stories in height occupy the sides of the space within the
outer walls till the outline of the building is brought to very nearly
an exact square. Externally this church is uninteresting,[31] but its
interior is of surpassing beauty, and can be better described in the
eloquent language of Gilbert Scott[32] than in any other: "Simple as
is the primary ideal, the actual effect is one of great intricacy, and
of continuous gradation of parts, from the small arcades up to the
stupendous dome, which hangs with little apparent support like a vast
bubble over the centre, or as Procopius, who witnessed its erection,
described it, 'as if suspended by a chain from heaven.'

"The dome is lighted by forty small windows, which pierce it
immediately above the cornice which crowns its pendentives, and which,
by subdividing its lower part into narrow piers, increases the feeling
of its being supported by its own buoyancy.

"The interior thus generated, covered almost wholly by domes, or
portions of them, each rising in succession higher and higher towards
the floating hemisphere in the centre, and so arranged that one shall
open out the view to others, and that nearly the entire system of
vaulting may be viewed at a single glance, appears to me to be in some
respects the noblest which has ever been designed, as it was certainly
the most daring which, up to that time at least, if not absolutely,
had ever been constructed." After pointing out how the smaller arcades
and apsidal projections, and the vistas obtained through the various
arched openings, introduced intricate effects of perspective and
constant changes of aspect, Scott continues: "This union of the more
palpable with the more mysterious, of the vast unbroken expanse with
the intricately broken perspective, must, as it appears to me, and as
I judge from representations, produce an impression more astounding
than that of almost any other building: but when we consider the whole
as clothed with the richest beauties of surface,--its piers encrusted
with inlaid marbles of every hue, its arcades of marble gorgeously
carved, its domes and vaultings resplendent with gold mosaic
interspersed with solemn figures, and its wide-spreading floors rich
with marble tesselation, over which the buoyant dome floats
self-supported, and seems to sail over you as you move,--I cannot
conceive of anything more astonishing, more solemn, and more
magnificent."

The type of church of which this magni