Page:Mexico as it was and as it is.djvu/54

 of Mexican marbles in the Republic. The variety of colors is very great, among which is one of a pure and brilliant white, as transparent as alabaster. The rail and steps, which, of course, are of fine marble, lead to a circular platform eight or ten feet above the floor, beneath which is the sepulchre of the bishops, (constructed entirely of the most precious materials,) divided into niches and panels, and covered with a depressed dome of marble, relieved by bronze and gold circles, from the centre of which depends a silver lamp, for ever burning in the habitation of the dead.

To the right of the altar is the gem of the building. It is a figure of the Virgin Mary, nigh the size of life. Dressed in the richest embroidered satin, she displays strings of the largest pearls hanging from her neck below her knees. Around her brow is clasped a crown of gold, inlaid with emeralds of a size I had never seen before; and her waist is bound with a zone of diamonds, from the centre of which blaze numbers of enormous brilliants!

But this is not all. The candelabras surrounding the platform before the altar, are of silver and gold, and so ponderous that a strong man could neither move nor lift them. Immediately above the altar, and within the columns of the large temple erected there, is a smaller one, the interior of which is displayed or concealed by secret machinery. From this the, amid a blaze of priceless and innumerable jewels, is exhibited to the kneeling multitude.

The principal dome is, of course, in the centre of the church; and opposite the front of the altar is the choir, remarkable, principally, for the workmanship and preservation of the richly carved woodwork of its stalls for the canons and clergy. Above the seat of the bishop is a picture of St. Peter, formed by the inlaying of different woods; yet so skilfully is this work of art executed, that at a short distance it has all the effect and gracefulness of a painting in oil. It is to be regretted that the organ is rather too small for so large a building, and that the rich tone of the noble instrument is therefore greatly lost in the services of a church where the effect of the Catholic rite, amid so many other magnificent adjuncts, would be greatly enhanced in pomp by the perfection of solemn music.

It was too obscure to see the pictures which are said to be worthy of notice, or the three sets of valuable jewels of the bishop; and we therefore departed at dusk from this mine of wealth and splendor.

As I went out of the door in the dim twilight, and found a miserable and ragged woman kneeling before the image of a saint, and heard the hollow sounding of her breast as she beat it with penitential fervor; I could not help asking myself, if the church that subsisted upon alms, in order to be the greatest almoner of the nation, had fulfilled its sacred charge while there was one diamond in the zone of the Virgin, or one homeless or foodless wretch in the whole Republic.