Meanwhile I looked at such monuments as were
near; chiefly those erected to military or naval men,--Picton, General
Ponsonby, Lord St. Vincent, and others; but against one of the pillars
stands a statue of Dr. Johnson,--a noble and thoughtful figure, with a
development of muscle befitting an athlete. I doubt whether sculptors do
not err in point of taste, by making all their statues models of physical
perfection, instead of expressing by them the individual character and
habits of the man. The statue in the market-place at Lichfield has more
of the homely truth of Johnson's actual personality than this.
St. Paul's, as yet, is by no means crowded with monuments; there is,
indeed, plenty of room for a mob of the illustrious, yet to come. But it
seems to me that the character of the edifice would be injured by
allowing the monuments to be clustered together so closely as at
Westminster, by incrusting the walls with them, or letting the statues
throng about the pedestals of columns. There must be no confusion in
such a cathedral as this, and I question whether the effect will ever be
better than it is now, when each monument has its distinct place, and as
your eye wanders around, you are not distracted from noting each marble
man, in his niche against the wall, or at the base of a marble pillar.
Space, distance, light, regularity, are to be preserved, even if the
result should be a degree of nakedness.
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