ith
it an exhilarating sense of release, and the blue sky and cheerful
sunshine were welcomed like the faces of long absent friends. A cave
like that of Adelsberg--for all limestone caves are, doubtless,
essentially similar in character--ought by all means to be seen if it
comes in one's way, because it leaves impressions upon the mind unlike
those derived from any other object. Nature stamps upon most of her
operations a certain character of gravity and majesty. Order and
symmetry attend upon her steps, and unity in variety is the law by which
her movements are guided. But, beneath the surface of the earth,
she seems a frolicsome child, or a sportive undine, who wreaths the
unmanageable stone into weird and quaint forms, seemingly from no
other motive than pure delight in the exercise of overflowing power.
Everything is playful, airy, and fantastic; there is no spirit of
soberness; no reference to any ulterior end; nothing from which food,
fuel, or raiment can be extracted. These chasms have been scooped out,
and these pillars have been reared, in the spirit in which the bird
sings, or the kitten plays with the falling leaves. From such scenes we
may safely infer that the plan of the Creator comprehends something
more than material utility, that beauty is its own vindictator and
interpreter, that sawmills were not the ultimate cause of mountain
streams, nor wine-bottles of cork-trees.

THE MONASTERY OF MOeLK[22]

BY THOMAS FROGNALL DIBDIN

We had determined upon dining at Moelk the next day. The early morning
was somewhat inauspicious; but as the day advanced, it grew bright and
cheerful. Some delightful glimpses of the Danube, to the left, from the
more elevated parts of the road, accompanied us the whole way, till we
caught the first view, beneath a bright blue sky, of the towering church
and Monastery of Moelk.

Conceive what you please, and yet you shall not conceive the situation
of this monastery. Less elevated above the road than Chremsminster, but
of a more commanding style of architecture, and of considerably greater
extent, it strikes you--as the Danube winds round and washes its rocky
base--as one of the noblest edifices in the world. The wooded heights
of the opposite side of the Danube crown the view of this magnificent
edifice, in a manner hardly to be surpassed. There is also a beautiful
play of architectural lines and ornament in the front of the building,
indicative of a pure Italian taste, and