A HISTORICAL ESSAY ON TASTE. 



the city ; that there was a bridge of huge stones fastened together with lead, and bound 

 with iron chains: to the west stood the tower of Belus, or Babel, enriched with an in- 

 finity of spoils and golden images ; in the New Palace, Nebuchadnezzar, it is said, had 

 raised a hanging garden, on sub-arched terraces, to the walls, to gratify a Median wife, 

 who, haying come from a wooded and mountainous country to one which consisted of a 

 vast, flat plain, intersected with streams, and interminable rows of willows, missed, in 

 accordance with what we have observed of natural taste, the beauties of her native land, 

 and desired them reproduced. Now, if all this account were true, it would show that 

 the Babylonians had not onlj^ a taste for the sublime, but also for the beautiful; and, be- 

 sides, had attained a pitch of excellence in the execution of art. Babylon having vanished 

 from the earth under an irresistible doom, we have not even a trace of it left whereby to 

 judge; but it is said to have been about the size of Ninevah, and Ninevah has been proved, 

 by the discoveries of Mr. Layard, to have been sixty miles in circumference, — the exact 

 girth, under the expression of a three days' journey, assigned to it in the book of Jonah. 

 We will then suppose a considerable, at least some portion, of the Babylonian account to 

 be true; and will thence observe, that their taste was kindred to the Egyptian; they might 

 even improve themselves by maritime influences at second hand, having conquered the 

 great and industrious city of Tyre, and carried off all its works of art; and they might, 

 too, have turned to good purpose the genius of the captive Jews educated by Tyre. Their 

 buildings appear to have been raised on huge platforms, in graduated masses, the Pyrami- 

 dal appearing to be the prevailing form of general outline. The bulk of their walls cer- 

 tainly seems proved by modern discovery; and we have also good reason to believe they 

 had considerable power to work in metals. Altogether their taste was for the great and 

 astonishing, for vastness of design, and solidity of execution. 



Persepolis is suggested by the consideration of Babj'lon. Certain discoveries have been 

 made concerning it, and it appears, in accordance with the ruin, to have been built on 

 great platforms, with elevations of huge pillars, still on the graduated principle. It is also 

 probable that the chambers of the palaces were similar to tliose already discoved at Nim- 

 roud, thickly walled and surrounded with bas-reliefs. Generally of Egypt and Assyria, 

 it may be observed, that their taste, although not guided by a knowledge of proportion 

 and arrangement, was for the expression of power, for great cost, and works, the result 

 of almost superhuman labor. They cultivated geometry, astronomy, music — though the 

 proportion of harmonic sounds was not discovered till long after by Pythagoras, — astrolo- 

 gy, alchymy, and magic, — but everything was rendered subservient to priestcraft. They 

 had also an idea of color; but as they attained in it only to brilliancy, its effect was cer- 

 tainly more gaudy than harmonious, and must have caused a strange contrast with the 

 grandeur of their other works. 



We have but little record of Persian architecture; but there is a singular account of 

 the ancient capital city of Ecbatana. It is said that Dejoces, the king, built it on a hill, with 

 seven walls, but they were so disposed, rising, one within another, to the summit of the 

 hill, that the ramparts of each wall should show above the one in front. These elevated 

 portions were each painted of a different color, so that the appearance in the distance 

 would have been, as it were, of a horizontal rainbow. In this we observe principally a 

 taste for effect and display. This taste was very strikingly developed in the Persians; 

 their idea of magnificence and pomp displays itself in many particulars of their history. 

 Their literature, like that of the other nations, was chiefly mystical and symbolical. In 

 ion they were fire-worshippers, performing their rites in the open air, until Zoroaster 

 d their fire altars to be enclosed in temples, of which there were three kinds — the 



