for them the pledge of the presence of the Holy Ghost, and hence illuminations play the most important part in the ceremonies of the Russo-Greek Church.

Incomprehensible

and solitary, like all that is great and true, rises the Minster of Strasburg. At its principal entrance stands Erwin's statue, the figure of Justice. On the opposite side of the church is the portal on which is the Martyrdom of St. Laurentius, within an arbor, as it were, of stone, open all around, and full

spection. In this small balcony we are suspended like swallows against the mathematical monument. On one of the lower galleries an angel, guarded by lions which formerly roared, and holding a

of hanging grape

vines. In the prin

cipal entrance on

the left are wise vir

gins with their lamps innocent and simple; on the right are saints

with demons or evil spirits under their

heels. On the one gate are angels above angels; on the other, martyrs. As we look up and down, and contemplate the countless images of stone in their niches, their stiffened lips loosen; we seem to hear their voices; the whole pile becomes melody, and the swell of separate tones melt into one gigantic symphony. The great clock, the

INTERIOR ST. JOHN LATERAN, ROME.

curiosity of medieval times, is striking the twelfth hour! This clock was adapted by the aged mathematician Schwilgue to the present state of science, and we will ascend the small winding staircase which leads into its four stories, for a closer in

sceptre and bells in its hands, strikes the quarters, and another turns round the hourglass. In an upper space the four ages of life then step forward; the child strikes the first quarter with its thyrsus upon a bell, the youth strikes the half hour with

his arrow, the armed warrior the third quarter with his sword, and the old man the fourth with his crutch; then Death appears and strikes the hour with his bone; and as the sound of the last stroke dies away, the figure of Christ comes forward in a yet higher story, and raises its right arm as for a blessing; the twelve apostles, one after the other, pass before him, and in passing incline themselves before the Saviour, who, in conclusion, gives his blessing to the spectators. Their eyes, in the meanwhile, turn to the cock, who proudly sits high up in a small tower; he flaps his wings, stretches out his head and his tail, ruffles his neck, and thrice his shrill crowing sounds loud and clear.

Among the old paintings which adorn the case of the clock one of the most conspicuous is the portrait of Copernicus, according to whose system the planetarium which is over the gallery of the lions is erected. At the moment when Galileo was condemned, the scientific men of Strasburg protested against the judgment, and erected a monument to the Polish astronomer in this astral clock, which, like a trophy of truth, is placed in the sanctuary.

The exhibition being concluded, let us step into the interior of the astronomical works, which are wound up once in eight days, and in which endless combinations of wheels are revolving in perfect silence. A solemn and mysterious sensation seizes upon one here as if he were in the worship of the spirits of the hours. The conception is certainly a lofty one, that of showing forth the whole structure of the heavens. Behold that small wheel, the only purpose of which is to make a 2 take the place of a 1 when the second thousand years of the Christian era shall have elapsed! Often on New Year's night the whole is illuminated -the interior also-and all the aisles are crowded with spectators.

- Many think that the cathedral at Milan surpasses all in magnificent effect; but the one at Strasburg can certainly boast of the highest spire in the world. This spire looks like a network of iron, so delicate is its construction: the perfect state in which it now is shows that the stone and work were both good. This spire is 440 feet higher than St. Paul's, and 24 higher than the great Pyramid. It was designed by Erwin, of Steinbach; he died in 1318. The work was continued by his son, and then by his daughter; but

it was a long time after their death before it was completed. The façade is very elaborate and very fine; it looks as if a network had been wrought over the walls, which is in fact the case, looking like cast-iron, so sharp are all the little stone columns still. In this front is a beautiful circular window, forty-eight feet in diameter, filled, as well as all the other windows, with rich painted glass. The doorways, as before stated, are full of ornaments, statues and statuettes, but all seem in harmony; the outside bristles with pinnacles; the inside is grand and majestic with its rich Gothic columns, while the beautiful painted windows give a charm to it different from almost anything we have ever seen. This famous minster was begun in 1018.

Strasburg has always been a busy town. It is noted for its patés de foies gras. Do you know what that is? A goose's liver swelled to a monstrous size. The bird is kept in a pen in which it is impossible to turn round, and fed and stuffed. In this way the liver attains its great size, and then the bird is killed.

