The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1873-08-08
St. Peters.

As q mere promenade, 81. HeberEs Is
uneoualed. It is better than the Boule-
wards, than Piccadilly or Broadway,
and il it were not the most beautiful
place in the world, it would be the most
Few great works OF art
last longer to ones curiosity. You
think you have taken its measure but
IL expands again and leaves your vision
shrunken. I never let the ponderous
leather curtain hang down behind me,
without feeling as if all former visits
were but a vague provision, and this the
first crossing of the threshold. Tourists
will never ceased to be asked, suppose,
If thev have not been disappointed In
the size of st. Peters; but few modest
spirits here and there, I hope, will never
cease to say, No. 1t seemed to me
from the first the hugest thing concelva.
ble a real exaltation of ones idea OF
space. so that ones entrance, even from
the great empty square, glarlng Denea1n
the deep blue sky or cool III the tar-cast
shadow of the immense facade, seems
not SO much going-in somewhere as
coinQ-out. Ishould confidently recon-
mend first glimpse of the interior to q
man of pleasure in quest OF new sensa-
tions, as one of the strongest the world
affords. There are days when the vast
nave looks vaster than at others, and
the gorgeous baldachino long journey
beyond the far spreading tesselated
plSins of the pavement, when the ngnt
has q quality that lets things look their
largest. and the scattered figures mark
bapnily the scale of certain details.
Then you have only to stroll and stroil'
and gaze and gaze, and watch the Dalua-
chino lift its bronze architecture, ike a
temple within temple, and feel your,
self. at the bottom of the abysmal SHAFT
of the dome, dwindle to crawling dot.
Much of the beauty OF st. Peters re,
sides, I think, in the fact that 1t is all
general beauty, that You are Appealed
to bv no specific details, that the de-
tails, indeed, when you observe them,
are often poor and sometimes ridiculous,
The sculptures, with the exception OF
Michael Angeles admirable Ptcto, whlcL
| turks obsc1rely in a dusky chapel, are
either bad or Indifferent and the uni
versaI incrustation of marble, though
sumptuous enough, has less br1lhan
effect than much later work of the same
sort. that, for instance, of st. Paul s
without the walls. The supreme beaut!
of the church is its magniticently sus
tanned simplicity. 1t seems, as 1T is,
realization of the happiest mood OF
colossal imagination. The happles
mood. / say, because this is the onl.
4 one of Michael Angeles works In tn
presence of which you venture to b.
cheerful. You may smile In st. Peter
without a sense of sacrilege, which yo'
can hardly do, if you have tende
conscience, in Westminster ABBEY o
Notre Dame. The abundant of enclose
lipht has much to do with your smile
, There are no shadows to speak OF, n
marked effect of shade; but effects c
light innumerable, points at which tn
light seems to mass itself in airy density
! and scatter itself in enchanting grads
, tions and cadences. 1t performs tn
] office of shadow in Gothic churches
, hangs like a rolling mist along th
oilded vault of the nave, melts In
. bright interfusion the mosaic sc1ntllli
: tions of the dome, clings and cluster
; and fingers and WHITES the whole, va
: atmosphere. A good Catholic, SUI
: nose. is a good Catholic anywhere,
: the orandest as we'll as the humble
9 churches but to q traveller not specla
. ly pledged to be devout, st. Peter
4 sneaks more of contentment than OF
: piration. The mind seems to expal
. there immensely, but on its own leVt
:. as we may say. 1t maryels at the rea'
!, of the human imagination and the vas
q ness of our earthly means. This
4 heaven enough, we say /; what 1t lac
: in beauty it makes up it certainty. Al
/. vet if ones half hours at st. Peters a
not actually spent on ones knees, &
mind reverts to it's tremendous presen
with an ardor deeply akin to passlo
l ate effusion of faith.-HenTY Jdaat
o ,Jr., an Atlantic.