birth, from which they were
separated for ever, they should have looked upon each other as the
disciples did when the storm came down on the Tiberias Lake, and have
yielded ready and loving obedience to those who ruled them in His name,
who had there rebuked the winds and commanded stillness to the sea. And
if the stranger would yet learn in what spirit it was that the dominion
of Venice was begun, and in what strength she went forth conquering and
to conquer, let him not seek to estimate the wealth of her arsenals or
number of her armies, nor look upon the pageantry of her palaces, nor
enter into the secrets of her councils; but let him ascend the highest
tier of the stern ledges that sweep round the altar of Torcello, and
then, looking as the pilot did of old along the marble ribs of the
goodly temple ship, let him repeople its veined deck with the shadows of
its dead mariners, and strive to feel in himself the strength of heart
that was kindled within them, when first, after the pillars of it had
settled in the sand, and the roof of it had been closed against the
angry sky that was still reddened by the fires of their
homesteads,--first, within the shelter of its knitted walls, amidst the
murmur of the waste of waves and the beating of the wings of the
sea-birds round the rock that was strange to them,--rose that ancient
hymn, in the power of their gathered voices:

THE SEA IS HIS, AND HE MADE IT:
AND HIS HANDS PREPARED THE DRY LAND.

FOOTNOTES

[4] Appendix 4, "Date of the Duomo of Torcello."

[5] For a full account of the form and symbolical meaning of the
Basilica, see Lord Lindsay's "Christian Art," vol. i. p. 12. It is
much to be regretted that the Chevalier Bunsen's work on the
Basilicas of Rome is not translated into English.

[6] The measures are given in Appendix 3.

[7] Hope's "Historical Essay on Architecture" (third edition, 1840),
chap. ix. p. 95. In other respects Mr. Hope has done justice to this
building, and to the style of the early Christian churches in
general.

[8] A sketch has been given of this capital in my folio work.

[9] Appendix 5, "Modern Pulpits."

CHAPTER III.

MURANO.

Sec. I. The decay of the city of Venice is, in many respects, like that
of an outwearied and aged human frame; the cause of its decrepitude is
indeed at the heart, but the outward appearances of it are first at the
extremities. In the centre of the city the