The Centre reporter. [volume] (Centre Hall, Pa.) 1871-1940, 1878-04-11

that Il seems 30 hang IN air, anu one
cannot understand how IL retains It's CO.
hesion. The story is that Anthemius.
the architect. built IL of excessively light
bricks nf Rhoiian clay. All round il.
dividing the recesses from the great cen
trail area, are rows Of majestic columns,
brought hither 10y Justiuian, who was
thirty years in building il CA. ID. h,iS -56Sl
from the most famous heathcn shrines of
the East, among others from Diana's
temple at Ephesus, ank that ni the Sun
az Baalbcc. The roof and walls were
adorned with superb mOSaics, hu, the
Mohammeians, who condemn any re-
presentation of living creature. lest Il
should tend to idolatry, have covered
over all these figures, though IN some
places Nou can just discern their outlines
through the coat Of plaster or whitewash.
In place of them they have decorated
the building with texts from the Koran,
written in gigantic characters round the
dome zone letter Alif Is said 10 he thirty
feet lopgl, or ON enormous boar'ts sus
pended from the rnof. and in four flat
spaces below the dome they have suffer
ed to he painted the four archangels
whom they recognize, each roMesonted
nv six great wings, without face orother
limbs.
One oi the most highly cultivated and
widely travelled S,N'lcSiastics whom Rus
sia possesses (thcy are. unhappily, few
euoughl told me- that after seeing nearly
all the great cathedrals Of Latin Europe
he felt when he entered 81 Scphia that
il far transcended them all, that nov for
the first time his religious instincts had
been satisfied by n human work. Mr..
FerguSson. in his History of Archite,'-
tnre. SAYS something to a similar eject.
This will hardly bc the feeling OF those
whose tastes have heen formed ON West
ern, or what VIZ call Gothic models, with
their mystery, their complexity, their
beauty Of varied detail But 81 Sophia
certainly gives one Au impression ot
measurel,.ss space, 81 dignity, Of males-
tic unity, which no other church unless
perhaps the Cathedral Of Ssyillel can
rival Nou are more awel by II, more
lost IN Il than in 81. Peters itself,
In Coustantiuople there Is neither
municipal government non public opin-
ION Nobody knows what the Sultau's
ministers are doing, or what Is happen
iug al the scene oi war, Everybody
lives in a perpetual vague dread Of ev-
eryhoiv else. The Turks believe that
the Christians are consplrlng with kus-
sia 70 drive them out Of Europe. The
Christians believe that the Turks are
only waiting for signal 10 set upon
and massacre them all. | thought these
fears exaggerated; and though my
friend and | were warned not 10 venture
alone into ST. Sophia, or through the
Turkish quarters, we did both, and NO
man me.lllei with Us. Indeed wan
dered alone IN the streets of StamhoW
at night, and met no worse enemies
than the sleeping dogs. But the alarms
are quite real If the dangers are not; and
one must never forget that II these
countries 4 slight incident may provoke
a massacre ike that oi Salonika.
ConStantinople is not only clty that
belongs 10 the world; il Is in way It
self miniature Of the world 1t is not
So much a city As an immense caravan
ssrdi. which belongs 10 nobody but
within whose walls everybody encamps,
drawn by business or by pleasure, but
forming no permanent ties, and not
calling himself citizen. II has three
distinct histories-Greek. Roman and
Turkish. 1t is the product Of host Of
converging ntuences-inhuences some
Of which are still az work, making Il
different every year from what it was
peiore Religion, and all those customs
which issue from religion, come 10 II
from Arabia: civilization from Rome
and the West; both are mingled in the
dress OF the people and the buildings
where they live and worship. Races,
manners, languages, even coins, from
every part Of the East and Of Europe
here cross one another and Intervene
themselves like the mAny-colored
threads in the gorgeous fabric Of an
Eastern loom.
The rarest and most subtle charm Of a
city, as of a landscape or of a human
face, is It's idiosyncraSy, or (to speak
somewhat iancifullyl is expression, the
indeinable effect il produces on you
which makes YOU feel il 70 be different
from all other cities You have seen be
fore. The peculiarly Of Constantinople
is that, viii e no city has so marked a
confusing and indeterminate social
one. II Is nothing, because It is every
thing at once; because it mirrors, ike
the waters of it's Golden Horn, the man
ners and faces of all the peoples who
pass IN and ont OF IL. Such a city is q
glorious possession, and no one can re-
call its associations or mediate on Its
future, as he gazes npon IL lying spread
before him in mAtchless beauty, without
q thrill Of solemn emotion. And this
emotion Is heightened, not only by the
sense Of the contrast, here of all the
world most striking, between Mohamme-
danism and Christianity, and the recol-
lection Of the terrible strife which en-
thronei Islam in the metropolis Of the
Eastern Church, but also by the knowl-
edge that that strife is still being waged,
and that the shores which lie beneath
your eve are likely 10 witness struggles
and changes in the future not less mo-
mentous than those OF the past. II Is
this, after all, that gives their especial
amplitude and grandeur 70 the associa-
tions Of Constantinople. II combines
bAat interest of the future which fires
the travellers imagination in America,
with that interest Of the past which
touches HIM in Italy. Other famous
cities have played their part, and the
curtain has dropped upon them; empire,
and commerce, religion, and letters, and
art, have sought new seats. But the
city OF two continents must remain pros
perous and great when. 81. Petersburg
and Berlin may have become even an
Augsberg or Toledo, and imperial Rome
herself have shrunk 10 a museum of an
tiquities. AaemiAan's Magazine.
SiDRuIar III True