far advanced in chemistry as were the ancient Indians. Indeed glass is expreffly mentioned in the Amarafinha, a book compofed fixty years before the Chriftian æra, under the Sanfcreet name of SURYACANDA, that is, fays M. Bartolomeo, "a bright transparent mass, through which the rays of the fun can penetrate."* However, they do not feem, any more than other ancient nations, to have used it for windows; for, according to this author, they employ, for that purpose, mother-of-pearl, finely wrought and polished, and which is procured in abundance at the pearl-fisheries in the neighbourhood of Cape Comorin.

SCULPTURE.

Although the early progrefs of the Indians in Sculpture has been already confidered in various parts of the preceding volumes, yet a retrospect view of what has been advanced on fo curious a fubject, with a few additional ftrictures, may not be difpleafing to the reader, in this fummary sketch of their arts and sci

* Page 391.

ences.

ences. Modelling in clay or plafter must doubtless have long preceded any efforts in this branch of science. To attempts of this humble, kind, in pottery and porcelain, fucceeded coloffal ftatues hewn from the folid' rock, or caft in moulds from the various ores, as their knowledge of metallurgy increased. If a due proportion and fymmetry are not always fo accurately preserved as they ought to be, an excufe for the artist readily presents itself in the very nature of the ftrange grotesque fymbolical objects defignated, exhibiting, in one complex form, various fpecies, and often different fexes; figures with numerous heads and arms loaded with emblematical devices, (the vagaries of mythology,) the tusks of the elephant, and the horns of the ox; fometimes environed with ferpents, and at others hung round with ftrings of death-heads; which bid defiance to all the rules of regular science. Many of these mythological figures, however, in Elephanta, the oldest depositary of idolatrous Indian images, are by no means contemptible in point of expreffion; and in particular that terrific figure representing the evil principle, which displays aloft the emblems of the fanguinary

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fanguinary worship paid to it, and is engrayed in the fixth volume, affords no mean fpecimen of the progress in design of the Indian sculptor at the early date generally affigned to that cavern-temple and its fingular decorations. Refinement in these arts, at that remote period, is neceffarily out of the question; it was not elegance, but magnificence, that fwayed the mind of the Indian artists. Their lofty conceptions of deity they conceived beft represented by gigantic ftatues and maffy fymbols; and, by forming a mere buft of fuch ftupendous dimenfions as the principal figure there exhibits, [thirteen feet in height, the face five feet, and the breadth between the fhoulders twenty feet,] the artful Brahmin completely effected the only purpofe he had in view, that of over-awing the mind of the timid, ignorant, adoring, Indian.

In truth, these mythological fculptures, thefe emblematical reprefentations of avatars. and coloffal deities, with their respective attributes and fymbols, carved in the living rock, in fubterraneous folitudes, the first temples, in the infancy of mankind, were in fome degree neceffary to fuftain and keep

alive the ardour of the pious enthusiast. The fuppofed prefence of the gods, in these mystical images, diffused throughout the place an unfpeakable awe and an inviolable fanctity; while the choral fymphonies and ever-blazing fires elevated the enraptured foul even to those stars which were the proper abode of the fidereal deities adored by them. On the other hand, the representation of dæmons on thofe walls, in all the horrid forms, and with all the dreadful fymbols, which fear or fancy could fuggeft, had an immediate tendency to over-awe the guilty mind, to expose the deformity of vice, and exprefs the tortures of confequent remorfe and defpair; for, in their mythological pictures, as I have elsewhere expreffed myself, with the fymbolic figures of the mercy and goodness of God, were constantly blended thofe of his juftice and his wrath. As the former were fculptured with fmiling afpects, and were decorated with the enfigns of peace and protection, fo were the latter portrayed with horrible diftorted vifages, and arrayed with every dreadful fymbol that could alarm and terrify the beholder. These figures, converted into dæmons, under the notion of being the avenging minifters

of omnipotent justice, were most to the purpofe of the priest. He recited their number, he magnified their enormous power, and he awakened the agonizing terrors of his audience by impreffing them with ideas of their conftant and immediate interference in human affairs.

Nor to mankind, in the improved and polished state of fociety, have these mythological fculptures proved without important use or fublime gratification. These rude, but majestic, remains of ancient sculpture admit us to a clofe view of remote antiquity. The allegorical defigns which they exhibit obfcurely unfold to us the hiftory of the primitive ages; the profound arcana of their religion, the form and decoration of their temples; the dreffes of the priests; and the fubjects and inftruments of facrifice; they display to the eye of contemplation the first rudiments of thought, the first efforts of genius, the firft dawn of the fciences. On the fi gured walls and emboffed roofs we fee the elements embodied; the paffions perfonified; the auguft school, at once, of the deepest phyfics and the most inftructive morality! Let us once more, for a moment, defcend the depths

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