The cathedral at Rheims is another splendid Gothic edifice; in fact it is called the finest shrine of masonry north of the Alps. It was begun in 1212; the towers are not yet finished, and are to be crowned by open-work spires. The façade, or principal front, is exceedingly fine; though full of ornament, statues and statuettes, there is remarkable unity of design throughout, and it has been said that not one was an after-thought-that the artist worked the whole out in his brain first, and then caused it to be done in stone. There is one grand porch, and another smaller on each side. Then above the main door are two superb rose windows, a small one, and a large one above it more than forty feet in diameter, filled with the most brilliant painted glass. The length of the building is 466 feet, and height 121. The inte rior is simple compared to the florid style of the exterior, but there is much grandeur in the fine large nave.

Rheims is the metropolitan see of France, and the place of coronation of the French kings from the time of Philip Augustus to that of Charles X, with the exception of Henry IV and Louis XVIII. It is said to have been selected for this distinction because it was the place of deposit of the Santa Ampoule, or holy flask of oil brought by a dove from heaven to St. Remi, as he was about to bap

tize Clovis, in 496! The revolutionists destroyed this, among other precious relics; but a small portion is said to have been saved, and is now in safe keeping. The church at St. Rheims is an ancient edifice, begun in 1048. The length is 550 feet. The choir is a beautiful Gothic. Rheims is the headquarters of the champagne manufacturers, but their vaults are mostly at Epernay, 25 miles from there, on the main line of the railway.

The marvelous impressiveness of the cathedral at Milan is due to no one thing alone, but to the combination of perfection of form, grandeur in proportion, and beauty

in coloring. It is not so much the awe one feels in the presence of a struc

ture so great that we marvel how it could ever have been built, as a thought of the countless

multitudes, all gone now, whose hands helped to rear it through at least fifteen complete generations.

Add to the builders the worshipers, the strangers, the idlers, who, for five hundred years, have made it a shrine for their prayers and their pilgrimages; "think what sorrows and joys have gone up with the incense; think of the lives that have received the baptismal touch on baby brows,-that have knelt here for confession and

LEANING TOWER AND CATHEDRAL AT PISA.

worship, that have come here crowned for bridals or for burial, and the secret of the peculiar sacredness begins to unfold itself."

Let us pass up the broad steps of the porch, and raising the heavy folds of the wide curtain that

swings before the largest of the five portals, enter the great, sombre, solemn temple. There is no sound save a faint, far-off murmur of voices or footsteps. The scattered people only make the spaces

seem vaster; yet the mighty multitudes who have come and gone seem to throng it, and the place takes on a peculiar sacredness and sense of consecration rarely realized even in other cathedrals that can claim the same antiquity.

The

This noble minster was planned and begun in 1386. It is not finished to-day. Men of every generation have taken the places of the previous ones, and so the work has come on to its present apparent perfection. Much still remains to be done. It was begun by Galeazzo Visconti, who yielded up his booty from victorious wars, and even his jewels and precious personal treasures, for it. The gifts that flowed into the coffers of the church at first were far greater that could be used. The quarries of Condaglio furnished enormous supplies of the purest marble for the work. form was that of a cross, the nave 450 feet long, and the floor contains 110,000 square feet. The side altars were an after-thought, marring and belittling the severe simplicity of the original plan, which proposed only the one grand altar. The smaller altars have no lack of adornment by way of pictures and statuary, little of which is of the highest type of art of its period. Nearly all of it is designed as memorials of the distinguished dead. A subterranean passage, not used at present, leads to the palace of the archbishop. The tomb of San Carlo Borromeo, in a little chapel of San Carlo, attracts many strangers, as does also the slab that covers the grave of the Cardinal Borromeo, the "Promessi Sposi" immortalized by Manzoni. San Carlo's tomb is behind the high altar, and under the choir. The little chapel is nearly as gorgeous as the chapel of the tomb in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, with swinging lamps of gold and silver, and the value of more than four million of francs is said to be contained within its walls in jewels and precious metals. This chapel or cave is most carefully guarded. Behind a strong screen may be seen still the coffin, said to be of pure gold, incased in crystal, furnished for San Carlo at the expense of Philip IV. of Spain; and in this coffin, wrapped still in priestly vestments and blazing with precious stones, lies the body of the saint, the yellow face looking of the texture of leather or parch

ment.

