The clear length of the church within is 615 feet, its utmost breadth 448, its height 464 feet. The greater part of it is of stone, though some portion is of marble. The foundations are immense, and it is said that they contain a greater mass of stone than the building above the ground. In front of the church, and within the colonnade, is a beautiful obelisk, brought from Egypt almost two thousand years ago. On each side of this is a fountain, the waters of which rise to the height of seventy feet and fall in three cascades; the whole forming a cone of falling waters. They continue to fall day and night, and nothing can be more beautiful than the effect produced. They are supplied by ancient Roman aqueducts, from lake Braccano, which is seventeen miles distant. Every thing is vast in and about this wonderful edifice. The interior is very grand, and strikes the beholder with awe. The figures of the four Evangelists, which adorn the inside of the cupola, are of such enormous size, that the pen in the hand of St. Mark is six feet long. The interior is enriched with a great number of figures of saints and other works of art. In the centre of the church, where the light pours down from the dome, is the tomb of St. Peter, before which one hundred lamps are kept constantly burning. Some idea of the vastness of this structure may be formed from the fact that great numbers of persons live upon the roof, in buildings which are not seen from below, yet appear almost like the streets of a city! [Illustration: _A Gypsy telling fortunes._] Fortune-Telling. The desire of looking into futurity--of knowing what is going to happen--appears to be universal in mankind. To a certain extent, we may gratify this feeling, but it is to be done by the exercise of a sound judgment. We may thus generally tell what is coming to pass, in respect to most important transactions of life, so far as is necessary for us. But many people desire to go farther; to unseal the book of fate, and read what is hidden from mortal sight. Young ladies often desire to know who they shall have for husbands: whether they shall be rich or poor; happy or miserable. And instead of leaving these things to time, and the dispensation of Providence, they must often go to some cheat who pretends to tell fortunes. Thus they lose their time and their money, and allow themselves to play the part of folly. Nor are young ladies the only persons who sometimes yield to such idle nonsense. Young men often do the same--and also old men and old women. It is, I believe, a common notion, that certain strange, odd, eccentric, mysterious persons have the power of reading the future and telling what is coming to pass. So common is this shallow superstition, that fortune-tellers, though they require a good deal of money, to read their riddles, often find pretty good encouragement.