love, partially supports the wounded body of her
inanimate son; in process of movement the Saviour's head falls languidly
on one side, and the dead cheek is again greeted with the fervent kiss
of love, which still burns in the breast of the sorrowing mother. Who
shall rudely criticise the perspective, the draperies, the absence of
"scholastic rule," in this touching work of a true-hearted man? Not the
writer of these lines! Let it be rather his province to vindicate for
these old artists their due position, among the few forming that galaxy
of the great and good, elevating and adorning human nature.

Our parting glance at "the Athens of Germany" must comprehend a view of
the life and manners of the people among whom Duerer and his compatriots
lived. Theirs were the palmy days of the old city, for its glories
rapidly fell to decay toward the end of the sixteenth century. Its
aspect now is that of a place of dignity and importance left to
loneliness and the quiet wear of time; like an antique mansion of a
noble not quite allowed to decay, but merely existing shorn of its full
glories. "Nuernberg--with its long, narrow, winding, involved streets,
its precipitous ascents and descents, its completely Gothic
physiognomy--is by far the strangest old city I ever beheld; it has
retained in every part the aspect of the Middle Ages. No two houses
resemble each other: yet, differing in form, in colour, in height, in
ornament, all have a family likeness; and with their peaked and carved
gables, and projecting central balconies, and painted fronts, stand up
in a row, like so many tall, gaunt, stately old maids, with the toques
and stomachers of the last century. Age is here, but it does not suggest
the idea of dilapidation or decay; rather of something which has been
put under a glass case, and preserved with care from all extraneous
influences. But, what is most curious and striking in this old city, is
to see it stationary, while time and change are working such miracles
and transformations everywhere else. The house where Martin Behaim, four
centuries ago, invented the sphere, and drew the first geographical
chart, is still the house of a map-seller. In the house where cards were
first manufactured, cards are now sold. In the very shops where clocks
and watches were first seen, you may still buy clocks and watches. The
same families have inhabited the same mansions from one generation to
another for four or five centuries."[244-*]