1 68 Hints on Landscape Gardening 



the root of our religion, are sculptured in life- 

 size. Between them rises a stem surrounded by 

 a light spiral stair, which unfolds at the top in 

 the form of a gigantic lily constituting the pul- 

 pit. From the leaves of the lily appear the three 

 beatitudes. Faith, Hope, and Charity, and the 

 Angel of Judgment crowns the baldachin above, 

 with the scales of good and evil in his right hand. 

 On the pillars opposite the pulpit is the golden 

 calf in high relief, with the Israelites dancing 

 round it, as an ever-present warning against the 

 greatest lust of man — the worship of Mammon. 

 Behind the high altar a draped portal leads through 

 a short corridor into a dark temple, at the end 

 of which a niche is disclosed, where, brightly 

 lighted from above and from each side, stands 

 the Apollo Belvedere. 



I hope that sensible people will not charge 

 me with blasphemy in my intention to bring into 

 such close contact the temple of Apollo and his 

 cult of joy with the Christian temple, since I 

 had in view here the illustration of the general 

 idea of religion, and therefore it seemed to me 

 appropriate to surround its most sublime flower 



— the Christian church — on the one side 

 with a piece of crude heathendom, as the rudi- 

 mentary beginning, and on the other with that 

 of one of the noblest, though sensuous, cults 



— that of the gods of Greece. For all relig- 

 ions have something Godlike, and God has 

 been patient with them all, is patient with so 

 many to-day. Why should we reject the mem- 



