seek the things which concern our everlasting peace. How comes it that we do not love God? He is our Creator, Preserver, and Lawgiver; and He so loved us, that He gave his only begotten Son to save us. How comes it that we will not come to Christ? He offers us eternal life. He died to bestow this blessing upon us, and assuredly his generous and surpassing kindness addresses itself to every rational and tender feeling of our heart. Eternal death is in the objects we cherish, and the pleasures we pursue; why do we not cast them from us? Eternal life is in the course we shun; why do we not seek it as our only hope? This is altogether unaccountable on any rational principle, and can only be referred to the unhappy propensities and perverted views of our fallen nature. The children of Adam are, indeed, wise with regard to the things of the present life; but what shall we say of them in the view of eternity, except that they are altogether reckless and unwise! If with some it be otherwise, it is because they have acquired a new

nature.

TENTH WEEK-MONDAY.

ARCHITECTURE. ITS ANCIENT HISTORY AND PRACTICE-INDIA -EXCAVATED TEMPLES.

BETWEEN the Egyptian and Indian architecture, there is a wonderful similarity, which seems to indicate a common origin; but the history of both is so enveloped in the mist of remote antiquity, that no trace of it appears. In both, they had their excavated dwellings, temples, and tombs; in both there were pyramids, and buildings of sculptured walls, ornamented by pillars. In the extent of their ancient cities, too, there appears to have been a resemblance, indicating a similarity of manners. If we are to give credit to ancient history, the city

population of India, in very remote times, was immense. Oude, the capital of the province of that name, is said to have been the first regularly built city in India. Sir William Jones observes of it," This city extended, if we may believe the Brahmins, over a line of ten yojuus, or forty miles." Delhi, a city founded about 300 years before Christ, is said at one period to have contained two millions of inhabitants. It continued the capital of Hindostan till 1738, and, after experiencing many reverses, was finally destroyed in 1760. Besides these, there were two other imperial cities, Lahore and Agra, both of them remarkable, in ancient times, for their wealth and splendour, and especially for the magnificence of the palaces with which they were adorned. Besides these imperial cities, there were many others remarkable for the extent of their population and riches; and of these may be mentioned Chundery, which is said to have contained 384 markets, and 360 caravanserais; and Achmedabad, once so large as to require to be divided into 360 districts.

These extensive and proud cities were evidently the result of the peculiar policy of the Eastern potentates, and symbols of their power; and, along with that policy and power, they have passed away, and have left little more than heaps of mouldering ruins, as traces of their ancient magnificence.

It is not, however, from their palaces or private buildings, so much as from their temples, that we are enabled to judge of the peculiar character of Indian architecture. Of these, which are called pagodas, we find accounts of five different forms; 1st, Excavations in the rocky mountains; 2d, Simple pyramids, constructed, as in Egypt, of large stones, diminished by regular recesses or steps; 3d, Square or oblong courts, of vast extent; 4th, Buildings in the form of a cross; 5th, Circular edifices. A short description of the first, perhaps the most ancient kind of these places of worship, will occupy the remainder of this paper.

These excavations are numerous and extensive. In some instances, they are perfectly plain; in others, they are highly and laboriously ornamented. We are told of a place so far north as the Subat of Cashmere, in the middle of the mountains, where twelve thousand apartments are cut out of the solid rock. This was well known to the Greeks, and was considered as a spot of peculiar sanctity. It was named Parapamis, from Para Vami— the pure city-commonly called Bamaiya. The figure of the serpent is there found sculptured in seven hundred places.

Most of these remarkable excavations are too remote from common observation to be minutely described; but those which I am now about to mention, have attracted the notice and admiration of many scientific travellers. The three principal temples of this description, are those of Elephanta, Salsette, and Villore, or Ellora.

