belonging already to the time when the story of St. Francis was becoming
a passionate tradition, told and painted everywhere with delight.

And that high recess, taking the place of apse, in the centre,--see how
noble it is in the coloured shade surrounding and joining the glow of
its windows, though their form be so simple. You are not to be amused
here by patterns in balanced stone, as a French or English architect
would amuse you, says Arnolfo. "You are to read and think, under these
severe walls of mine; immortal hands will write upon them." We will go
back, therefore, into this line of manuscript chapels presently; but
first, look at the two sepulchral slabs by which you are standing. That
farther of the two from the west end is one of the most beautiful
pieces of fourteenth century sculpture in this world; and it contains
simple elements of excellence, by your understanding of which you may
test your power of understanding the more difficult ones you will have
to deal with presently.

It represents an old man, in the high deeply-folded cap worn by
scholars and gentlemen in Florence from 1300--1500, lying dead, with a
book in his breast, over which his hands are folded. At his feet is
this inscription: "Temporibus hic suis phylosophye atq. medicine culmen
fuit Galileus de Galileis olim Bonajutis qui etiam summo in magistratu
miro quodam modo rempublicam dilexit, cujus sancte memorie bene acte
vite pie benedictus filius hunc tumulum patri sibi suisq. posteris
edidit."

Mr. Murray tells you that the effigies "in low relief" (alas, yes, low
enough now--worn mostly into flat stones, with a trace only of the
deeper lines left, but originally in very bold relief,) with which the
floor of Santa Croce is inlaid, of which this by which you stand is