Generally, I suspect, when
people throw off the faith they were born in, the best soil of their
hearts is apt to cling to its roots.
Raised several feet above the pavement, against every clustered pillar
along the nave of the cathedral, is placed a statue of Gothic sculpture.
In various places are sitting statues of popes of Sienese nativity, all
of whom, I believe, have a hand raised in the act of blessing. Shrines
and chapels, set in grand, heavy frames of pillared architecture, stand
all along the aisles and transepts, and these seem in many instances to
have been built and enriched by noble families, whose arms are sculptured
on the pedestals of the pillars, sometimes with a cardinal's hat above to
denote the rank of one of its members. How much pride, love, and
reverence in the lapse of ages must have clung to the sharp points of all
this sculpture and architecture! The cathedral is a religion in itself,
--something worth dying for to those who have an hereditary interest in
it.
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