Elephanta is situated near Bombay, in an island, so named from the gigantic figure of an elephant cut in the rocks on the south shore. The grand temple is 120 feet square, and supported by four rows of pillars. Along the side of the cavern are forty or fifty colossal statues, from twelve to fifteen feet high, of good symmetry, and, though not quite detached from the rock, boldly relieved. Some have a helmet of pyramidal form; others a crown decorated with devices; and others, again, have only bushy ringlets of flowing hair. Many of them have four hands, some six, holding sceptres and shields, symbols of justice and religion, warlike weapons, and trophies of peace. Some inspire horror, others have aspects of benignity. There is a great bust, the face of which is five feet long, and the breadth, across the shoulders, twenty feet.

At the west end of this pagoda is a dark and unornamented recess, with an altar in the centre; and at each of the four doors by which it is entered, are two naked statues, of good sculpture, and gigantic dimensions. At the entry of the excavation, and round its body, are ex

tensive verandahs. Canara, in the island of Salsette, also near Bombay, is represented by Leuschotten, who visited it in 1759, as being like a town. He describes the front as hewn out of the rock, into four stories or galleries, in which there are three hundred apartments: These apartments have generally an interior recess, in which are representations of the Lingham Deity. The grand pagoda is forty feet high to the soffet of the arch or dome. It is eighty-four feet long, and forty-six broad. The portico has five columns, decorated with bases and capitals. Immediately before the entrance into the grand temple, are two colossal statues, twenty-seven feet high, which have mitre-caps and ear-rings. Thirty-five pillars, of an octagonal form, about five feet diameter, support the arched roof of the temple. Their bases and capitals are composed of elephants, horses, and tigers, carved with great exactness. At the farther end is an altar, of a convex shape, twenty-seven feet high, and twenty feet in diameter, directly over which is a large concave dome, cut out of the rock. Immediately about this grand pagoda, there are said to be ninety figures of idols, and not fewer than six hundred within the precincts of the excavations. The walls are crowded with figures of men and women, engaged in various actions, and in different attitudes; along the cornices are figures of elephants, horses, and lions, in bold relief; and above, as in a sky, genii and dewtah are seen floating in multitudes. It is supposed by Mr Grose, that the labour expended in constructing the works of Elephanta and Salsette, must have equalled that of erecting the pyramids of Egypt.

But, magnificent as are these excavations, they are surpassed by those in the neighbourhood of Vellore. Sixteen of these early efforts of human skill have been minutely described by Sir C. Mallet, in a paper published in the sixth volume of the Asiatic Researches. Of these I shall merely give a short account of the Kylas, or Paradise.

Kylas exhibits a very fine front, in an area cut through the rock. On the right hand side of the entrance, is a cistern of very fine water. On each side of the gateway there is a projection, reaching to the first story, with much sculpture, and handsome battlements, which, however, have suffered much from the corroding hand of time. The gateway is very spacious and fine, furnished with apartments on each side. On the outside of the upper story of the gateway, are pillars, which have much the appearance of a Grecian order. The passage is richly adorned with sculpture. From the gateway, you

reach a vast area, cut down through the solid rock of the mountain, to make room for an immense temple, of the complex pyramidal form, whose wonderful structure, with its variety and profusion of ornaments, baffles description. This temple, which is excavated from the upper region of the rock, and has the appearance of a building of immense dimensions, is connected with the gateway by a bridge, left when the mass of the mountain was cut down. Beneath this bridge, at the end opposite the entrance, there is a figure of the goddess Bouannee, sitting on a lotus, and two elephants, with their trunks joined over her head. On every side, and in all parts of the work, are figures of elephants, lions, and other quadrupeds; and the whole mass of the temple seems to be founded on animals of this description. Within the extensive excavations, are figures of deities, belonging to the ancient Indian mythology; and especially one large and magnificent temple, in which the whole seem to be congregated, as into one great pantheon.

These particulars, vague and imperfect as they necessarily are, may serve to afford some faint idea of the amazing expense of ingenuity and labour, which the religious feelings of remote antiquity called forth; while they remind us how deeply a sense of the unseen world is seated in the human heart, and how mighty is its influence on the conduct, even when debased by ignorance