MOSAIC, in the old basilica of St. Paul (A.D. 1206). In the centre an altar veiled, on which are the Gospels (or perhaps, rather, the _Book of Life_, the seven-sealed book in the Revelations), and the instruments of the Passion. Behind it rises a large Greek cross, adorned with gold and jewels. Underneath, at the foot of the altar, five small figures standing and bearing palms, representing those who suffered for the cause of Christ; and on each side, kneeling, the monk Aginulph, and Giovanni Gaetano Orsini, afterwards Nicholas III. On each side of the altar, a majestic angel: one bears a scroll, inscribed GLORIA IN EXCELSIS DEO; the other, ET IN TERRA PAX HOMINIBUS BONÆ VOLUNTATIS. Beyond these the Apostles, six on each side, bearing scrolls with the articles of the Creed. They are much alike, all in white robes, and alternately with each stands a palm-tree, the symbol of victory and resurrection. This composition, of a colossal size, formed a kind of frieze (taking the place of the emblematical lamb and twelve sheep) round the apsis of the Basilica. * * * * * In sculpture, the Apostles, as a series, entered into all decorative ecclesiastical architecture: sometimes on the exterior of the edifice, always in the interior. In our English cathedrals they are seldom found unmutilated, except when out of the reach of the spoiler; such was the indiscriminate rage which confounded the venerable effigies of these delegated teachers of the truth with the images which were supposed to belong exclusively to the repudiated religion!