ortions, like the nave and side aisles of a cathedral; the middle
space, leading to the door, being wider than the others. The granite of
the shafts is partly gray and partly rose-colored, but, in the shadow in
which they stand, the difference of hue is hardly perceptible. The
proportions of these columns are faultless; and their massive shafts and
richly-carved capitals produce the effect, at once, of beauty and
sublimity. The pediment above is now a bald front of ragged stone, but
it was once adorned with bas-reliefs in bronze; and the holes, made by
the rivets with which they were fastened, are still to be seen.

The aisles of the portico were once vaulted with bronze, and massive
beams or slabs of the same metal stretched across the whole structure;
but this was removed by Urban VIII., and melted into a baldachino to
deface St. Peter's, and cannon to defend the castle of St. Angelo; and,
not content with this, he has added insult to injury, and commemorated
his robbery in a Latin inscription, in which he claims to be commended
as for a praiseworthy act. But even this is not the heaviest weight
resting on the memory of that vandal pope. He shares with Bernini the
reproach of having added those hideous belfries which now rise above
each end of the vestibule--as wanton and unprovoked an offense against
good taste as ever was committed. A cocked hat upon the statue of
Demosthenes in the Vatican would not be a more discordant addition. The
artist should have gone to the stake, before giving his hand to such a
piece of disfigurement.

The cell, or main portion of the building to which the portico is
attached, is a simple structure, circular in form, and built of brick.
It was formerly encrusted with marble. The cell and the portico stand to
each other in the most harmonious relation, altho it seems to be
admitted that the latter was an addition, not contemplated when the cell
was built. But in the combination there is nothing forced or unnatural,
and they seem as necessary and as preordained complements, one to the
other, as a fine face and a fine head. The cell is a type of masculine
dignity, and the portico, of feminine grace; and the result is a perfect
architectural union.

The interior--a rotunda, surmounted by a dome--is converted into a
Christian church, a purpose to which its form and structure are not well
adapted; and the altars and their accessories are not improvements in an
architectural point of view. But