BIG AND LITTLE. 179 



In nothing is this infinite relativity of hunian 

 ideas more clearly or impressively visible than 

 in onr common very vague conceptions of big 

 and little. St. Paul's ajtpears to us from 

 most points of view a very large and imposing 

 building, even if we frankly admit its architectural 

 feebleness and its commonplace construction. On 

 the other hand, the isle of Portland, in Dorset- 

 shire, appears to ns but a small place, a little 

 peninsula of solid rock, on the central knoll of 

 which a man can stand and look n[)on the sea and. 

 the clifTs on every side close around him. Never- 

 theless, St. Paul's was built of Portland stone, 

 and so were half the other largest buildings in 

 London; and for two hundred years the unwea- 

 ried quarrymen have gone on pegging away with- 

 out stop[)ing at the narrow area of that tiny 

 island, removing huge slabs — observe, we call 

 them huge — for the construction of innumerable 

 "gigantic" and "imposing" fa9ades, without so 

 much as visibly lowering the general surface of a 

 few acres in the centre of Portland. St. Paul's 

 is big, because we measure it against other and 

 smaller human edifices ; the blocks are huge, be- 

 cause we measure them against bricks or building- 

 stones of human fashioning; but Portland is 

 small, because we measure it not against any 

 puny human object, but against Wight, or Arran, 

 or England itself. 



