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BOMESTIC MANNEKS OF TUE riiUSSIANS.
At Worms we walk in tlie very footsteps of Luther him-self, and stand beside the spot wliere stood the brave AugustineMonk, as he looked round the assembly of princes and prelatesthat held his life in their hands, and then uttered the heroicwords,-—
" To THESE PBINCIPLES I AM FIXED. I CANNOT SAY OTHER-
wise. Goi> help me. Amen ! "
To the Protestant mind there is no place in the wide worldso quick with interest as the ancient Rhenish town where theImperial Diets of Germany were wont to be held—'the battle-field of ono of the proudest victories ever won .by mortalman—the victory of a single unarmed hand raised againstall the powers of " Christendom,"—and a victory upon whichthe liberties of Europe depended more than upon any otlier" decisive " conquest in history.
What though the city walls of Worms are at presentcrumbling into rubbish heaps, and the fortress stones rotten astouchwood with decay; what though the dried-up moatsenvironing the ramparts are planted with orchards now ratherthan cannon, and the old town, since Luther's time, has been" reduced to cinders"—(the thickness of the walls of theCathedral and the Synagogue preserving them ahne from thegeneral destruction*); what though the hospital of the Knights
* The Domkirche, or Cathedral, has some few attractions for the architect andarchseologist, but little or none for the general traveller. It is a solid and heavyred-stone building, with a round and pointed stone tower (in shape like a hugecut crayon) at each of its four corners. It is built principally in what is calledthe Byzantine, or rounded-arch style. The anterior reminds the unprofessionalspectator somewhat of Speier, though it hardly rejoiees to the same extent inthe gilt-gingerbread Order of decoration. It has two cupolse and tw r o chancels,and an ungainly black-and-red marble pulpit, studded with plaster statuettes.The principal altar is ornamented with heavy marble pillars, and huge giltstatues the size of life; and tawdry with its golden " glories " and brass ap-pointments. The chapels on either side are in the mongrel Renaissance style,
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