Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1863-08-07
NO. 10.

the marvels You live in Egypt and walk \
in the temples. You stand in Crock halls. (
You see the affairs and statues, the Parthe. \
non, the frezes, the gods. You enter a Ro-
man dwelling. All is reproduced rs in the
days Of Augustus. You stand in the gor-
geous Alhambra, in pompeiian house, in
the Byzantine court, in the Norman, the
carly English, the full Gothic buildings
or courts. The illusion is complete
Time is dead. The old has came back, /
and is new. Nay, distance is ended
You seem to be in different ages and widely 4
different countries all at the very same time.
You loose your identity, whether you arc +
ancient or NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. you are at 4
Athens, or Rome, or Byzantium, you can.
not tel. Or is it q gorgeous dream! Is
this some sorceress kaleidoscope, whose
every turn rattl.s the clements of various z
ages and countries into strange conjunc-
tions?
The illusion is increased by the unity Of {
all climates in the vegetable kingdom Under /
this glass hemisphere the temperate and tor. \
rid zones dwell together in peace. There il
room for everything. AS you stand at ono
end, you look down through a crystal aisle (
more than sixteen hundred feet and over i
this long, luminous path there is no roof un- /
til you rise a hundred and seventy -four feet
in tie center, and a hundred and ten on e.
ther side OF it. Along this vast track are
gather the rarest vegetable productions OF
the globe, growing in soil, or mir or water
Vines cover the iron columns, and spread {
out their lilmy branches along the connecting
rods. Huge pendant baskets filed with (
trailing plants, swing in the air at heights
that hide their support, and cause them to 7
seem se!fsuppor,ed. Marble lined reservoirs
of water artticaly heated, are covered with /
acquatic lilies. From step to step, all the
way down, you come upon the most magnif.
icently grown shrubs and plants and trees.
| They line the whole long interior, so that
you imagine yourself looking down mn ave.
nue. OF some ex raordinarv forest, filed with
under growth, shrubs, vines, and mosscs.-
Out of these green mosses, at every step, peep
the most exquisite creations Of art. There
are casts of almost every renowned or beau.
tful statue in Europe, arranged in long sc.
quence. All the sculpture that you have
ever seen in engravings, read in books, heard
| of in conversation, meets you in this palace
of miracles. The treasures nre endless, You
cannot in day even glance at them. You
leave more things unseen than you look up.
On. Every step opens recesses full Of won
ders. Picture galleries Row along the sides
as if they would never end. The portrait
gallery presents you with almost every his
toric face. Do you need to read of these
things? Turn aside into the library with
thousands OF volumes. Sit down IN the
reading room, which, though several thous.
and people are threading the building is as
quiet as if it were a lonesome bower in the
woods! Or arc you tired in eye and foot :
Sit down and listen to very noble band that
yonaer is rendering classic music skilfully.
This marvellous va'io'y gives you rest by
change. Ii sculpture fails, there is archi-
lecture; and of that variety running ,hro'
all the schools of time. Are you weary of
this? Try color on the canvas. Do you
weary Of this Win you take a walk around
marble bound lakes, or among palms and g-
gau;ic ferns, or among Glove and cinnamon,
pepper and ginger, ten and coffee plants! Or
would you rid yourself Of companyp Co
out into the grounds. By some one Of tho
walks you can in moment be hidden in Sc
cluded, lcafy covers, or you may seek the
lake and artificial island, and see the geolog-
cal periods represented in strata, and the
ante diIuvian animals reproduced in form, ifs
not in life. From some such stroll return.
ed and dincd. | could not make up my
mind whether was al Egyptian dining in
Cairo with tie old Copts, or Greek, or q
|
| was Yankee, eating stout English beef
and pastry.
| This duty done, We 60 now to the Ranais-
sancc Court to see the statues by Michael An.
gcio! Here are Day md Night with julius
de Medici sitting noble above and between
them. Opposite is Dawn and Twilight with
| Lorenzo de Mediei sublimcly thoughtful be-
! tween them. There is the slave, opposite to
| it the Madonna and child, n Pieta, a Christ,
but most grand Of all, the Moses These ars
of the full size Of the originals, and fill you
with more pleasure and wonder since they
are gathered into one grand company and
| fill the whole air with the spirit of their ar.
| tst creator. While thus walking and MUS
| ing, the grand organ in the nave is filing all
the air with its solemn harmonies! Where
else did any ore over gaze upon Michael An
gcio'S collected sculptures 10 the sound o:
grand organ musics We never know to
what proportions our joys may rise until we
have experienced them in the midst Of sol.
emn music. At such a distance that all sense
OF the material instrument is lost, solemn
music seems to be a voice ont Of the spirit
world. II brings to US call from the Inf.
mite, and connects US with it. Our JOYS seem
no more mortal. They are related TO the
eternal and spiritual, and partake OF their
nature. They arc preIudes and prescences
Of immortaliIy. The son takes assurance
that It's most precious experiences are not
trsnsient and perishirg. However silenced
fora time, joy shall come again. aud in tho
harmony OF q better sphere, ard roll forever
in undisturbed and inseporable harm oaies!