The Story of My Life Part 56

_June 16th._--Visited Pompeii, and Herculaneum, and Vesuvius. Met with the Jesuit Prefect of Educational Inst.i.tutions; and a Priest from the United States. From the Jesuit I obtained a full account of the educational inst.i.tutions in Naples; from the American Priest much useful information on various subjects. Ascended Mount Vesuvius; when we reached the summit my face was burnt; lava falling all round us--G.o.d of dreadful majesty, who art a "consuming fire!" Beheld here the setting sun--G.o.d of glory who art "the light of the world!" Descending we reached our hotel about midnight; thank G.o.d for His protection and mercy.

_June 18th._--Went to the museum to examine the antiquities of Herculaneum and Pompeii. Left for Leghorn.

_June 20th--Pisa._--Took a coach with two other gentlemen; a beautiful ride of eight hours along the valley of the Arno, from Pisa to Florence. The best cultivated country, and the best looking peasantry I have ever seen; the river walled, and the bridges fine.

_June 24th._--The celebration of the Feast of John the Baptist, commenced by a chariot race, after the fashion of the chariots in the games of the Greeks and Romans.

_June 26th._--The Grand Duke of Tuscany will not allow Jesuits in his dominion; but in Naples the Jesuits are all powerful--confessors to the king and royal family--and that even an artist cannot get employment who has not a Jesuit for a confessor.

_July 19th._--This day I leave Florence after four weeks of study, and acquaintance with its schools, arts and science.

_July 20th--Bologna._--Crossed the Appenines, and had a view of the Adriatic. Visited the Scoules Normali, containing upwards of 1,000 pupils.

_July 23rd._--Left Bologna in a vetturina for Ferrara, in company with a German and two Americans. Ferrara is fallen, forsaken, solitary.

_July 25th._--Crossed the Po in a curious ferry-boat, and entered the Lombardo-Venetian dominions of Austria. Here I met with the first instance in Italy of money not being asked by Custom House officers; every part of the proceeding indicated dignity unknown to the Papal States. Crossed the Adige by a ferry; pa.s.sed through Monselice, near which is the town and castle of Este. North of Este is Argna, or Argnota, where Petrarch retreated, dwelt, and died!

Next pa.s.sed through Battaglia and Padua; on the left is Abano, the birth-place of Livy. Gothic laggia, vast hall, said to be the largest unsupported roof in the world, built by Frate Giovanni; bust and tomb of Livy.

_July 30th._--Came on to Venice, where we spent four days; a wondrous city.

_August 4th._--Have been in Munich nineteen days; visited its museum, churches, elementary schools, &c., &c.; conversed with many professors.

_August 25th._--Left Munich; pa.s.sed through Landsport; arrived at Ratisbon; visited Valhalla; descended the Danube to Linz.

_Sept. 3rd._--The city of Vienna is the most perfect I have seen, in its buildings, streets, gardens, etc.; it would furnish me with materials for a volume were I a writer of travels.

_Sept. 4th._--Came through Bohemia by the first railroad train from Vienna to Prague, where I remained two days. The houses in the villages through which we pa.s.sed, were all of one story, thatched with straw; the peasants wear skins, and women work on the railroads.

_Sept. 5th._--Left Prague in a small steamer for Dresden; visited Dr. Blockman's school; every appurtenance; very complete schools, both public and private. From thence on to Leipsic; visited all the princ.i.p.al buildings; visited the Burgher school, designed for the education of the middle ranks, and those of the upper ranks, if desired.

_Sept. 15th and 16th._--From Leipsic went on to Halle (in Prussia); visited the schools on Franke's Foundations; several farms belong to the establishment; there are six schools, rather small; there are free scholars, orphans, and money scholars. Went to the University.

_Sept. 17th--Wittemburg._--This morning visited the church in which Luther first preached the doctrines of the Reformation, and where both Luther and Melancthon are buried; I ascended the pulpit, and there prayed that the spirit of the Reformation might more abundantly rest upon me; I experienced strong sensations on entering the church; it is a plain building with a few monuments; the statue (bronze) of Luther is in the market-place, with the words:--

"Ist's Gottes Werk, so wird's bestehen; Ist's Menschen, so wird's untergehen."

We then visited the house in which Melancthon lived, now being repaired; Luther's chamber in the convent; his study, with his chair, table, and stove; his library, his bed-room; at his table I knelt and prayed, and renewed my covenant with my G.o.d. I afterwards visited the place where Luther burnt the Pope's Bull.

_Sept. 18th--Berlin._--Employed the day in visiting the great schools of this magnificent city: Frederick William Gymnasium, Dorothean Higher City School, Royal Red School, embracing both the cla.s.sical and scientific departments; went over the establishment.

