298 ST. MARK’S REST

the north, and a fire infolding itself. Also in the midst thereof was* the likeness of Four living Creatures.

“And this was the aspect of them; the Likeness of a man was upon them.

“And every one had four faces, and every one four wings. And they had the hands of a Man under their wings. And their wings were stretched upward, two wings of every one were joined one to another, and two covered their bodies. And when they went, I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of great waters, as the voice of the Almighty, the voice of speech, the noise of an Host.”

(To us in Venice, is not the noise of the great waters known-and the noise of an Host? May we hear also the voice of the Almighty?)

“And they went every one straight forward. Whither the Spirit was to go, they went. And this was the likeness of their faces: they four had the face of a Man” (to the front), “and the face of a Lion on the right side, and the face of an Ox on the left side, and” (looking back) “the face of an Eagle.”

And not of an Ape, then, my beautifully-browed Cockney friend?-the unscientific Prophet! The face of Man; and of the wild beasts of the earth, and of the tame, and of the birds of the air. This was the Vision of the Glory of the Lord.

117. “And as I beheld the living creatures, behold, one wheel upon the earth, by the living creatures, with his four faces, ... and their aspect, and their work, was as a wheel in the midst of a wheel.”

Crossed, that is, the meridians of the four quarters of the earth. (See Holbein’s drawing of it in his Old Testament series.¹)

* What alterations I make are from the Septuagint.²

¹ [The series from which a figure is given in Ariadne Florentina: see Vol. XXII. p. 402 n.]

² [The alterations are slight-e.g., “in the midst was” for “out of the midst came”; but Ruskin also abbreviates the passage throughout, omitting altogether verses 7, 11-14, 17-21, and 23, and alters the position of verse 24.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]