discoverer of printing. A monument to Kleber
stands in the centre of the square named
after him, and is raised over the hero's
body, originally interred in the minster.
This brave man, who, after many victories
in Egypt, was assassinated by an Arab
fanatic under a tree still shown in a garden
at Cairo, was much esteemed by Napoleon.
"Kleber sometimes sleeps," he said; "but
when he awakes it is the awaking of the
lion." There was a little of the German
unreadiness and phlegm about this brave
Alsacian until battle roused him. He was
never seen at his best but when under fire.

Guttenberg, who practised printing as
early as 1436 at Strasbourg, perfected his
invention at Mayence. His assistant, Peter
Schöffer, who made metal letters with
even greater success than his master, was a
native of Strasbourg. The statue of Guttenberg,
in the herb market, now called the
Place Guttenberg, was modelled by David.

But the wonder and delight of Strasbourg
is the cathedral—one of the masterpieces of
Gothic architecture. Founded by Clovis
in 510, reconstructed by Pepin and Charlemagne,
destroyed by lightning in 1007, it
was rebuilt in 1015 by Erwin de Steinbach,
and finished in 1413 by Jean Hultz, of
Cologne, after the tower had been four
hundred and twenty-four years incomplete.
According to tradition, ten thousand workmen
toiled at the holy work for the good
of their souls, "all for love, and nothing for
reward." An epitome of Gothic art, this
cathedral contains specimens of every style,
from the Byzantine upwards. Heaven
send it a safe deliverance from Prussian
shot and shell; let the gunners aim wide
of that noble, heaven-piercing spire, which,
according to the best guide-books, rises
four hundred and sixty-eight feet above
the pavement—that is twenty-four feet
higher than the great Pyramid—and sixty-
four feet higher than St. Paul's, the body
of the church itself being higher than the
towers of York Minster. The view from
this network of stone repays the giddiest
person. Beyond the dull red roofs, and the
high-roofed and many-windowed houses,
spreads the whole country of the Rhine and
Black Forest, and on the side of France
you see those Vosges Mountains, that might
have been held against the world. Hope
describes the netting of detached arcades
and pillars over the west-end of the cathedral
to be like a veil of the finest cast iron, so
sharp and bright is the carving of the
durable stone; while Dr. Whewell,
comparing the building to an edifice placed
under a rich open casket of woven stone,
laments the sacrifice of distinctness from
the multiplicity and intersection of the
lines. The triple portal is peculiarly fine,
and is in itself a world of quaint statues,
and bas-reliefs. The middle arch is adorned
with no less than fourteen statues of the Old
Testament prophets; on the right arch are
the Ten Virgins, and on the left the Virgins
treading under foot the Seven Capital Sins.
In the Revolution these carvings were
destroyed, and the great brass doors melted
down into money, but they have been
restored with a most reverential care. The
choir is plain and simple Romanesque, but
the nave is the choicest early decorated
German Gothic. The town's special
treasures are the fine stained windows of the
fourteenth century, recently restored (spare
them, gentle gunners), the vast marigold
windows, and the famous astronomic clock,
one of the wonders of Europe, comprising
a perpetual calendar, a planetarium on the
Copernican system, and shows the hour,
the day of the week, the month of the year.
It was made in 1571, and, after standing
still for fifty-six years (a good rest), was
repaired in 1842 by a mechanician of
the town. This part of the cathedral is
supported by a single pillar of great
symmetry, and above the Gothic cornice
appears the effigy of Erwin de Steinbach,
the architect of this vast building, whose
tombstone was discovered, in 1855, in a
humble little court behind the chapel of
St. John. In an old house at the south-
west corner of the Minster Platz there are
preserved some curious ancient architectural
drawings belonging to the cathedral.

The church of St. Thomas (Protestant)
deserves a visit for its fine monument of
Marshal Saxe, which cost the sculptor,
Pigalle, whom Louis the Fifteenth
employed, twenty-five years' labour. It
represents the old warrior descending to
the grave. France, a female figure,
tries in vain to deter him, and at the
same time to repel Death. Theatrical,
say the critics, and French, but the
expression of affection and anxiety in the
woman's face is very tender and touching.
This monument would have been destroyed by
the revolutionary iconoclasts, had not
a Strasbourg man named Mangelschott,
when the church was turned into a straw
warehouse, covered it up with bundles of
hay. They also show in this church the
mummies, curiously preserved, of a Count
of Nassau Searwerden and his daughter.

The Jews of Strasbourg have now a
splendid synagogue. In the middle ages
they went through much here. In 1348