Temple and altar, charity and pity, and
martyrdom, sunk before that.
I have seen the magnificence of all ceremonial in worship; and this was
the thought that struck me then. Permit me to describe the scene, and to
express the thought that rose in my mind, as I gazed upon it. It was in
the great cathedral church of the world; and it brings a kind of religious
impression over my mind to recall its awfulness and majesty. Above, far
above me, rose a dome, gilded and covered with mosaic pictures, and vast
as the pantheon of old Rome; the four pillars which supported it, each of
them as large as many of our churches; and the entire mass, lifted to five
times the height of this building--its own height swelling far beyond; no
dome so sublime but that of heaven was ever spread above mortal eye. And
beyond this dome, beneath which I stood, stretched away into dimness and
obscurity the mighty roofing of this stupendous temple--arches behind
arches, fretted with gold, and touched with the rays of the morning sun.
Around me, a wilderness of marble; with colors, as variegated and rich as
our autumnal woods; columns, pillars, altars, tombs, statues, pictures set
in ever-during stone; objects to strike the beholder with neverceasing
wonder.
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