"It is his nature, it is Jean Paul. And the figures and ornaments of
his style, wild, fantastic, and oft-times startling, like those in
Gothic cathedrals, are not merely what they seem, but massive
coignes and buttresses, which support the fabric. Remove them, and
the roofand walls fall in. And through these gurgoyles, these wild
faces, carved upon spouts and gutters, flow out, like gathered rain,
the bright, abundant thoughts, that have fallen from heaven.

"And all he does, is done with a kind of serious playfulness. He
is a sea-monster, disporting himself on the broad ocean; his very
sport is earnest; there is something majestic and serious about it.
In every thing there is strength, a rough good-nature, all sunshine
overhead, and underneath the heavy moaning of the sea. Well may he
be called `Jean Paul, the Only-One.'"

With such discourse the hour of dinner passed; and after dinner
Flemming went to the Cathedral. They were singing vespers. A beadle,
dressed in blue, with a cocked hat, and a crimson sash and collar,
was strutting, like a turkey, along the aisles. This important
gentleman conducted Flemming through the church, and showed him the
choir, with its heavy-sculptured stalls of oak, and the beautiful
figures in brown stone, over the bishops' tombs. He then led him, by
a side-door, into theold and ruined cloisters of St. Willigis.
Through the low gothic arches the sunshine streamed upon the
pavement of tombstones, whose images and inscriptions are mostly
effaced by the footsteps of many generations. There stands the tomb
of Frauenlob, the Minnesinger. His face is sculptured on an
entablature in the wall; a fine, strongly-marked, and serious
countenance. Below it is a bas-relief, representing the poet's
funeral. He is carried to his grave by ladies, whose praise he sang,