usand statues on the different parts of
it.

The design of the Duomo is said to be taken from Monte Rosa, one of the
loftiest peaks of the Alps. Its hundreds of sculptured pinnacles, rising
from every part of the body of the church, certainly bear a striking
resemblance to the splintered ice-crags of Savoy. Thus we see how Art,
mighty and endless in her forms though she be, is in every thing but the
child of Nature. Her most divine conceptions are but copies of objects
which we behold every day. The faultless beauty of the Corinthian
capital--the springing and intermingling arches of the Gothic aisle--the
pillared portico or the massive and sky-piercing pyramid--are but
attempts at reproducing, by the studied regularity of Art, the
ever-varied and ever-beautiful forms of mountain, rock and forest. But
there is oftentimes a more thrilling sensation of enjoyment produced by
the creations of man's hand and intellect than the grander effects of
Nature, existing constantly before our eyes. It would seem as if man
marvelled more at his own work than at the work of the Power which
created him.

The streets of Milan abound with priests in their cocked hats and long
black robes. They all have the same solemn air, and seem to go about
like beings shut out from all communion with pleasure. No sight lately
has saddened me so much as to see a bright, beautiful boy, of twelve or
thirteen years, in those gloomy garments. Poor child! he little knows
now what he may have to endure. A lonely, cheerless life, where every
affection must be crushed as unholy, and every pleasure denied as a
crime! And I knew by his fair brow and tender lip, that he had a warm
and loving heart. I could not help regarding this class as victims to a
mistaken idea of religious duty, and if I am not mistaken, I read on
more than one countenance the traces of passions that burned within. It
is mournful to see a people oppressed in the name of religion. The
holiest aspirations of man's nature, instead of lifting him up to a
nearer view of Christian perfection, are changed into clouds and shut
out the light of heaven. Immense treasures, wrung drop by drop from the
credulity of the poor and ignorant, are made use of to pamper the luxury
of those who profess to be mediators between man and the Deity. The poor
wretch may perish of starvation on a floor of precious mosaic, which
perhaps his own pittance has helped to form, while ceilings and shrines
of inlaid gold moc