age, or incongruity, although it was three hundred years in building, by the hands of twenty different Architects.

Begun under Nicholas V. in 1450, it was carried on by Bramante, under Julius II. by Sangallo, and Peruzzi, under Leo X. and by Michael Angelo, who moulded the immense concavity of the Dome, under Paul III. though he died, before it was finished, by Fontana, in the pontificate of Sixtus V.

Succeeding Popes, and succeeding Architects, successively added the lesser Domes, the Portico, the Piazzas, and the Vestry; intermediately ornamenting the Interior, with brass and marble; and gradually securing the Paintings from the corrosive touch of Time, by incor

porating

porating them with the walls in everlasting mosaic.

EXCLUSIVE of the Dome, and Piazzas, the Body of St. Peter's Church is twice as long, twice as broad, and twice as high, as the temple of Jupiter Olympius -one of the Seven Wonders of Antiquity, that still exhibits to the wondering Traveller, silent, and solitary, Porticoes, stretching over the prostrate plains of Greece.

St. Paul's at London, the only Edifice of Modern times with which it can be

worthily compared, compared, does not inclose

within its vast vacuities-including its Porticoes, its Turrets, and its Dome,

one

one fourth part of the cubic square of St. Peter's-the Corridors of which would encompass Ludgate Hill; and the Crowd of Fleet Street-roaring with cars and coaches, might rush on, under cover of the circling Piazzas, as far as Temple-Bar.*

It requires a quarter of an hour to walk round this magic circle. Its circumference cannot therefore be estimated at less than a mile. Seven times as much would now encircle the growing Metropolis of the United States; and the materials

• Travellers have frequently remarked, as a fault, the monotonous simplicity of the Front of St. Peter's; and they have compared it, with derogation, to the variegated Façade of St. Paul's-overlooking the sublime idea of Paul V. and Charles Maderne, to render the Cathedral of Christendom a Monument of Christ and his Apostles. This obliged them to divide the Frontispiece by a regular intercolumniation, upon the twelve Piers of which should stand the twelve Apostles thus emphatically indicated as the Pillars of the Church.

materials of all its Public Buildings, though they conveniently accommodate the business, the pleasures, and the devotions of seventy thousand People, would be insufficient to create such another Edifice as the Cathedral of St. Peter's-The most glorious Structure that has ever been dedicated to the purposes of Religion.

THE most rigid Dissenter from the most rigid Protestants, that have separated themselves from the corruptions of the Romish Apostacy, might feel some flushes of enthusiasm at the sight of a Christian Temple, more glorious than that of Solomon-so long the admiration of the Chosen People-however con

vinced that the heart of man is the Temple of the Lord; and that a contrite Spirit-the offering of the Gospel, is a more acceptable Sacrifice than thousands of Rams, or tens of thousands of Rivers of Oil.

The most frugal Moralist among those Reformed Societies that have brought their practice the nearest to the simplicity of their profession, might hear, without regret, of the uncounted Millions bestowed by Leo the Tenth upon this splendid Edifice, since it was the unlimited sale of indulgences, occasioned by this lavish expenditure, that gave rise to the declamations of Luther and Calvin, against the impositions of the Papal Antichrist.