Transcribed from the 1890 Longmans, Green, and Co. edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org [Picture: Book cover] [Picture: “Il Vecchietto.” By Tabachetti] EX VOTO: AN ACCOUNT OF _The Sacro Monte or New Jerusalem_ _at Varallo-Sesia_ WITH SOME NOTICE OF TABACHETTI’S REMAINING WORK AT THE SANCTUARY OF CREA. BY SAMUEL BUTLER, AUTHOR OF “ALPS AND SANCTUARIES,” “EREWHON,” ETC. “Il n’a a que deux ennemis de la religion—le trop peu, et le trop; et des deux le trop est mille fois le plus dangereux.”—L’ABBÉ MABILLON, 1698. OP. 9. LONDON LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. AND NEW YORK: 15 EAST 16th STREET. 1890. _All rights reserved_. * * * * * AI VARALLESI E VALSESIANI L’AUTORE RICONOSCENTE. * * * * * PREFACE. THE illustrations to this book are mainly collotype photographs by Messrs. Maclure, Macdonald & Co., of Glasgow. Notwithstanding all their care, it cannot be pretended that the result is equal to what would have been obtained from photogravure; I found, however, that to give anything like an adequate number of photogravures would have made the book so expensive that I was reluctantly compelled to abandon the idea. As these sheets leave my hands, my attention is called to a pleasant article by Miss Alice Greene about Varallo, that appeared in _The Queen_ for Saturday, April 21, 1888. The article is very nicely illustrated, and gives a good idea of the place. Of the Sacro Monte Miss Greene says:—“On the Sacro Monte the tableaux are produced in perpetuity, only the figures are not living, they are terra-cotta statues painted and moulded in so life-like a way that you feel that, were a man of flesh and blood to get mixed up with the crowd behind the grating, you would have hard work to distinguish him from the figures that have never had life.”