nts who met there in the old days when it was still
the exchange of Seville, before the Lonja was built, to discuss the war
with England, or the fate of ships bringing gold from America. At one
end of the court is an old stone pulpit from which preached St. Francis
of Borga and St. Vincent Ferrer and many an unknown monk besides. Then
it was thronged with multi-coloured crowds, with townsmen, soldiers and
great noblemen, when the faith was living and strong; and the preacher,
with all the gesture and the impassioned rhetoric of a Spaniard, poured
out burning words of hate for Jew and Moor and Heretic, so that the
listeners panted and a veil of blood passed before their eyes; or else
uttered so eloquent a song in praise of the Blessed Virgin, immaculately
conceived, that strong men burst into tears at the recital of her
perfect beauty.

XX

[Sidenote: The Cathedral of Seville]

Your first impression when you walk round the cathedral of Seville,
noting with dismay the crushed cupolas and unsightly excrescences, the
dinginess of colour, is not enthusiastic. It was built by German
architects without a thought for the surrounding houses, brilliantly
whitewashed, and the blue sky, and it proves the incongruity of northern
art in a southern country; but even lowering clouds and mist could lend
no charm to the late Gothic of _Santa Maria de la Sede_.

The interior fortunately is very different. Notwithstanding the Gothic
groining, as you enter from the splendid heat of noonday, (in the Plaza
del Triunfo the sun beats down and the houses are more dazzling than
snow,) the effect is thoroughly and delightfully Spanish. Light is very
fatal to devotion and the Spaniards have been so wise as to make their
churches extremely dark. At first you can see nothing. Incense floats
heavily about you, filling the air, and the coolness is like a draught
of fresh, perfumed water. But gradually the church detaches itself from
the obscurity and you see great columns, immensely lofty. The spaces are
large and simple, giving an impression of vast room; and the choir,
walled up on three sides, in the middle of the nave as in all Spanish
cathedrals, by obstructing the view gives an appearance of almost
unlimited extent. To me it seems that in such a place it is easier to
comprehend the majesty wherewith man has equipped himself. Science
offers only thoughts of human insignificance; the vastness of the sea,
the terror of the mountains, emp