A sermon was preached at this stage, which, as I could not understand, I did not dislike; nor did I dislike the manner and appearance of the preacher, who seemed earnest and devotional; and I especially liked the breaking off half way in his discourse and engaging in prayer, in which all the congregation joined. I should have liked it better had I not seen the same thing twice before, and therefore judged it formal, and not of the heart. Yet I do not condemn a good practice because of possible formality, and would not object to seeing a like invocation by preacher and people at the beginning, middle, and end of our sermons.
After attending this service I visited the churches. Few of them are in a good condition. None have a fresh and animating air. All overflow with images. Never did a nation so give itself up to image-worship. Hundreds of little white images hang near the shrine or doors, probably to be sold for household gods. The Virgin Mary is dressed in every sort of garb and color, sometimes with crinoline, yards across. In the Church of Santo Domingo, in Puebla, her robes stand out with an enormous spread. Blue, purple, yellow, lace, gold and silver ornaments—every array is she set forth in. Once I admired the simplicity of her apparel. At the Church of San Felipe, over the top of the high altar, she stood in perfect white marble, or hard and shining plaster, hooded, almost, as to her face, holding in one hand a candlestick, and in the other a crucifix. It was too simple and severe for the tawdry taste displayed usually behind these glass fronts.
A crucifix below, on a side altar, made amends for that simplicity. Christ was on his hands and knees. His whole backbone seemed laid open by the lash, and blood was flowing from every rib and cord over his sides. It was horribly hideous and false, as were the two courtesanish-looking faces of fair, fat, forty, and finely-dressed women that were made into angels, and hovered dolorously, but not sympathetically, above him.
The Church of the Cross, where Maximilian lived, and which he fortified, and where he was captured, is one of the chief churches, with some ornament, but especially noticeable for a graceful tomb, a
