The-papacy-its-history-dogmas-genius-and-prospects-wylie

470 INFLUENCE OF POPERY ON NATIONS.To retui'ii to Coloa^ne and its Sabbath : the mummerieswhich began in the cathedral were terminated on the streets.The host was carried in solemn procession through the city,with drum and fife,and a goodly show of crucifixes, tapers,and flags. The crowds uncovered as it passed. During theforenoon business had been partially carried on. A thirdor so of the shops were open ; and the vessels moored in theRhine unladed them of their cargo. But in the afternoonand evening the whole city freely gave itself to pleasure andrevelry. The children marshalled themselves in line, and,carrying branches and flambeaux, imitated the grand processionof the morning. All the taverns were open, andevery street rang with the shouts of bacchanals, mingledwith music, vocal and instrumental. The spacious gardensof the hotel, on the right bank of the river, adjoining thesuburb of Deutz, were illuminated with numerous variegatedlamps ; gay parties danced or promenaded in them ; while aband played airs at intervals, which came floating acrossthe Rhine in the stillness of the evening. In this way wasthe day spent. There may be less superstition and lessrevelry ;but with this exception, we believe the Sabbath ofCologne is a fair sample of the Sabbaths of Rhenish Prussia,and, indeed, of the gi'eater part of Germany.Wherever Protestantism exists, and in the proportion inwhich it exists, do we find the Sabbath. The two most protestantcities of Switzerland are Basle and Geneva. Thewriter has passed Sabbaths in these cities, and he found amarked difference between the way in which the day wasthere kept, and its observance in Cologne ; though still thebest portions of Switzerland are far inferior to the worst portionsof protestant Britain. If we enter the south of France,we find ourselves again in the midst of the thick darkness,and we lose almost all trace of the Sabbath. We takeLyons as an example,—a city wholly given to the worshipof Mary, and where might be set up, in the midst of hershrines and temples, an altar " To the Unknown God."The writer would have found it impossible to have discovered