the portico or vestibulum, a gallery in dimensions and decorations equal to the most spacious cathedrals. 6. It is four hundred feet in length, seventy in hight, and fifty in breadth, paved with variegated marble, covered with a gilt vault, adorned with pillars, pilasters mosaic, and basso-relievos, and terminated at both ends by equestrian statues, one of Constantine, the other of Charlemagne. 7. A fountain at each extremity supplies a stream sufficient to keep a reservoir always full, in order to carry off every unseemly object, and perpetually refresh and purify the air and the pavement. Opposite the five portals of the vestibule are the five doors of the church; three are adorned with pillars of the finest marble; that in the middle has valves of bronze. 8. As you enter, you behold the most extensive hall ever constructed by human art, expanded in magnificent perspective before you: advancing up the nave, you are delighted with the beauty of the variegated marble under your feet, and with the splendor of the golden vault over your head. The lofty Corinthian pilasters with their bold entablature, the intermediate niches with their statues, the arcades with the graceful figures that recline on the curves of their arches, charm your eye in succession as you pass along. 9. But how great your astonishment when you reach the foot of the altar, and standing in the center of the church contemplate the four superb vistas that open around you; and then raise your eyes to the dome, at the prodigious elevation of four hundred feet, extended like a firmament over your nead, and presenting, in glowing mosaic, the companies of the just, the choirs of celestial spirits, and the whole hierarchy of heaven arrayed in the presence of the Eternal, whose "throne, high raised above all hight," crowns the awful scene. 10. When you have feasted your eye with the grandeur of this unparalleled exhibition in the whole. you will turn to the parts, the ornaments, and the furniture, which you will find perfectly corresponding with the magnificent form of the temple itself." Around the dome rise four other cupolas, small indeed when compared to its stupendous. magnitude, but of great boldness when considered separately; six more, three on either side, cover the different divisions of the aisles, and six more of greater dimensions canopy as many chapels, or, to speak more properly, as many churches. 11. All these inferior cupolas are like the grand dome itself, lined with mosaics; many, indeed, of the master-pieces of painting which formerly graced this edifice, have been removed and replaced by mosaics which retain all the tints and beauties of the originals, impressed on a more solid and durable substance. The aisles and altars are adorned with numberless antique pillars, that border the church all around, and form a secondary and subservient order. 12. The variegated walls are, in many places, ornamented with festoons, wreaths, angels, tiaras, crosses, and medallions representing the effigies of different pontiffs. These decorations are of the most beautiful and rarest species of marble, and often of excellent workmanship. Various monuments rise in different parts of the church; but, in their size and accompaniments, so much attention has been paid to general as well as local effect, that they appear rather as parts of the original plan, than posterior additions. Some of these are much admired for their groups and exquisite sculpture, and form very conspicuous features in the ornamental part of this noble temple. 13. The high altar stands under the dome, and thus as it is the most important, so it becomes the most striking object. In order to add to its relief and give it all its majesty, according to the ancient custom still retained in the patriarchal churches at Rome, and in most of the cathedrals in Italy, a lofty canopy rises above it, and forms an intermediate break or repose for the eye between it and the immensity of the dome above. 14. The form, materials, and magnitude of this decoration are equally astonishing. Below the steps of the altar, and of course some distance from it, at the corners, on four masive pedestals, rise four twisted pillars fifty feet in hight, and support an entablature which bears the canopy itself topped with a cross. The whole soars to the elevation of one hundred and thirty-two feet from the pavement, and, excepting the pedestals, is of Corinthian brass; the most lofty massive work of that, or of any other metal, now known. 15. But this brazen edifice, for so it may be called, notwithstanding its magnitude, is so disposed as not to obstruct the view by concealing the chancel and veiling the Cathedra or Chair of St. Peter. This ornament is also of bronze, and consists of a group of four gigantic figures, representing the four principal Doctors of the Greek and Latin churches, supporting the patriarchal chair of St. Peter. The chair is a lofty throne, elevated to the hight of seventy feet from the pavement; a circular window tinged with yellow throws from above a mild splendor around it, so that the whole not unfitly represents the pre-eminence of the Apostolic See, and is acknowledged to form a most becoming and majestic termination to the first of Christian temples. LXXL-ST. PETER'S CHURCH AT ROME. BYRON. 1. But lo! the dome !-the vast and wondrous dome, To which Diana's marvel was a cell Christ's mighty shrine, above his martyrs' tomb! I have beheld the Ephesian miracle Its columns strew the wilderness, and dwell The hyæna and jackal in their shade; I have beheld Sophia's bright roofs swell Their glittering mass i' the sun, and have surveyed Its sanctuary, the while th' usurping Moslem prayed. 2. But thou, of temples old, or altars new, Standest alone, with nothing like to thee; Power, Glory, Strength, and Beauty, all are aisled In this eternal ark of worship undefiled. 3. Enter its grandeur overwhelms thee not: : And why? It is not lessened; but the mind, 4. Thou movest, but increasing with the advance, Like climbing some great Alp, which still doth rise, Deceived by his gigantic elegance: Vastness which grows-but grows to harmonize |