“If you can get any ships here and will start off and steer carefully among the islands, you won’t find anything in your way until you get there.  But, it was different with Columbus, you see, sir.  He had a whole continent blocking up his road to the Indies; but, for my part, I’m very glad, for various reasons, that it happened so.”

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It is probable that if Johnny Green could have delivered this little speech, that Vasco Nunez de Balboa would have been one of the most astonished men in the world!

Whether he and his fellow-adventurers would ever have set out to sail over those blue waters, in search of the treasures of the East, is more than I can say, but it is certain that if he had started off on such an expedition, he would have found things pretty much as Johnny Green had told him.

THE LARGEST CHURCH IN THE WORLD.

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This is St. Peter’s at Rome.  Is it possible to look upon such a magnificent edifice without acknowledging it as the grandest of all churches?  There are some others in the world more beautiful, and some more architecturally perfect; but there is none so vast, so impressive, so grand!

This great building was commenced in 1506, but it was a century and a half before it was finished.  Among other great architects, Michael Angelo assisted in its construction.  The building is estimated to have cost, simply for its erection, about fifty millions of dollars, and it has cost a great deal in addition in later years.

Its dimensions are enormous.  You cannot understand what a great building it is unless you could see it side by side with some house or church with which you are familiar.  Several of the largest churches in this country could be stood up inside of St. Peter’s without touching walls or roof, or crowding each other in the least.

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There are but three works of man in the whole world which are higher than the little knob which you see on the cupola surmounting the great dome of St. Peter’s.  These more lofty buildings are the Great Pyramid of Egypt, the Spire of Strasbourg, and the Tower of Amiens.  The highest of these, the pyramid, is, however, only forty-two feet above St. Peter’s.  The great dome is supported by four pillars, each of which is seventy feet thick!

But let us step inside of this great edifice.  I think you will be there even more impressed with its height and extent than you were when you stood on the outside.

Is not here a vast and lofty expanse?  But even from this favorable point you cannot get a complete view of the interior.  In front of you, you see in the distance the light striking down from above.  There is the great dome, and when you walk beneath it you will be amazed at its enormous height.  There are four great halls like this one directly before us, for the church is built in the form of a cross, with the dome at the intersection of the arms.  There are also openings in various directions, which lead into what are called chapels, but which are in reality as large as ordinary sized churches.