_Sept. 19th._--Visited the University and Picture Gallery; went through all the apartments of the City Trade School; the collection of apparatus and specimens to carry out the course of instruction is perhaps the most complete in Prussia, in schools of this cla.s.s.

_Sept. 20th._--Potsdam--a magnificent place; went into the Court, and visited several of the rooms of the Royal Military School--a n.o.ble establishment; visited the Normal School; witnessed the teaching of two of the pupil-teachers,--both used the blackboard, and both appeared thorough masters of what they were teaching, using no books,--other pupil-teachers were looking on; never saw a finer cla.s.s of young men.

_Sept. 23rd._--Berlin. Dined with the British Amba.s.sador, and had an interview with the Prussian Minister of Public Instruction; witnessed the semi-annual parade of the Prussian army--more than 10,000 men; saw also the King of Prussia and the Empress of Russia.

_Sept. 24th._--Hanover. Pa.s.sed through several townships; visited the Palace; saw the gold and silver plate, much of which belonged to former British Sovereigns; visited Herrenhausen, favourite residence of George I. and II. of England.

_Sept. 28th._--Cologne. Visited Cathedral and Churches; saw the tomb of Charlemagne, and the house in which Rubens was born.

_Oct. 1st._--Bonn. Saw the University buildings; saw the great Catholic Normal School, at Bright.

_Oct. 2nd._--Mayence. Ascended the Rhine from Bonn,--embracing all the magnificent scenery of this celebrated river.

_Oct. 3rd._--Visited Wiesbaden, capital of Hesse-Ca.s.sel; went to Frankfort; visited Burgher School there, 700 children. Birth-place and monument of Goethe.

_Oct. 5th._--Strasburg. Left Frankfort; pa.s.sed through Darmstadt; heard two sermons in French, and one in German; visited the magnificent Cathedral, and Normal School.

_Oct. 7th._--Zurich. Came to Bale yesterday; arrived here this morning; visited the great Cantonal Industrial School--n.o.ble building.

_Oct. 8th._--Cargon. Obtained much information from the director of the Gymnase, Real and Higher Burgher School here.

_Oct. 9th._--Berne. Travelled through a mountainous and picturesque country to Papiermuhle; walked three miles to the celebrated school of M. de Fallenberg; had the whole system explained--gymnasium, real, intermediate, poor, and limited to the number of thirty; dined at the Agricultural School,--situated on a gentle hill, in the midst of the valley of Switzerland, surrounded by mountains,--I have been abundantly repaid in spending a whole day in surveying such an establishment.

_Oct. 11th._--Lausanne. Fine view of the Alps; visited the garden where Gibbon finished his History on the rise and fall of the Roman Empire.

_Oct. 12th._--Geneva. Arrived here in heavy rain; attended three services; visited the tomb of Sir H. Davy; had a fine view of Mt.

Blanc; left for Paris.

CHAPTER XLV.

1844-1857.

Episode in Dr. Ryerson's European Travels.--Pope Pius IX.

One of the many episodes in my European travels which I have been requested by many to narrate led to my presentation to Pope Pius IX., and is as follows:--

On my arrival in England on my first educational tour, near the end of 1844, I was invited to a Christmas dinner party at the house of an English clergyman, where I was introduced to a young Russian n.o.bleman, by the name of Dunjowski, who had attended lectures in several German universities, and came to England to learn the English language, in which he soon became a proficient. During his residence in England he became acquainted with a number of distinguished men, n.o.blemen and others; among whom were the late Rev. Dr. Chalmers. This young Russian n.o.bleman, having learned that I was on a tour of investigation of the educational inst.i.tutions of Europe, proposed before the close of the evening to join me in investigating the educational inst.i.tutions of western and central Europe, with a view to his writing an account of them on his return to St. Petersburg. I accepted his proposal; and in the course of a few weeks we commenced our tour through Holland and Belgium to Paris, of which some account will be found in the extracts from my Journal in the preceding Chapter.

At Paris my Russian friend conceived the idea of attending another course of lectures on some branch of Roman law at Tubigen. We parted, but he changed his mind, and instead of attending an additional course of lectures in a German university, he proceeded to Rome. A few weeks after my arrival there, I felt a tap on my shoulder at the dinner table, and, on looking up, I recognized my young Russian friend, who was already speaking Italian, with as much fluency as he had spoken English, French, and German, when we parted at Paris six weeks before.

