action of the surcharged atmosphere. Yet
a word or two about it may interest. Concentric circles surround the
opening; and the remaining surface is ingeniously divided into eight
compartments by designs of piers and round arches; the piers
coinciding with the eight recesses below. In these compartments are
scenes from the life of the patronal saint: (1) The Conversion, (2)
Elymas, (3) Cripple at Lystra, (4) Jailer at Philippi, (5) Mars Hill,
(6) Burning Books at Ephesus, (7) Before Agrippa, (8) Shipwreck. We
have all of us heard from the days of our boyhood or girlhood the
story of the painter, on a platform at a great height, who stepped
back to get a better view of his work. As he did so, an assistant,
standing by, brush in hand, observed with alarm that the slightest
further backward step would entail his falling headlong and being
dashed to pieces. He deliberately daubed the painting; and the artist,
stepping instinctively forward to prevent this, saved his life. The
painter is said to be Thornhill: the scene, the giddy height under the
dome.

The interior height of two diameters will always be a disputed
question. Stephen Wren[101] seemed to think that his grandfather hit
the happy medium of a diameter and a half; but this only reaches to
the windows and Early Fathers. He probably gives us the Surveyor's
_intention_. Afterwards, when Wren was compelled to raise the height
of the exterior, he increased the interior. St. Sophia and the
Invalides are both less than two diameters, and give the idea of
greater area. While it is difficult to see what aesthetic advantage is
gained by a roof and upper regions immersed in perpetual gloom, the
acoustic properties and the light might both have been improved by a
more modest elevation. Yet the advocates of a smaller ratio injure
their case by writing about "a great disproportioned hole in the
'roof.'"

=The Pulpit= was one of the additions suggested in Dean Milman's time,
when the dome area was used for service. It is a memorial to Captain
Robert Fitzgerald, designed by Mr. Penrose; and the marbles come from
various places. It stands on columns, of which the gray are from
Plymouth, the "dark purplish" from Anglesea, and the red from Cork. In
the panels and elsewhere the green is from Tenos, and the yellow
chiefly from Siena, with a little of the ancient Giallo Antico from
Rome.[102] Alike in the design, and in the combination of these
different marbles, the pulpit is a fitt