288 PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



Here though we do not get evidence that the architects 

 were the priests, yet other passages show that Buddhist 

 temples were the works of converted kings acting under 

 direction of the priests. Moreover, the original develop 

 ment of architecture for religious purposes, and the conse 

 quent sacredness of it, are curiously implied by the fact that 

 the priesthood &quot; forbade the people to construct their dwell 

 ings of any other material than sun-baked earth.&quot; 



This last extract recalls the general contrast which ex 

 isted in ancient historic kingdoms between the dwellings of 

 the people and the buildings devoted to gods and kings. 

 The vast mounds from which Layard exhumed the remains 

 of Babylonian and Assyrian temples are composed of the 

 debris of sun-dried bricks, mingled, doubtless, with some 

 decomposed wood otherwise used for constructing ordinary 

 houses. Layers upon layers of this debris were accumulated 

 until the temples were buried, as some temples are even now 

 being buried in Egypt. Whether it was because of the cost 

 liness of stone, or because of the interdict on use of stone 

 for other than sacred purposes, or whether these causes co 

 operated, the general implication is the same architecture 

 began in subservience to religion (comprehending under 

 this name ancestor-worship, simple and developed), and was, 

 by implication, under the control of the priesthood. Such 

 further evidence as Ancient Babylonia yields, though in 

 direct, is tolerably strong. Saying of the temple, which 

 was also a palace, that &quot; solemn rites inaugurated its con 

 struction and recommended its welfare to the gods,&quot; and 

 implying that its plan was governed by established tradition 

 (of which the priests were by implication the depositaries), 

 Perrot and Chipiez write: 



Whether they belonged to the sacerdotal cast, we do not kno\v. 

 We are inclined to the latter supposition in some degree by the pro 

 foundly religious character of the ceremonies that accompanied the in 

 ception of a building, and by the accounts left by the ancients of those 

 priests whom they call the Chaldceans.&quot; 



