# Noyon Cathedral explained — Travel Essays

> Chapter companion for Travel Essays by Robert Louis Stevenson.

## What happens

The narrator describes the town of Noyon, dominated by its grand cathedral, which he compares to a battleship. He explores the cathedral, reflects on its majesty and the inadequacy of sermons compared to its silent preaching, and observes a religious service that he finds both solemn and marred by mundane distractions.

## Themes in this chapter

### Art and the Artistic Life

The cathedral is celebrated as a supreme work of art, more expressive than any sermon, and compared to mountain scenery and a battleship.

### Mortality and the Passage of Time

The narrator reflects on the aged congregation and the 'Miserere' as a meditation on life's tragedies and the passage of time.

## Character check-ins

### The Priest

A down-looking old priest who mumbles prayers but seems distracted.

### The Priest

Two stout, brutal-looking priests who sing lustily like a garrison catch.

## Key lines

> I find I never weary of great churches. It is my favourite kind of mountain scenery.

The narrator never tires of grand churches, which he considers his preferred form of natural landscape.

_Expresses the narrator's deep appreciation for cathedrals as sublime art._

> ’Tis the best preacher itself, and preaches day and night; not only telling you of man’s art and aspirations in the past, but convicting your own soul of ardent sympathies; or rather, like all good preachers, it sets you preaching to yourself;⁠—and every man is his own doctor of divinity in the last resort.

The cathedral itself is the finest preacher, inspiring self-reflection and personal interpretation of divinity.

_Highlights the cathedral's role in prompting inner spiritual contemplation._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/travel_essays_se/chapters/noyon-cathedral
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/travel_essays_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/travel_essays_se/chapters