CONSTANTINOPLE. 
21 
been often relatively discussed ; yet they reasonably enter in* 
to no comparison. No accounts have been more exaggerated 
than those which refer to the former, whose gloomy appear¬ 
ance is well suited to the ideas we entertain of its present ab¬ 
ject and depraved state. In the time of Procopius, its dome 
might have seemed suspended by a chain from heaven; but 
at present, it exhibits much more of a subterranean than of an 
aerial character ; neither does it seem consistent with the per¬ 
fection of an edifice intended to elevate the mind, that the en¬ 
trance should be by a descent as into a cellar. The approach 
to the Pantheon at Rome, as well as to the spacious aisle and 
dome of St, Peters, is -by ascending; but, in order to get be¬ 
neath the dome of St. Sophia, the spectator is conducted 
clown a long flight of stairs. I visited it several times, and al¬ 
ways with tlie same impression. There is, moreover, a little¬ 
ness and confused Gothic barbarism in the disposition of the 
parts which connect the dome with the foundation; and in its 
present state it is bolstered on the outside with heavy but¬ 
tresses like those of a bridge. Mosaic work remains very en¬ 
tire in many parts of the interior. The dome seems to have 
been adorned with an uniform coating of gilded lesserce, which 
the Turks are constantly removing for sale; attaching super¬ 
stitious virtues to those loose fragments of Mosaic, from the 
eagerness with which strangers strive to procure them. In 
the great arch, opposite to the principal entrance, the Mosaic 
is coloured, and represents the figures of saints, of the virgin, 
and groupes of enormous wings without bodies. I copied a 
few letters of an inscription in that part of the building, which 
were beyond all doubt coeval with the edifice itself; and 
therefore, although they offer a very imperfect legend, ills 
proper they should be preserved; nothing of the kind having 
hitherto been noticed in St. Sophia. 
OCKAIXP V COY 
I1ENTHKONTA 
TAAAN TA0EOK 
. . N . . . OICNE 
•EKE! ...... 
The engravings published by Banduri, from drawings by 
Grelot, added to his own description, afford so accurate a re¬ 
presentation of this building, that any further account of it 
would be superfluous. Many absurd stories have been circu¬ 
lated concerning the contents of the small chapels once used 
as oratories, the doors of Which are seen in the walls of the 
