MELLOW ENGLAND. 177 



black Lethe of oblivion, and then left to be restored 

 by the rains and the elements. This black Lethe is 

 the London smoke and fog, which has left a dark de- 

 posit over all the building, except the upper and more 

 exposed parts, where the original silvery whiteness of 

 the stone shows through, the effect of the whole thus 

 being like one of those graphic Rembrandt photo- 

 graphs or carbons, the prominences in a strong light, 

 and the rest in deepest shadow. I was never tired of 

 looking at this noble building, and of going out of my 

 way to walk around it, but I am at a loss to know 

 whether the pleasure I had in it arose from my love 

 of nature or from a susceptibility to art for which I 

 had never given myself credit. Perhaps from both, 

 for I seemed to behold Art turning toward and rev- 

 erently acknowledging Nature indeed, in a manner 

 already become Nature. 



I believe the critics of such things find plenty of 

 fault with St. Paul's ; and even I could see that its 

 bigness was a little prosy, that it suggested the his- 

 toric rather than the poetic muse, etc. ; yet, for all 

 that, I could never look at it without a profound 

 emotion. Viewed coolly and critically it might 

 seem like a vast specimen of Episcopalianism in ar- 

 chitecture. Miltonic in its grandeur and proportions, 

 and Miltonic in its prosiness and mongrel classicism 

 also, yet its power and effectiveness are unmistaka- 

 ble. The beholder has no vantage ground from 

 which to view it, or take in its total effect, on account 

 of its being so closely beset by such a mob of shops 

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