in spite of this--in spite of all that
it has suffered at the hands of rapacity and bad taste--tho the panels
of the majestic dome have been stript of their bronze, and the whole has
been daubed over with a glaring coat of whitewash--the interior still
remains, with all its rare beauty essentially unimpaired. And the reason
of this is that this charm is the result of form and proportion, and can
not be lost except by entire destruction. The only light which the
temple receives is from a circular opening of twenty-eight feet in
diameter at the top; and falling, as it does, directly from the sky, it
fills the whole space with the purity of the heavens themselves. The
magical effect of this kind of illumination it is impossible to
describe....

The pavement of the Pantheon, composed of porphyry, pavonazzetto, and
giallo antico, tho constantly overflowed by the Tiber, and drenched by
the rains which fall upon it from the roof, is the finest in Rome. There
is an opening in the center, through which the water entering by the
dome is carried off into a reservoir.

The Pantheon has a peculiar interest in the history of art, as the
burial place of Raphael. His grave was opened in 1833, and the remains
found to be lying in the spot which Vasari had pointed out.

HADRIAN'S TOMB[11]

BY RODOLFO LANCIANI

Nerva was the last Emperor buried in the mausoleum of Augustus.[12]
Trajan's ashes were laid to rest in an urn of gold under his monumental
column. Hadrian determined to raise a new tomb for himself and his
successors, and, like Augustus, selected a site on the green and shady
banks of the Tiber, not on the city side, however, but in the gardens of
Domitia, which, with those of Agrippina, formed a crown property called
by Tacitus "Nero's Gardens." The mausoleum and the bridge which
gave access to it were substantially finished in A.D. 136.
Antoninus Pius, after completing the ornamental part in 139, transferred
to it Hadrian's ashes from their temporary burial-place in the former
villa of Cicero at Puteoli, and was himself afterward interred there....

Beside the passages of the "Hadrian's Life," and of Dion Cassius, two
descriptions of the monument have come down to us, one by Procopius, the
other by Leo I. From these we learn that it was composed of a square
basement of moderate height, each side of which measured 247 feet. It
was faced with blocks of Parian marble, with pilasters at the corners,
crowned by a capit