552 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



We have never felt the feebleness of our descriptive powers so keenly as in 

 the preparation of this paper. We have seen some of the works of the past, and 

 their impressions can never be obliterated from our mind. We have seen the 

 magnificent Cathedral in Milan, have seen the sun's rays reflected from its white 

 marble, towering up 358 feet; we have watched day after day the light and 

 shadow creep over its 10,000 statues, 1,500 bas reUefs, and its 136 spires. We 

 have wandered over its variegated marble floor 486 feet long and 288 feet wide, 

 and have climbed wearily to the top, yet we have no power of description — no 

 dehneation can convey our ideas adequate to the effect in viewing this stupend- 

 ous church, begun in 1387, March 15th, and yet unfinished, costing so far $110,- 

 000,000. The Temple of Diana, at Ephesus, has been graphically described by 

 archaeologists and we cannot^ do better than to gather bits of their brilliant pen 

 pictures. The original object of worship in Ephesus was a small statue of Diana 

 made of ebony and believed in those days to have been sent down from heaven 

 by Jupiter. A temple was erected to contain this image and completed during 

 the reign of Servius Tullius 570 B. C. This temple was said to have been de- 

 stroyed by fire. A second one was commenced about 540 B. C. exceeding the 

 first in splendor, and this was partially burned on the day Socrates drank the 

 hemlock 400 B. C, After having been restored with greater grandeur it was again 

 partially burned 356 B. C. on the night Alexander the Great was born. Materials 

 saved were sold, women gave up their jewelry, and contributions were sent from 

 all parts of Asia, amounting to an immense treasure, and thus the Temple of Diana 

 was restored in all its magnificence. Pliny says " that to secure the foundations of 

 the conduits and sewers which were to support this structure, there were laid beds 

 of charcoal, well rammed; over them wool; and that 220 years elapsed before 

 this grand temple was completed." It was 425 feet in length and 220 in breadth, 

 supported by 127 marble Ionic columns sixty feet high, of which thirty-six were 

 richly sculptured and fhe rest highly polished. Each column was a gift of a 

 king. The building and courts were encompassed with strong walls, there was a 

 court on each side of the temple which was built upon a series of narrow arches 

 one within another. The site being a morass, the foundations were said to have 

 cost more than the superstructure. This magnificent work of art is no more, 

 but if we should visit Constantinople we would find the Church of St, Sophia 

 raised upon some of these columns given by kings to the goddess Diana. Jus- 

 tinian also filled Byzantium with statues from Ephesus. 



One thing the ancients did not attempt; at least there is no record of their 

 building self-supporting domes prior to the church of St. Sophia, in Constantinople, 

 'Originally built by Constantine, destroyed by fire, and rebuilt by Justinian. The 

 ..dome is 175 feet high. St. Paul's, London, commenced in 1675 and finished in 

 17 10, has a dome 145 feet in diameter, and 365 feet from the ground. St. Peter's 

 has the largest and highest dome known. This beautiful pile was commenced in 

 A. D. 1450, and finished three and a half centuries after. The dome is 405 feet 

 from the pavement and 193 feet in diameter. The domes of the churches of St. 

 Genevieve and Invalides, Paris, are also self-supporting. 



