16 



THE POPULAR EDUCATOR. 



of these materials architectural forms, without going through 

 that initiatory process which characterises the origin of all 

 human inventions. Yet the plains of Chaldea soon exhibited 

 constructions which had a great influence over primitive art in 

 the East, and formed the basis of a system which extended its 

 branches even to the West. The want of stones in Mesopotamia 

 taught the inhabitants to mould bricks, and the most ancient 

 temple of which we have any mention, called the Temple of 

 Baal, was an immense pyramid built of bricks piled on one 

 another, and forming, according to report, eight storeys or rows, 

 gradually receding from each other. At the top of this building 

 they sacrificed to Baal ; at a later period the Chaldean kings 

 placed his statue there, when their artists had made some progress 

 in the art of sculpture. It is probable that this pyramidal-formed 

 temple owed its origin to their remembrance of the practices of 

 those Caucasian countries whence the Shemitic tribes derived 



is evident that these first regular constructions were thus gene- 

 rally established ; and the greater part of the primitive world 

 adopted them, with the exception of those countries where great 

 political events interrupted the first movements of civilisation, 

 and suspended the march of the arts ; with the exception also of 

 those whose inhabitants, less endowed by nature, necessarily 

 remained in the rear of civilisation, and only received a move- 

 ment of this kind from their neighbours, or from an invasion of 

 some people more advanced in civilisation. The first builders 

 worthy of the name from their ability to mould bricks, and hew 

 stones to raise their gigantic monuments, were compelled to 

 follow the road in which they were placed. The want of expe- 

 rience, the absence of instruments and machines, prevented 

 them from raising, at first, great edifices with vertical facades 

 or fronts, such as they were enabled to construct at a later 

 period. To form large foundations, and to raise above them 



THE PYRAMIDS OF PALENQUE, MEXICO. 



their origin. Herodotus gave a glimpse of the truth, when he 

 said that the Scythians made their temples or altars with a 

 arreat quantity of wood heaped in the form of a pyramid. How- 

 ever the case may be, this very simple form, which appears to 

 have come naturally to the minds of those men who were the 

 first to raise large constructions, spread itself over all Asia ; 

 the ancient pagodas of India are built in this form ; the most 

 ancient monuments of Lower Egypt and Ethiopia, where the 

 Shemitic tribes settled in Africa, are all of them pyramids. In 

 Asia whole cities Ecbatana, for example presented numerous 

 concentric enclosures rising one above another in such a way as 

 to exhibit the pyramidal form. The celebrated Hanging Gar- 

 dens of Babylon, formed of numerous terraces, one above another, 

 had also the same configuration. In short, this must be con- 

 sidered as the progress of architecture, when we see that the 

 most ancient religious edifices of the Mexicans are immense 

 pyramidal buildings, simple at first like those of Chaldea, and 

 of Lower and Upper Egypt ; but at a later period ornamented 

 with sculpture like the pagodas of India. Ancient public 

 buildings were also found in Mexico of a pyramidal form. It 



materials with gradual and numerous recesses such as would 

 prevent the fall, of the upper parts of the building, was the 

 first law of construction and of statics to which they were 

 obliged to submit. This is so true that, after having made their 

 great steps in the art of building, and become able builders, 

 the Indians, the Chaldeans, the Ethiopians, and the Egyptians, 

 still continued in the path of which the pyramid was the starting- 

 point, by raising their edifices in such a manner as to give to 

 their fa9ades a great inclination in order to obtain greater sta- 

 bility ; a wise system, which was adopted by the Etruscans 

 when they left A.sia, where these principles were long established. 

 They were also spread over a part of Italy, and traces of them 

 are found at Norchia. The same ideas exerted their influence 

 over the early edifices of the Greeks, and they are found in a 

 modified form among the finest specimens of their later archi- 

 tecture. They are recognised, for instance, in the remains o 

 the Parthenon, or Temple of Minerva at Athens, where the 

 inclination of the jambs of the doors and windows still exists. 

 Mexico also bears witness to this, as may be seen in. our remarks 

 on the first regular constructions of that country. 



