40 



first, the geological, or the record written by the Creator ; and 

 then the architectural, or the record as written by man ; and, 

 dwelling more particularly on the latter, he gave an interesting 

 account of the architectural monuments of past nations. 

 Commencing with the architecture of the great Assyrian 

 monarchy, he described its character as exemplified by the 

 wonderful monuments disinterred by Layard and others. Mr. 

 Gray described the magnificence of Babylon in the brilliant 

 reign of Nebuchadnezzar, and its subsequent overthrow by 

 Darius, Alexander, and the Romans, each in their turn 

 spreading destruction in their path, and doing their part in 

 bringing about the desolation spoken of by the prophets. 

 Those gorgeous temples have lost their beauty, and the palaces 

 of kings are now desolate ruins, which with heaps of brick- 

 work, tiles, and pottery, supply by their decay the mould that 

 buries them. 



In Egypt, the large masses of stone which the granite quarries 

 of Nubia readily afforded decided the system of statics adopted, 

 which was the simplest mode of construction, and it was the 

 policy of the priesthood to perpetuate those original simple 

 forms, and they jealously endeavoured to realise in their works 

 the idea of eternal duration. Among them the ordinary 

 dwellings were considered merely as inns or places of sojourn, 

 while the tombs were called the eternal abode. The architecture 

 of Egypt was, therefore, ponderous and massive in construc- 

 tion, firm, enduring, changless in its character, producing 

 astonishment and awe in the mind of the beholder, as manifested 

 by those time-honoured monuments of human skill and human 

 pride — temples, tombs, and palaces, that crowd the valley of the 

 Nile. 



In tracing the further progress of the history of architecture, 

 Mr. Gray noticed the establishment of the Persian Empire, 

 which having triumphed over Egypt, Media, Babylonia, and 

 Lydia, extended its dominions from the Nile to the Tigris, and 

 from the deserts of Tartary to the Colonies of Ionia. The 

 progress of architecture was followed into Greece, where, during 

 the incessant contests with Persia, it was brought to the highest 

 degree of perfection. The increase of the revenues of Greece 



