th the
most tremendous punishment. We have already seen, that the first reason
for the fall of Venice was the manifestation of such a spirit; and it is
most singular to observe the definiteness with which it is here
marked,--as if so appointed, that it might be impossible for future ages
to miss the lesson. For, in the long inscriptions[38] which record the
acts of Vincenzo Cappello, it might, at least, have been anticipated
that some expressions would occur indicative of remaining pretence to
religious feeling, or formal acknowledgement of Divine power. But there
are none whatever. The name of God does not once occur; that of St. Mark
is found only in the statement that Cappello was a procurator of the
church: there is no word touching either on the faith or hope of the
deceased; and the only sentence which alludes to supernatural powers at
all, alludes to them under the heathen name of _fates_, in its
explanation of what the Admiral Cappello _would_ have accomplished,
"nisi fata Christianis adversa vetuissent."

Sec. XIX. Having taken sufficient note of all the baseness of mind which
these facts indicate in the people, we shall not be surprised to find
immediate signs of dotage in the conception of their architecture. The
churches raised throughout this period are so grossly debased, that even
the Italian critics of the present day, who are partially awakened to
the true state of art in Italy, though blind, as yet, to its true cause,
exhaust their terms of reproach upon these last efforts of the
Renaissance builders. The two churches of San Moise and Santa Maria
Zobenigo, which are among the most remarkable in Venice for their
manifestation of insolent atheism, are characterized by Lazari, the one
as "culmine d'ogni follia architettonica," the other as "orrido ammasso
di pietra d'Istria," with added expressions of contempt, as just as it
is unmitigated.

Sec. XX. Now both these churches, which I should like the reader to visit
in succession, if possible, after that of Sta. Maria Formosa, agree with
that church, and with each other, in being totally destitute of
religious symbols, and entirely dedicated to the honor of two Venetian
families. In San Moise, a bust of Vincenzo Fini is set on a tall narrow
pyramid, above the central door, with this marvellous inscription:

"OMNE FASTIGIVM
VIRTVTE IMPLET
VINCENTIVS FINI."

It is very difficult to translate this; for fastigium, besides its
general sense, has a