To this the peculiar character of the monastery of Einsiedeln, as a far-famed place of pilgrimage, contributed. In general there is little to admire in the disposition of any one, who does not find his soul elevated in places hallowed by departed greatness. A noble feeling lay at the bottom of the expeditions to the Holy Sepulchre during the Middle Ages, although they partook of all the rudeness of the time that produced them; and even yet, how many spots are there in the land of Palestine, that awaken, in the bosom of the traveler, meditations, in which earnestness and sorrow mingle. On fields of battle, in haunts, where ruled the leaders and the teachers of mankind, memory works with double power, and even around graves known only to perishing tradition, there lingers for some an imperishable charm. No censure therefore on pilgrimages that spring from such deep impulses! But when the hand of man ventures to write down in such a place: "Here is plenary absolution from guilt and punishment," when the mortal will forestall the eternal judge, and by the fancy of expiation obtained through such a pilgrimage, the frivolity of the sinner is directly enhanced and the perpetration of grosser crimes encouraged, when money rings in the sanctuary, in whose courts a market is opened for relics and consecrated amulets--who can be angry, if a feeling of indignation flashes through the mind of the clear-sighted thinker, as well as through the believing heart of the truly pious? But Zwingli was now compelled to witness frequent scenes of this kind. And in what troubled shapes, did not the events of the day, the delusion of the crowd, and the avarice of those who made again of them, array themselves, when in the stillness of the evening or the night, the Gospel opened to him its fountains of light, warmth, and living sacrifice. No doubt this conviction of the unworthiness of this trade, carried on with lost men, was confirmed, and the impulse to come out at once and maintain stout battle against all these powers of darkness, more and more strengthened. Though somewhat before, yet now more than ever the feeling, that such a conflict must come, paved his way; the eyes of thousands were seeking some, who would undertake it, and were turned with desire to every one, gifted with a resolute spirit; and many friendly voices told him, that on his efforts the hopes of the father-land chiefly rested. "This is he"--said JohnŒchslin in Stein to his friend Fabricius--"of whom I cannot say enough,--he, who towers above all other Swiss,--he, who has spread around him here a better civilization." "He"--the German Nesenus wrote to him--"who has humbled our monks, those spiritual tyrants, has done more for the true doctrine of Christ, than he who has beaten the ferocious Turks. Go on, my Zwingli, in the work begun for the blessing of your nation." "You show us"--is contained in a letter of Rhenanus from Basel--"the true