Yet It's
Remarkable About These Old-Time Cathedrals, That While Their Is Every
Grand And Solemn Effect Of Architecture, There Is Also Always An
Abundance Of Subordinate Parts, Mean, Tawdry, Revolting, Just Like The
Whole System They Represent.
Out of this beautiful choir I wanted to
tear all the tinsel fixtures on its altar, except two very good
pictures, and leave it in it noble simplicity.
I remarked here a black oak chandelier, which the guide said was taken
from the cathedral of Cologne. It was the very perfection of Gothic
carving, and resembled frostwork in its lightness. The floor of the
cathedral was covered with effigies in stone, trod smooth by the feet
of worshippers; so we living ones are ever walking above the dead,
though we do not always, as here, see the outward sign thereof.
From the cathedral we passed out, and stopped a moment to examine the
adjoining church, now deserted, but whose three graceful spires have a
peculiar beauty. After a turn upon the platform we descended, and
drove to the Augustine Convent, now used as an orphan asylum. We
ascended through a court yard, full of little children, by some steps
into a gallery, where a woman came out with her keys. We passed first
into a great hall, the walls of which were adorned with Holbein's
Dance of Death.
From this hall we passed into Luther's room - a little cell, ten feet
square; the walls covered with inscriptions from his writings. There
we saw his inkstand, his pocket Testament, a copy of the Bible that
was presented to him, (by whom I could not understand,) splendidly
bound and illuminated.
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