and impose penances; that with the young men and the latter-day thinkers
they are men of the world, and pass off pleasant sins as trifles. All the
students of the government schools are obliged by law to confess twice a
month, and are given printed certificates of confession, in blank, which
the confessor fills up and stamps with the seal of the Church. Most of
them go to confess at the church of the Jesuits, who are glad to hear the
cock-and-bull story invented by the student, and to cultivate his
friendship by an easy penance and a liberal tone. This ingenuous young man
of course despises the confessional. He goes to confess because the law
obliges him to do so; but the law cannot dictate what he must confess.
Therefore, he ventures as near downright burlesque as he dares, and (if
the account he gives of the matter be true) puts off his confessor with
some well-known fact, as that he has blasphemed. Of course he has
blasphemed, blasphemy being as common as the forms of salutation in
Venice. So the priest, who wishes him to come again, and to found some
sort of influence over him, says,--"Oh dear, dear! This is very bad.
Blasphemy is deadly sin. If you _must_ swear, swear by the heathen
gods: say Body of Diana, instead of Body of God; Presence of the Devil,
instead of Blood of Mary. Then there is no harm done." The students laugh
over the pleasant absurdity together, and usually agree upon the matter of
their semimonthly confessions beforehand.

As I have hinted, the young men do not love the government or the Church,
and though I account for the loss of much high hope and generous sympathy
in growth from youth to middle age, I cannot see how, when they have
replaced their fathers, the present religious and political discontent is
to be modified. Nay, I believe it must become worse. The middle-aged men
of Venice grew up in times of comparative quiet, when she did not so much
care who ruled over her, and negatively, at least, they honored the
Church. They may now hate the foreign rule, but there are many