," writes Mr. Hillard, "and to have been a single object in a
colossal structure of architecture and sculpture, which would have had a
foreground and a background, and been crowned with a mass at once
dome-like and pyramidal. Torn, as it is, from its proper place; divorced
from its proportionate companionship; stuck against the wall of a
church; and brought face to face with the observer,--what wonder that so
many of those who see it turn away with no other impressions than those
of caricature and exaggeration!"

Mr. Hillard adds:--

"But who that can appreciate the sublime in art will fail to bow
down before it as embodied in this wonderful statue? The majestic
character of the head, the prodigious muscles of the chest and
arms, and the beard that flows like a torrent to the waist,
represent a being of more than mortal port and power, speaking with
the authority, and frowning with the sanctions of incarnate law.
The drapery of the lower part of the figure is inferior to the
anatomy of the upper part. Remarkable as the execution of the
statue is, the expression is yet more so; for notwithstanding its
colossal proportions, its prominent characteristic is the
embodiment of intellectual power. It is the great leader and
lawgiver of his people that we see, whose voice was command, and
whose outstretched arm sustained a nation's infant steps. He looks
as if he might control the energies of nature as well as shape the
mould in which the character of his people should be formed. That
any one should stand before this statue in a scoffing mood is to me
perfectly inexplicable. My own emotions were more nearly akin to
absolute bodily fear. At an irreverent word, I should have expected
the brow to contract into a darker frown, and the marble lips to
unclose in rebuke."

[Illustration: DETAIL FROM STUART MONUMENT, ST. PETER'S, ROME
Antonio Canova
_Page 33_]

William Watson condenses his impressions of this majestic sculpture in
the following quatrain.--

"The captain's might, and mystery of the seer--
Remoteness of Jehovah's colloquist,
Nearness of man's heaven-advocate--are here:
Alone Mount Nebo's harsh foreshadow is miss'd."

The impressive group of sculptures and buildings on the
Campidoglio--where once the shrine of Jupiter Capitolinus stood--owes
its present pi