It is thin, thoughtful, and dignified;
thoroughly fine in every way. It wears a cap surmounted by two winged
lions; and, therefore, I think Selvatico must have inaccurately written
the list given in the note, for this head is certainly meant to express
the superiority of the Venetian character over that of other nations.
Nothing is more remarkable in all early sculpture, than its appreciation
of the signs of dignity of character in the features, and the way in
which it can exalt the principal figure in any subject by a few touches.

Sec. CV. SEVENTEENTH CAPITAL. This has been so destroyed by the sea wind,
which sweeps at this point of the arcade round the angle of the palace,
that its inscriptions are no longer legible, and great part of its
figures are gone. Selvatico states them as follows: Solomon, the wise;
Priscian, the grammarian; Aristotle, the logician; Tully, the orator;
Pythagoras, the philosopher; Archimedes, the mechanic; Orpheus, the
musician; Ptolemy, the astronomer. The fragments actually remaining are
the following:

_First side._ A figure with two books, in a robe richly decorated with
circles of roses. Inscribed "SALOMON (SAP)IENS."

_Second side._ A man with one book, poring over it: he has had a long
stick or reed in his hand. Of inscription only the letters "GRAMMATIC"
remain.

_Third side._ "ARISTOTLE:" so inscribed. He has a peaked double beard
and a flat cap, from under which his long hair falls down his back.

_Fourth side._ Destroyed.

_Fifth side._ Destroyed, all but a board with three (counters?) on it.

_Sixth side._ A figure with compasses. Inscribed "GEOMET * *"

_Seventh side._ Nothing is left but a guitar with its handle wrought
into a lion's head.

_Eighth side._ Destroyed.

Sec. CVI. We have now arrived at the EIGHTEENTH CAPITAL, the most
interesting and beautiful of the palace. It represents the planets, and
the sun and moon, in those divisions of the zodiac known to astrologers
as their "houses;" and perhaps indicates, by the position in which they
are placed, the period of the year at which this great corner-stone was
laid. The inscriptions above have been in quaint Latin rhyme, but are
now decipherable only in fragments, and that with the more difficulty
because the rusty iron bar that binds the abacus has broken away, in its
expansion, nearly all the upper portions of the stone, and with them the
signs of contraction, which are of great importance. I shall give the
fra