Note 520 — CANTO THE FOURTH[375]
Reading edition
[Compare The Prophecy of Dante, iv. 49-53—
"While still stands The austere Pantheon, into heaven shall soar A dome, its image, while the base expands Into a fane surpassing all before, Such as all flesh shall flock to kneel in—"
Compare, too, Browning's Christmas Eve, sect, x.—
"Is it really on the earth, This miraculous dome of God? Has the angel's measuring-rod Which numbered cubits, gem from gem, 'Twixt the gates of the new Jerusalem, Meted it out,—and what he meted, Have the sons of men completed? —Binding ever as he bade, Columns in the colonnade, With arms wide open to embrace The entry of the human race?"]