ty poised and still, like a balloon
in a calm, while the rest of the edifice is buried out of sight in the
fog and smoke. The visitor is continually coming in sight of this dome,
standing out in the clearest outline when all lower objects are obscure
or hidden. Insensibly he forms a kind of attachment to it, at the
expression of which the hardened old Londoner is amused; for he may have
passed the building twice a day for forty years without ever having had
the curiosity to enter its doors, or even to cast a glance upwards at
its sublime proportions.

It is the verdant American who is penetrated to the heart by these
august triumphs of human skill and daring. It is we who, on going down
into the crypt of St. Paul's, are so deeply moved at the inscription
upon the tomb of the architect of the cathedral:--

"Underneath is laid the builder of this church and city, Christopher
Wren, who lived more than ninety years, not for himself, but for the
public good. Reader, if you seek his monument, look around!"

The writer of this inscription, when he used the word _circumspice_,
which we translate _look around_, did not intend probably to confine the
reader's attention to St. Paul's. Much of the old part of London is
adorned by proofs of Wren's skill and taste; for it was he who rebuilt
most of the churches and other public buildings which were destroyed by
the great fire of London in 1666. He built or rebuilt fifty-five
churches in London alone, besides thirty-six halls for the guilds and
mechanics' societies. The royal palaces of Hampton Court and Kensington
were chiefly his work. He was the architect of Temple Bar, Drury Lane
Theatre, the Royal Exchange, and the Monument. It was he who adapted the
ancient palace at Greenwich to its present purpose, a retreat for old
sailors. The beautiful city of Oxford, too, contains colleges and
churches constructed or reconstructed by him. It is doubtful if any
other man of his profession ever did so much work, as he, and certainly
none ever worked more faithfully.

With all this, he was a self-taught architect. He was neither intended
by his father to pursue that profession, nor did he ever receive
instruction in it from an architect. He came of an old family of high
rank in the Church of England, his father, a clergyman richly provided
with benefices, and his uncle being that famous Bishop of Ely who was
imprisoned in the Tower eighteen years for his adherence to the royal
cause in th