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Pictures of Nuremberg; and Rambles in the hills and valleys of Franconia
Pictures of Nuremberg and Rambles in the hills and valleys of Franconia Author:Henry John Whitling Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. WHICH COMMENCES BT PROMISING THE READER CERTAIN DESCRIPTIONS, WHEREBY HE WOULD, NO DOOBT, BE GREATLY DE1IOHTED, BUT BY REASON OP CERTAIN UNLUCKY ... more »DIGRESSIONS, THE CHAPTER ENDS AS IT BEGINS. In describing more particularly some of the many highly interesting features of the town, I shall have occasion to refer you to some impressive documents both in metal and stone, which will be found to present the most lively pictures of the zeal, genius, and science of centuries that are elapsed; and because of my great regard for architecture as the first of the fine arts, eminently thus consecrated even by Devotion itself, I shall begin with its sermons in stones, as set forth in some of the noble parish churches which adorn Nuremberg. What is there upon earth more grateful to the eye of sentiment, philanthropy, and religion, than a church ? You travel over a country, spires rise from the hills, or are seen embowered amongst the trees, each one a speaking hieroglyphic of God. What though the temple be humble, it agrees with thehomely manners of its rustic congregation; it is sacred, it is venerable. It is a Church; the seeds of the resurrection lie scattered around it, and a retrospection of his own life, a remembrance of his Creator, of death, and the judgment to come, are the awful and instructive lessons it brings to the mind of him who regards it aright. Cross the threshold of some of these old churches, a solemn awe impresses the soul, much of which feeling is strengthened, if not awakened, by the speaking interior. Before you on tombs, monuments, and in the windows, are effigies with uplifted hands, as a perpetual memento to all of their absolute dependence upon God. Banners are sometimes there, and representations of helmets, corslets, and swords, telling of a ...« less