The ceiling of the Lantern is sky and air, against which, as a background, floats the beautiful female figure representing the Human Understanding, lifting her veil and looking upward from Finite Intellectual Achievement (typified in the circle of figures in the collar) to that which is beyond; in a word, Intellectual Progress looking upward and forward. She is attended by two cherubs, or geniuses; one holds the book of wisdom and knowledge, the other seems, by his gesture, to be encouraging those beneath to persist in their struggle towards perfection. The decoration of the collar consists of a ring of twelve seated figures, male and female, ranged against a wall of mosaic patterning. They are of colossal size, measuring, as they sit, about ten feet in height. They represent the twelve countries, or epochs, which have contributed most to the development of present-day civilization in this country. Beside each is a tablet, decorated with palms, on which is inscribed the name of the country typified, and below this, on a continuous banderole or streamer, is the name of some chief or typical contribution of that country to the sum of human excellence. The figures follow each other in chronological order, beginning, appropriately enough, at the East, the East being the cradle of civilization. The list is as follows: _Egypt_, typifying Written Records; _Judea_, Religion; _Greece_, Philosophy; _Rome_, Administration; _Islam_, Physics; _The Middle Ages_, Modern Languages; _Italy_, the Fine Arts; _Germany_, the Art of Printing; _Spain_, Discovery; _England_, Literature; _France_, Emancipation; and _America_, Science. [Illustration: BACON. BY JOHN J. BOYLE.]