*
As we dwell, we living things, in our isle of terror and
under the imminent hand of death, God forbid it should
be man the erected, the reasoner, the wise in his own
eyes'--God forbid it should be man that wearies in welldoing,
that despairs of unrewarded effort, or utters the language
of complaint. Let it be enough for faith, that the whole
creation groans in mortal frailty, strives with
unconquerable constancy: surely not all in vain.
*
I find I never weary of great churches. It is my favourite
kind of mountain scenery. Mankind was never so happily
inspired as when it made a cathedral: a thing as single and
specious as a statue to the first glance, and yet, on
examination, as lively and interesting as a forest in
detail. The height of spires cannot be taken by
trigonometry; they measure absurdly short, but how tall
they are to the admiring eye! And where we have so many
elegant proportions, growing one out of the other, and all
together into one, it seems as if proportion transcended
itself and became something different and more imposing. I
could never fathom how a man dares to lift up his voice to
preach in a cathedral. What is he to say that will not be
an anti-climax? For though I have heard a considerable
variety of sermons, I never yet heard one that was so
expressive as a cathedral. 'Tis the best preacher itself,
and preaches day and night; not only telling you of man's
art and aspirations in the past, but convicting your own
soul of ardent sympathies; or rather, like all good
preachers, it sets you preaching to yourself--and every man
is his own doctor of divinity in the last resort.
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