It may perhaps be surmised, that the authors referred to in the last section lived many years ago, and that the sentiments of the faithful members of the Church of Rome have undergone material changes on these points.  Assurances are given on every side, that the invocation of the saints and of the Virgin is nothing more than a request, that they would intercede with God, and implore his mercy for the suppliants.  But whatever implicit reliance we may place on the good faith with which these declarations are made, we can discover no new key by which to interpret the forms of prayer and praise satisfactorily.  Confessedly there are no changes in the authorized services.  We discover no traces of change in the worship of private devotion.  The Breviary and Missal contain the same offices of the Virgin Mary as in former days.  The same sentiments are expressed towards her in public; the same forms of devotion[143], both in prayer and praise, are prepared for the use of individuals in their daily exercises.  Whatever meaning is to be attached to the expressions employed, the prevailing expressions themselves remain the same as we found them to have been in past ages.

    [Footnote 143:  Works of this character abound in every place,
    where Catholic books may be purchased.]

Since I made these extracts from the learned and celebrated doctors and canonized saints of former ages, my attention has been invited to the language now {381} used in forms of devotion, the spirit of which implies similar views of the power and love of the Virgin Mary, as the fountain of mercies to mankind, and the dispenser of every heavenly blessing.

At the head of these modern works, I was led to read over again the encyclical letter of the present sovereign pontiff, from the closing sentences of which I have already made extracts.  And referring his words to a test which we have more than once applied in a similar case—­that of changing the name of the person, and substituting the name of God, or his blessed Son, I cannot see how the spirit of his sentiments falls in the least below the highest degree of religious worship.  His words, in the third paragraph of his letter, as they appear in the Laity’s Directory for 1833, are these:—­

“But having at length taken possession of our see in the Lateran Basilic according to the custom and institution of our predecessors, we turn to you without delay, venerable brethren, and in testimony of our feelings towards you, we select for the date of our letter this most joyful day on which we celebrate the solemn festival of the most blessed Virgin’s triumphant assumption into heaven, that she who has been through every great calamity our patroness and protectress, may WATCH OVER US WRITING TO YOU, AND LEAD OUR MIND BY HER HEAVENLY INFLUENCE to those counsels which may prove most salutary to Christ’s flock.”