seclusion , he was sent to pursue his theological studies under the Benedictine Monks , whose principles , although veiled From their pupils , through prudential motives , partook much more of the Jansenian than of the Jesuitical school . After ten years of unremitted study , Ricci received ordination in 1766 , and from his high connexions was immediately appointed a Canon of the cathedral of Florence , and Auditor of the Nunciature for the Tuscan
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1828, page 441, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2562/page/9/
