express the
peculiar sweetness of the moonlight at Venice, as seen across the
lagoons. Whether this was intended by putting the planet in the boat,
may be questionable, but assuredly the idea was meant to be conveyed by
the dress of the figure. For all the draperies of the other figures on
this capital, as well as on the rest of the facade, are disposed in
severe but full folds, showing little of the forms beneath them; but the
moon's drapery _ripples_ down to her feet, so as exactly to suggest the
trembling of the moonlight on the waves. This beautiful idea is highly
characteristic of the thoughtfulness of the early sculptors: five
hundred men may be now found who could have cut the drapery, as such,
far better, for one who would have disposed its folds with this
intention. The inscription is:

"LUNE CANCER DOMU T. PBET IORBE SIGNORU."

Sec. CXV. _Eighth side._ God creating Man. Represented as a throned
figure, with a glory round the head, laying his left hand on the head of
a naked youth, and sustaining him with his right hand. The inscription
puzzled me for a long time; but except the lost r and m of "formavit,"
and a letter quite undefaced, but to me unintelligible, before the word
Eva, in the shape of a figure of 7, I have safely ascertained the rest.

"DELIMO DSADA DECO STAFO * * AVIT7EVA."

Or

"De limo Dominus Adam, de costa fo(rm) avit Evam;"
From the dust the Lord made Adam, and from the rib Eve.

I imagine the whole of this capital, therefore--the principal one of the
old palace,--to have been intended to signify, first, the formation of
the planets for the service of man upon the earth; secondly, the entire
subjection of the fates and fortune of man to the will of God, as
determined from the time when the earth and stars were made, and, in
fact, written in the volume of the stars themselves.

Thus interpreted, the doctrines of judicial astrology were not only
consistent with, but an aid to, the most spiritual and humble
Christianity.

In the workmanship and grouping of its foliage, this capital is, on the
whole, the finest I know in Europe. The sculptor has put his whole
strength into it. I trust that it will appear among the other Venetian
casts lately taken for the Crystal Palace; but if not, I have myself
cast all its figures, and two of its leaves, and I intend to give
drawings of them on a large scale in my folio work.

Sec. CXVI. NINETEENTH CAPITAL. This is, of course, the second