mass less imposing, but perhaps more beautiful.  On this account it appears at first sight of less size than the Church of St Paul’s in London.  The beauty of the architecture, viz., of the facade and of the colonnaded portico would require days to examine and admire.  What shall I say then of the wonders of the interior, crowded and charged as it is with the finest pieces of sculpture, columns of the most beautiful verd antique and of jaune antique; the masterpieces of painting copied in mosaic; the precious, stones and marbles of all sorts that adorn the variety of magnificent chapels and altars; the immense baldachin with its twisted columns of bronze (the spoils of the Pantheon and of the temple of Jerusalem); the profusion of gilding and ornament of all sorts and where in spite of this profusion there seems rien de trop.  At first entrance the eye is so dazzled with the magnificent tout ensemble as to be incapable for a long time of examining any thing in detail.  Each chapel abounds in the choicest marbles and precious stones:  in a word it would seem as if the whole wealth of the Earth were concentrated here.  Without impiety or exaggeration, I felt on entering this majestic temple for the first time just as I conceive a resuscitated mortal would feel on being ushered into the scene of the glories of Heaven.  The masterpieces of painting are here perpetuated in mosaic, and so correctly and beautifully done, that unless you approach exceedingly close indeed, it is impossible to distinguish them from paintings.  What an useful as well as ornamental art is the mosaic!  There are a great variety of confessionals where penitents and pilgrims may confess, each in his own tongue, for there is a confessional for the use of almost every native tongue and language in the Catholic world.  The cupola!  What an astonishing sight when you look up at it from below!  How can I better describe it than by relating the anecdote of Michel Angelo its constructor, who when some one made a remark on the impossibility of making a finer Cupola than that of the Pantheon, burst out into the following exclamation:  “Do you think so?  Then I will throw it in the air,” and he fulfilled his word; for the cupola of St Peter’s is exactly of the size of that of the Pantheon, tho’ at such an elevation as to give it only the appearance of one fourth of its real size, or even less.  The sublimity of the design can only be equalled by the boldness and success of its execution.  Till it was done, it was thought by every artist impossible to be done.  What an extraordinary genius was this Michel Angelo!  Ariosto has hot at all exaggerated in his praise when he speaks of him in punning on his name: 

  Michel piu che mortal, Angel divino.[88]

  Michael, less man than Angel and divine.

  —­Trans, W.S.  ROSE.