e in front of the opera house at Berlin, is extremely
pleasing; and, associating itself by general outline with the ideas of
the grand prototype of the eternal city, derives a degree of importance
which a minuter inspection would not confer. There are numerous churches
in Berlin, but three only which lay claim to particular notice, St.
Nicolas, the French Church, (standing on one side of the above mentioned
square) and the Catholic Church. The architecture of these is not pure in
any single instance; it having been the prevailing taste of the period
when they were erected to over-charge the building with ornament, and
substitute one or more gorgeous embellishments as appendages to the
design, for that chaste and elegant simplicity which is so essential a
part of grandeur. Accordingly we find several of the largest
ecclesiastical edifices, the site and contour of which would otherwise
entitle them to distinction, disfigured by some overpowering
frontispizio, and presenting a complication of decorative details which
distort the outline, and, in spite of toilsome and finished sculpture,
mar the truth and elegance of classic design.

There are seven doors surmounted by tablets of tolerably good sculpture
from scriptural history, five in the front and two at the sides of the
porch, the pediment of which rests on six columns of the Ionic order, and
is enriched by alto relievos, illustrative of our Saviour's ministry, as
also by marble statues representing the Virtues, &c. The entablature
bears an inscription relative to the occasion and date of this building
being erected in the last century. The interior is plain, and more
conspicuous for an accumulation of dirt and dust (a very common
characteristic of Berlin) than of ornament; the four-and-twenty
Corinthian columns, however, which contribute their support to the dome
are imposing in their appearance. The high altar and sacristy are
constructed in a recess formed by the annexation of a small chancel to
the rotunda. This church, built of freestone, stands in an angle of the
Place des Gens d' Armes, immediately behind the great Salle des
Spectacles (schauspielhaus) or theatre, in one of the finest squares of
Berlin. With the exception of a few small chapels, it is the only
Catholic place of worship in that city, the religion of Prussia being
chiefly Lutheran.

J.R.

* * * * *

HOGARTH.

_(For the Mirror.)_

An interesting discovery