Magnificent as is the church in the interior, the exterior is still more wonderful. Time was when it was surrounded with dwellings and shops that pressed so closely upon it as to injure the effect; but all these have been removed, and all the streets approaching it now terminate in a wide plaza, making on every side a broad margin for this wonder of architectural beauty. Never was church built

before in which as great carefulness was used to make the outside as perfect in every particular as that within. It is in moonlight that every delicate outline comes out clearly. We are awed to silence by the grandeur of its beauty when the round moon spreads a soft vail over it, transfigur ing it into something seemingly beyond the work of human hands. Then the two thousand statues with which the top of the cathedral is adorned seemed to occupy some far-away world of their

own.

Pisa, famous for its leaning tower, is reached by an hour's ride from Leghorn, and is one of the most interesting places in Europe. The cathedral, baptistery and campanile, or tower, stands in a line extending a distance of twelve hundred feet or more. The cathedral is built of white and buff marble, laid in alternate courses, and is pro fusely ornamented within and without. In elabo rate minute sculpture and painting it has no equal out of Rome, if we except the exquisite cathedral at Milan, just described. The cathedral at Pisa especially rich in mosaics. The 'uilding stands on the site of a villa of Hadrian; and a spectator placed in the centre, and looking toward the high altar, sees in the one view the three celebrated styles of mosaics; in the floor (which is said to have been also the floor of the villa) is the Roman mosaic; in the encasement of the altar or chance is the Florentine; and in the ceiling above is the Byzantine in portraits of Christ, St. John and the Virgin. The dome has a striking and well-exe cuted fresco illustration of the joy in heaven over a sinner that repenteth. The Coronation of the Virgin in the north transept is an exquisite piece of sculpture, consisting of a group of three figures of life size, cut in one block of marble; and within the enclosure of the choir is a Corinthian columg which is said to be the handsomest column in the world. It is about twelve feet high; the shaft of red porphery, and the capital of Carrara marb wrought by Michael Angelo. The principal door of the cathedral are of bronze of very ancient work manship, and represent the history of the Virgin The great bronze lamp, whose swinging motio first suggested to Galileo the theory of the pendu lum, still hangs in the nave of this church, an recalls the fearful and stupid persecutions which science was compelled to undergo in his day the hands of the mistaken interpreters of the divine revelation.

The Baptistery at Pisa is a separate building from the cathedral, circular in form, 150 feet in diameter, and 160 feet high. Its interior is not ..unlike an amphitheatre, in

the middle of which is a large cistern; large enough for the immersion of adults, and outside of this are four small jar-shaped fonts for the immersion of infants. Such at least is the explanation, though it seems a little like the wit of the fellow in the story, who made a large hole in his house to admit his cat, and a smaller one for the kittens. Both are splendidly useless structures, as the Roman Catholic Church does not baptize by immersion. A gallery or second story surrounds the interior of the building, and the walls above are hung with full-length portraits of distinguished men. The Sacristan who conducts people through the building calls. attention to a remarkable echo, brought out by sounding in succession several notes of the metrical scale, which are sent back in beautiful melodies, like the voices of a well-balanced choir in singing.

The great Leaning Tower is the principal attraction in Pisa. It is the tower and belfry of the cathedral, built apart from the latter, after a fashion of the eleventh century. It is nearly as high as Bunker Hill Monument, and is built in stories like a house, with corridors outside, and is surmounted by

a chime of very heavy bells. The inclination of the tower is fifteen feet from the perpendicular. Whether this inclination was designed, or has been caused by its immense weight upon

so small a base without lateral support, is a mooted question; but the majority think it was designed. What could lead to so singular a

ANTWERP CATHEDRAL.

fancy? There are other leaning towers in Italy; two at Bologna, but less notable than this at Pisa; and at Venice it is rare to find one that is perpendicular, though all were originally built so. The