t of the church at Carlsruhe, is a weak
imitation of the Pantheon at Rome.

The great dome is upheld by twenty-eight enormous Corinthian columns,
but the walls are bare and without ornament of any sort.

The only accessory with any pretence at artistic expression is the
altar. It is either remarkably fine, or else it looks so in comparison
with its bare surroundings.

_Wiesbaden_

A conventional account of Wiesbaden would read something as follows:

"Wiesbaden, the capital of the Duchy of Nassau, is about an hour's drive
by road from Mayence and three from Frankfort. It lies in a valley,
encircled by low hills, behind which, on the north and northwest, rises
the range of the Taunus Mountains, whose dark foliage forms an agreeable
contrast to the brighter green of the meadows and the white buildings of
the town. Within the last few years several new streets have been
erected; the Wilhelmstrasse, fronting the promenades, would bear a
comparison with some of the finest streets in Europe."

Such, in fact, is the description which usually opens the accounts one
reads in the books of travel of a half or three-quarters of a century
ago.

To-day Wiesbaden, as a "watering-place," doubtless retains all the
virtues that it formerly possessed; but fashionable invalids have
deserted Wiesbaden for Homburg.

All this is of course quite apart from the consideration of great
churches; but great churches, for that matter, were quite apart from the
considerations of most of the visitors to Wiesbaden.

The city possesses, however, a very satisfactory modern Catholic church,
the work of the architect Hoffmann. It will not take rank with the
mediaeval masterpieces of many other places, but it demonstrates, as has
only seldom been demonstrated, that it is possible to make a very
satisfactory church building of to-day by copying pleasing details of
other times.

Were it not that it is built in the red sandstone of the country, this
fine edifice would be even more effective.

It is not a thoroughly consistent style that one sees. There is
Byzantine, Romanesque, and avowedly Gothic details superimposed one upon
another; but this is often seen in the masterpieces of other times,
and, so long as the varieties are not put into quarrelling relationship
with each other, it is perhaps allowable.

There is a triangular pediment above the grand portal which is certainly
most singular, and may have been a product of the author's fancy al