452 SUNDRY JOURNEYS AND EXPERIENCES-V 



more interesting as containing one of those curiosities 

 of human civilization which have now become rare. In 

 one corner of the edifice is a &quot;holy well,&quot; the pilgrimages 

 to which in the middle ages were, no doubt, a main source 

 of the wealth of the establishment. The attendant shows, 

 in the stonework close to the well, the end of a tube coming 

 from the upper part of the cathedral ; and through this 

 tube pious monks in the middle ages no doubt spoke oracu 

 lar words calculated to enhance the authority of the saint 

 presiding over the place. It was the same sort of thing 

 which one sees in the Temple of Isis at Pompeii, and 

 the zeal which created it was no doubt the same that 

 to-day originates the sacred fire which always comes 

 down from heaven on Easter day into the Greek church 

 at Jerusalem, the liquefaction of the blood of St. Jan- 

 uarius in the cathedral at Naples, and sundry camp- 

 meeting utterances and actions in the United States. 



Sweden and Norway struck me as possessing, in some 

 respects, the most satisfactory civilization of modern 

 times. With a monarchical figurehead, they are really a 

 republic. Here is no overbearing plutocracy, no squalid 

 poverty, an excellent system of education, liberal and 

 practical, from the local school to the university, a popu 

 lation, to all appearance, healthy, thrifty, and comfort 

 able. 



And yet here, as in other parts of the world, the re 

 sources of human folly are illimitable. A large party 

 in Norway urges secession from Sweden, and both re 

 main divided from Denmark, though the three are, to 

 all intents and purposes, of the same race, religion, lan 

 guage, and early historical traditions. And close beside 

 them looms up, more and more portentous, the Russian 

 colossus, which, having trampled Swedish Finland under 

 its feet, is looking across the Scandinavian peninsula 

 toward the good harbors of Norway, just opposite Great 

 Britain. Russia has declared the right of her one hun 

 dred and twenty millions of people to an ice-free port on 

 the Pacific ; why shall she not assert, with equal cogency, 



