Picturesque Mexico [pp. 307-318]

PICTURESQUE MEXICO.
caught in this way of the three towers of the cathedral, one a
Moorish dome tiled in pale blue and yellow, one a low, square
belfry, and one a soaring, exquisite shaft of deep red stone, so
fretted and carved that the solid mass looked delicate as a jewel
set against the enamelled sapphire sky.
The interiors of these beautiful edifices hardly carry out the
promise of the exteriors. A crudity of color in the somewhat
barbaric decorations makes itself felt, which is dissipated in the
dazzle and largeness of the outside atmosphere. The high altar
rises always beneath the great central dome. Connected with it
is the choir-room, placed in the nave between two great organs,
rich in carved woods or metals and wrought screens. Silver
railings and candelabra about the sanctuary, rare tapestries, and
paintings by all the old Spanish masters, enrich many; but their
effect is spoiled by the neighborhood of poor and tawdry ornamentation which disguises the real treasures. In many cases
some low canon of art had caused the beautiful original stone
carving of the walls to be covered by wretched prettinesses of
stucco; but the revival of better taste is already beginning to demand a return to the earlier purity of design. Still, with all its
incongruities, the ensemble is always forcible and picturesque.
A dim light falls from the small windows placed high in the lofty
walls; from dawn to dark the slow, monotonous chanting of
some office of the church floats in alternate antiphon and response between the priests within the sanctuary and scarletgowned, shrill-voiced choristers half-hidden behind their tall
music-stands; the people, reverent and silent, glide in for a moment's prayer in the pauses of the day's duties; and a certain
mystical atmosphere of religious solemnity, which seems to belong by right to the place, forces itself upon the most material
sense.
So, in a constantly increasing climax of enthusiasm and de light, one reaches the crowning scene of all in the Valley of
Mexico. In the natural order nothing more wonderful than this
for loveliness in the wide world; nothing more calculated to in toxicate the soul with the simple glory of living, since earth still
holds such beauty for eyes of man! How can one ever hope to
bring before the sense that has not known it that fair green plain
stretching from the marble terraces of Chapultepec forty miles
away to the dim horizon? How paint that foreground of majestic
cypress-trees, draped in shadowy moss which adds an intangible
softness to the dim forest aisles beneath; the long, bright fields of
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[June,