day more gloomy, a blessing was granted to him which for the last five
years he had ardently desired. The expectation of an heir to the family
of Ponziano filled him and his parents with inexpressible delight.
Francesca, in the meantime, was incessantly occupied in recommending to
God the child she was about to bear; and offered up her every little
act of devotion in its behalf, with the hope of drawing down the Divine
blessing on its future existence. In the same year she was happily
delivered of a son, who was immediately baptised in the church of Santa
Cecilia in Trastevere, and received the name of Giovanni Baptista.
It was not at that time the custom for ladies of rank to nurse their
children; but Francesca set aside all such considerations, and never
consented to forego a mother's sacred privilege. She did not intrust her
child for a moment to the care of others, afraid that, in her absence,
the utterance of unworthy sentiments, bad manners and habits, which even
in infancy may cause impressions not easily eradicated, should taint
with the least evil the heart and mind of her son. It is remarkable how
careful the holy mothers which we read of in the lives of the Saints
appear to have been of the circumstances attending the infancy of their
children,--that period during which we are apt to suppose that no
impressions can be given or received. Are we not perhaps in error
on that point?--As much that we read and apparently forget leaves
notwithstanding a certain deposit in our minds, which comes into play
when called forth by association, so, may not certain sights, sounds,
and words, not understood at the time, impart a certain colour, stamp
certain images on the mind of an infant, which, however dim and
confused, deepen and grow with it as it expands? There have been
curious psychological instances of names, of languages, of dormant
recollections, reawakening as it were under a peculiar condition of the
nervous system, and which could only be traced to impressions received
in the earliest stages of existence.