hyry,
now removed.

The seventeenth has the heads of animals: lion, bear, wolf, and so
forth, including the griffin each with its prey.

[Illustration: THE ADAM AND EVE CORNER OF THE DOGES' PALACE]

The eighteenth has eight stone-carving saints, some with a piece of
coloured marble, all named, and all at work: S. Simplicius, S.
Symphorian, who sculps a figure, S. Claudius, and others.

And now we are at the brave corner column which unconcernedly assumes a
responsibility that can hardly be surpassed in the world. For if it were
to falter all would go. Down would topple two of the loveliest facades
that man ever constructed or the centuries ever caressed into greater
beauty. This corner of the palace has an ever-increasing fascination for
me, and at all hours of the day and night this strong column below and
the slenderer one above it hold the light--whether of sun or moon or
artifice--with a peculiar grace.

The design of this capital is, fittingly enough, cosmic. It represents
the signs of the Zodiac with the addition, on the facet opposite the
Dogana, of Christ blessing a child. Facing S. Giorgio are Aquarius and
Capricornus, facing the Lido are Pisces and Sagittarius. Elsewhere are
Justice on the Bull, the Moon in a boat with a Crab, and a Virgin
reading to the Twins.

Above this capital, on the corner of the building itself, are the famous
Adam and Eve, presiding over the keystone of the structure as over the
human race. It is a naive group, as the photograph shows, beneath the
most tactful of trees, and it has no details of beauty; and yet, like
its companions, the Judgment of Solomon and the Sin of Ham, it has a
curious charm--due not a little perhaps to the softening effect of the
winds and the rains. High above our first parents is the Angel Michael.

The first capital after the corner (we are now proceeding down the Riva)
has Tubal Cain the musician, Solomon, Priscian the grammarian, Aristotle
the logician, Euclid the geometrician, and so forth, all named and all
characteristically employed.

The second has heads of, I suppose, types. Ruskin suggests that the best
looking is a Venetian and the others the Venetians' inferiors drawn from
the rest of the world.

The third has youths and women with symbols, signifying I know not what.
All are corpulent enough to suggest gluttony. This is repeated in No. 11
on the Piazzetta side.

The fourth has various animals and no lettering.

The fifth has lion