Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. I.djvu/432

448 to the Evangelical church, by La Buona Novella. The Waldenses church does infinitely much for Italy, as an evidence of the light which it possesses through the diffusion of the Holy Scriptures, and which is continually increasing, as in Piedmont so in Tuscany, and that above all from its really evangelical Christianity. The evidence of the life and the character is above every other. The gospel doctrine of grace has none higher, and the intellect requires it at which to kindle its light.

, October 19th.—I left the valleys amidst rain and cold; in rain and cold I came hither, and in rain and cold I am now sitting here. But I have good quarters in the Pension Suisse, and the best of all is, that, spite of a fatiguing journey through a country very little visited, lying between the valley of San Martino and Turin, I find myself perfectly well.

Traveling for hours on foot in pouring rain, arriving at night in cold quarters, in little miserable towns, where the filthiness exceeds all description; and where, instead of tea, you are presented with a sort of poisonous decoction from the apothecary, and are besides preyed upon by every kind of sharper;—that is the fate of the traveler every now and then, and he must take it in the bargain for all the good and beautiful which his life of travel affords him in other respects. One must be thankful, if one keeps one's life, health, and one's luggage; and so I am!

My first ramble in Turin—when the weather would allow me to ramble at all—was to the banks of the Po. The great river poured along its turbulent waters, broad, and of a dirty-brown, in long sweeps