THE TRUE BEAUTY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19608, 9 April 1927, Page 4 (Supplement)

THE TRUE BEAUTY.

One of the moat beautiful buildings in "Venice, that city of beautiful things, is St. Mark's Cathedral. And there is an interesting story told about it. , When it was resolved, many hundreds of years ago, that the Cathedral should be built, it was decided that the beat architect in all the world should be employed to draw the design. There was not, much doubt as to who was the greatest architect living at the time; he was a man whose home was in Constantinople. Some of the great men of Venice travelled to Constantinople to seek out this famous arehitec£ and to persuade him to build a Cathedral for their city- ■ . But when they came to Constantinople and saw him they were very surprised and somewhat doubtful, for the great architect was just an ugly little dwarf of a man. They wondered whether so ugly and so small a man could plan the kind of Cathedral they wanted. They meant to have the most beautiful church in the world, and they did not want to make a mistake in choosing the architect,

As they talked with him they began to be a little more satisfied. The architect seemed a different man_ when he talked about beautiful buildings. He was so enthusiastic and spoke so earnestly about his work that they almost!; forgot that he was a dwarf. At length they asked him whether he thought he could build them the finest Cathedral in the world. The dwarf said he was sure he could do so and they asked him to set to work at one© and draw his plans. Then came a difficulty. The architect said he. was willing to undertake the work, but he must make one condition. He would build them the finest cathedral possible, but they must promise to set up a statue of himself as architect inside the building. The greatmen from Venice said such & thing was unheard of. They talked and argued and stormed, but all to no purpose. The architect remained firm. If he built their cathedral, they must allow his statue to stand in it. So the great men returned to Venice to suggest that another architect should be selected for the work. . But no one could think of an architect who was good enough. At last they went back to Constantinople to ask the dwarf once more to do the work and to agree to his strange demand. .And it is said that today in a dark corner of St. Mark's Cathedral, amid all the beauti- > ful things to be found in it, is a small statue of an ugly, little dwarf, the man who was the architect. But if the architect was ugly and mis-shapen, the

imilding he designee is still one of the most wonderful in tht world. Most of us may be thankful that we do not need to be beautiful before we are able to do things that are beautiful.

And it does not matter a great deal what we look like, if only we do well, What does matter is thai we should be able to show in deeds of goodness tnd kindness that we have a beautiful mini! and heart.