d in mid air. One thousand two
hundred large beams were employed in it.

Fea and Winckelmann assert that the lead sheets which cover the dome
must be renewed eight or ten times in a century. Winckelmann attributes
their rapid decay to the corrosive action of the sirocco wind; Fea to
the variations in temperature, which cause the lead to melt in summer,
and crack in winter.

The size and height, the number of columns, altars, statues, and
pictures,--in short, the _mirabilia_ of S. Peter's,--have been greatly
exaggerated. There is no necessity of exaggeration when the truth is
in itself so astonishing. Readers fond of statistics may consult the
works of Briccolani and Visconti.[86] The basilica is approached by a
square 1256 feet in diameter. The nave is six hundred and thirteen
feet long, eighty-eight wide, one hundred and thirty-three high; the
transept is four hundred and forty-nine feet long. The cornice and the
mosaic inscription of the frieze are 1943 feet long. The dome towers
to the height of four hundred and forty-eight feet above the pavement,
with a diameter on the interior of 139.9 feet, a trifle less than
that of the Pantheon. The letters on the frieze are four feet eight
inches high. The old church contained sixty-eight altars and two
hundred and sixty-eight columns; while the modern one contains
forty-six altars,--before which one hundred and twenty-one lamps are
burning day and night,--and seven hundred and forty-eight columns, of
marble, stone and bronze. The statues number three hundred and
eighty-six, the windows two hundred and ninety.

It is easy to imagine to what surprising effects of light and shade
such vastness of proportion lends itself on the occasion of
illuminations. These were made both inside (Holy Thursday and Good
Friday) and outside (Easter, and June 29). The outside illumination
required the use of forty-four hundred lanterns, and of seven hundred
and ninety-one torches, and the help of three hundred and sixty-five
men. It has not been seen since 1870. I have heard from old friends
who remember the illumination of the interior, which was given up more
than half a century ago, that no sight could be more impressive. In
the darkness of the night, a cross studded with thirteen hundred and
eighty lights shone like a meteor at a prodigious height, while the
multitude crowding the church knelt and prayed in silent rapture.

Before leaving the Vatican let me answer a doubt which may natura