Page:The House of the Lord.djvu/193

Rh is cemented in place with due provision against the entrance of moisture.

There are in the walls several series of stones of emblematical design and significance, such as those representing the earth, moon, sun, and stars, and in addition are cloud stones, and stones bearing inscriptions.

The earth-stones are thirty-four in number, eleven on each side and six on each end of the building. They are set on the pedestal course, or first granite course, extending twenty-eight inches above ground. There is one of these stones in each buttress, excepting only the buttresses at the junction of the towers with the main body. These earth-stones constitute the largest cuboidal blocks in the building; each of them measures five feet six inches in height, four feet six inches in width, and one foot eight inches in thickness, and weighs little less than three and one-half tons. Each of these massive blocks is cut to show part of the surface of a sphere, the segment having a diameter of over three feet.

Blocks cut to represent the moon in its several phases, and known as moon-stones, occupy conspicuous places in the buttresses immediately below the second string-course or water-table; they are therefore on a level with the top of the first or lower line of oval windows corresponding to the ceiling of the Mezzanine story. There are fifty such moon-stones; each four feet seven inches high, three feet six inches wide, and one foot thick.

Sun-stones are set in the buttresses directly under the third belt-course or water-table, which is practically the level of the roof. There are fifty of these, each cut to represent the body of the sun, with a serrated edge of fifty-two points illustrative of the sun's rays. These 13