by no means forgotten, but rather that it was only more correctly copied. Of the former kind few inftances, in this country, now remain; of the latter, many very perfect and beautiful fpecimens, as Westminster-abbey, and the cathedrals of Litchfield and Salisbury. Upon entering either of those vast edifices, and viewing the vifta of columns ranging through it, all terminating in regular arches above, who is there but muft immediately be ftruck with their resemblance to a long and regular avenue of trees, whofe branches, intermixing with each other over head, form a lofty embowering arch of natural verdure? The Gothic arches indeed are not circular, like thofe of the Eaft; for, they univerfally terminate in a point, formed by the interfection of two segments of a circle: but, in fome ftrictures of Warburton upon this fubject, the reafon for their adopting that mode of finishing them is judiciously explained; for, after obferving that "this northern people (the direct defcendants of the old Scythians) having been accustomed, during the gloom of Paganifm, to worship the Deity in groves, when their new religion required covered edifices, they ingeniously projected to

make

make them refemble groves as nearly as the diftance of architecture would permit;"-this great genius proceeds to observe, in regard to the form of the Gothic arches, "could thofe arches be otherwise than pointed, when the workmen were to imitate that curve, which branches of two oppofite trees make by their infertion with one another? Or could the columns be otherwise than split into distinct shafts, when they were to represent the stems of a clump of trees growing clofe together? On the fame principles they formed the fpreading ramification of the ftone-work in the windows of the Gothic cathedral, and the ftained glass in the interstices; the one to represent the branches, and the other the leaves, of an opening grove, while both together concurred to preferve that gloomy light which inspires religious reverence and dread."* Among the other diftinguished features in the character of Gothic architecture, it falls more immediately within my province to notice once more those lofty fpires and pinnacles, which, like the minarets of the Turkifh mofques, so univerfally, decorate them, and which

* See a note of Bishop Warburton upon Pope's Epistles.

which I cannot but confider as relics of the ancient predominant folar fuperftition.

From the preceding ftrictures, it is evident how powerful an influence the philofophy and physical speculations of the ancients had upon their modes of conftructing facred buildings. This must be equally apparent to the reader into whatever country he darts his retrofpective glance; whether he furveys the pyramids of Deogur and Tanjore, or the more lofty and spacious ones of Egypt; whether he ranges among the dark verandas of Elephanta, whofe winding aifles, clustering columns, and fecluded chapels, bring to his memory the myfterious rites of initiation, or wanders by moon-light through the umbrageous receffes of holy groves, devoted to the fame gloomy fuperftition; whether the arched vaults of Salfette refound with hymns to Surya, or the praifes of Mithra, entering the vernal figns, fhake the fplendid Median cavern, where his fculptured image flamed aloft, and the orbs of heaven revolved in an artificial planifphere; whether the ftupendous oval of Jaggernaut attract his attention; the vast quadrangles of Seringham; the lofty diverging croffes of Benares and Mathura; the domes

of

of the Zoroastrian fire-temples; or, finally, the grand Pantheon of Rome, the fabrication of aftronomy and mythology combined: on every review, and from every region, accumulated proofs arife how much more extenfively than is generally imagined the defigns of the ancients in architecture were affected by their fpeculations in aftronomy and their wild mythological reveries.

END OF THE DISSERTATION ON ORIENTAL ARCHITECTURE.

SECTION IV.

The Author returns to his Excurfion up the Thebais, and the Examination of its architectural Remains. The Pyramids of Sacarra, more in the Indian Style of Building than thofe of Geza.-Ruins of Medinet-Habu, the ancient Memnonium;--of Effnay, the old Latopolis;

of Komombu, the ancient Ombos;—of Affouan, the ancient Syene, with its celebrated folftitial Well-of the Temple of the Serpent Cnuphis, or Cneph, at Elephantina;—and of that of Ifis at Phile;—with aftronomical and mythological Obfervations upon the ancient myftic Rites celebrated in them, and a Comparison of them with thofe anciently performed in the facred Caverns of India,

RE-commence my obfervations on the buildings that border on the Nile by lamenting that the pyramids of Sacarra were not earlier noticed by me. There are three

that