We renewed our travels together, after having completed our tour of Rome, with its antiquities and inst.i.tutions; we proceeded to Naples by stage, where we spent several days in examining its College of n.o.bles and other educational inst.i.tutions, including its antiquities of Herculaneum and Pompeii, Vesuvius, etc. In the College of n.o.bles we met an American Priest, who was President of the Roman Catholic College at Georgetown, near Washington, and invited him to take a seat in our carriage the next day on an excursion to Herculaneum and Pompeii. In the course of the day a religious discussion took place between the American Priest and the Russian, who was very fond of controversy. I took no part in it, but I thought the Priest had rather the best of it. The result was, my Russian friend was persuaded to go into a house of retirement near Rome, and devote some weeks to solitary prayer, fasting, and meditation. I never afterwards saw him or heard from him for eleven years, though I remonstrated with him, and wrote him from Florence, entreating him to reconsider what he was doing; but he said that what I spoke and wrote rather confirmed him in his course, than diverted him from it.

When making my third educational tour on the Continent of Europe, I was, with my daughter, at Munich, in Bavaria, about the beginning of 1857, and while at dinner at our hotel, I felt two hands placed upon my shoulders; on looking up, I recognized, notwithstanding his present dress, my old friend, Dunjowski, who embraced and kissed me as a brother. After dinner we retired to the parlour, and talked over the past. I asked him what he had been doing these eleven years, how he had become transformed from a Russian n.o.bleman, scholar, and lawyer, into a Roman Catholic priest, in full canonicals. He told me that after we separated at Naples, eleven years before, he went into a house of retirement at Rome, and by prayer, fasting, and meditation, devoted himself to G.o.d and His Church, without reserve of rank, fortune, or country; that he had ultimately decided to be a Catholic; that he had studied theology four years in France; that he had been appointed a Missionary to the North, and had been some years a Missionary to the Lapps, and had preached before the Kings of Denmark and Sweden; that he was then Missionary Apostolic to all the Catholic Missions in Europe and America, north of lat.i.tude 60; and that he might yet visit Canada. This extraordinary man had mastered the languages of the various countries in which he had travelled and laboured, and gave my daughter specimens of his writing in twenty-seven different languages. I never knew a man of more disinterestedness, more devotion, and singleness of purpose, than Mr. Dunjowski. He was up and out at prayers to his church before five o'clock, in the terribly cold mornings the last of December and the beginning of January, in one of the coldest capitals of Europe.

On the other hand he asked me what I had been doing during the last eleven years. I replied that I had devised and brought into operation a system of public instruction, which had been approved by the Government and Legislature, and by the people at large, whom I had consulted, in the several counties of Upper Canada. He wished to know what I had done in respect to his co-religionists. I shewed him the provisions of our School Act, and the Regulations founded upon it in respect to Roman Catholics in Upper Canada. My Russian friend thought that nothing could be more just and fair than these clauses of the law and regulations, and requested permission to shew them to the Pope's Nuncio (an Italian Archbishop), at the Court of Bavaria. The Pope's Nuncio was so pleased with them, that he requested the loan of them until he got them translated into German, and published in the Bavarian newspapers, to shew how fairly the Roman Catholics were treated under the Protestant Government of Upper Canada. The Pope's Nuncio afterwards desired me to call upon him; and during the interview, after some complimentary remarks, requested me to be the bearer of a medal from the King of Bavaria to Cardinal Antonelli, at Rome. I readily accepted the honour and the office, and found the Pope's arms and seal a ready pa.s.sport when I got in a tight place among the avaricious Italian Custom House officers.

Dr. Ryerson thus describes his interview with Pope Pius IX.:

On my arrival at Rome I duly delivered my letters of introduction, and the King of Bavaria's medal to Cardinal Antonelli who received me with the utmost courtesy, offered me every facility to get pictures copied by my own selection at Rome, and proposed, if acceptable to me, to present me to His Holiness the Pope. I readily accepted the attentions and honours offered me; but told the Cardinal that I had a young daughter, and young lady companion of hers, whom I should wish to accompany me; His Excellency said, "By all means."

On the day appointed we went to the Vatican. Several foreign dignitaries were waiting in an ante-room for an audience with the Pope, but the Methodist preacher received precedence of them all.

"Are you a clergyman?" asked the Chancellor, who conducted me to the Pope's presence; "I am a Wesleyan minister," I replied. "Ah!

John Wesley. I've heard of him," said the Chancellor, as he shrugged his shoulders in surprise that a heretic should be so honoured above orthodox sons of the Church. We were then in due form introduced to the Pope, who received us most courteously, and stood up and shook hands with me and with whom I conversed (in French) for nearly a quarter of an hour; during the conversation His Holiness thanked me for the fairness and kindness with which he understood I had treated his Catholic children in Canada. Before the close of the interview, His Holiness turned to the young ladies (each of whom had a little sheet of note paper in their hands) and said, "My children, what is that you have in your hands?" The girls curtsied respectfully, and told His Holiness that they brought these sheets of paper in hopes His Holiness would have the condescension and kindness to give them his autograph. He smiled, and wrote in Latin the benediction: "Grace, mercy, and peace from G.o.d our Father, and Jesus Christ our Lord," and then kindly gave them also the pen with which it was written.