SCULPTURE. 



feen little water vefl'els in an upright pofition : the habit of 

 this figure is but indifferent. A mule, or an afs, is repre- 

 fented next, with two men armed with poles, followed by 

 another figure bearing two mallets. Several other charafters 

 appear next, and lad of all a great lion encountering a bull, 

 or fome other animal, from whofe forehead a fingle horn is 

 extended. 



There are forty-eight figures of men and hearts in this 

 range, and as many m that above it, which confills of the 

 following figures. The firlt fix of thefe are meanly habited ; 

 each of them has fome veftment in his hand. Thole that 

 follow carry the fame, but are better arrayed. Moit of them 

 are greatly impaired by time. Thefe are followed by an ox 

 led with a halter. The only difference between this and the 

 third compartment is, that in the latter, two rams are led, 

 and each has a large crooked deflefted horn. After thefe 

 appears a figure armed with a buckler, and another leading 

 a horfe by the bridle, followed by a third with two hoops : 

 the other three are habited like the preceding figures. Next 

 comes a led ox, followed by a man armed with a lance and 

 (hield, behind whom appears two other figures, each with 

 three lances, and their fleeves longer than their vefts. The 

 lall figures that follow have very ftiort vefts, with drawers 

 that are long and ilraight, which come down to their feet ; 

 they are armed with long bucklers hanging at the girdles of 

 their waifts ; two of them have hoops in their hands, and a 

 third a fork ; they are followed by a horfe led by the bridle. 



Such are the figures on this Itair-cafe, Toward the welt 

 fide, and toward the eail fide, are as follow. Twenty-eight 

 figures, each grafping a lance with both hands ; their veils 

 tre long and wide, and they are reprefented with hair and 

 beards, and feem to be bare-headed, unlefs we may fuppofe 

 them to wear a plaited bandage, or kind of diadem. Thefe 

 are fucceeded by a number of other figures, armed with long 

 bucklers, which are pointed and bent at one end, with a 

 (hort broad dagger hung at their girdles : their vefts are of 

 unequal lengths; they are like the laft figures in the drefsof 

 their heads ; they have alfo fome ornament in one hand, and 

 the other is placed upon their beard. This range confifted of 

 fixty figures, the laft of which are defaced. All thefe figures 

 feem to reprefent fome triumph, or proceffion of people 

 bearing prefents to the king, which was cuftomary under the 

 ancient monarchs of Perfia, and is praftifed at this day. 



A traveller counted 1300 figures of men and animals re- 

 maining in this great ruin. 



There is another immenfe ruin in the defarts of the an- 

 cient empire, called Palmyra or Tadmor, faid, in the Book 

 of Kings, to be built by Solomon. The prefent ruins of 

 this great city are very different from thofe of Perfepolis, 

 and indicate a much more modern conftruftion ; and that if 

 Solomon originally built this city, the Roman emperors, and 

 particularly Adrian, fo far re-edified it as to leave no traces 

 of greater antiquity. 



As the remains of Palmyra, though vaft and ftately, are 

 more properly architeftural than fculptural, we (hall refer 

 the reader, to fatisfy further curiofity concerning them, to 

 the admirable work of Wood and Dawkins ; for whatever 

 remarks might be requifite on the fculptures of Palmyra, 

 would more properly belong to obfervations on that fubjeft 

 in the feftion of Roman fculpture. See Palmvra. 



Balbec, near the fcite of the ancient Damafcus, is another 

 ruin of the fame defcription. (See Balbec.) As for thofe 

 many great cities mentioned by the Hebrew prophets as 

 flourifhing in their time in magnificence and riches, the places 

 of fome of them cannot be found, fuch as Teman, the capital 

 of Edom, and the cities of Moab and Ammon, of Afhur 

 and Aram ; fome are dwindled into little villages, and moft 



have left no traces in the defart where they might be found. 

 With regard to Hefhbon and Rabbalh, and Bozra and Ha- 

 math, all the mighty cities defcribed by Ifaiah and Ezekiel, 

 as filled with multitude* in power, riches, arid magnificence ; 

 the cormorant and the bittern poflefs them, the wolf howls 

 there, and the wild beafts inhabit thofe forfaken places, 

 where ancient kings and their counfellors, and warriors, 

 thought they had built an everlalting habitation ; even Ni- 

 neveh and Damafcus are now indeed no more ; they are, as 

 the prophets faid, " gone down into the nether parts of the 

 earth," nor does hiftory deign to tell their tale. 



And of the ancient Tyre, and its Hercules of ancient 

 Tyrian art, there are no remains. Herodotus fays, " I failed 

 to Tyre, in Phoenicia, becaufe I heard there was a temple 

 dedicated to Hercules. That temple I faw, enriched with 

 many magnificent donations, and, among others, with two 

 pillars, one of fine gold, the other made of a fmaragdus, 

 which ihines by night in a furprifing manner." 



Tiie Tyrian Hercules, or god of Tyre, is thus defcribed 

 by the prophet Ezekiel. " Every precious ftone was thy 

 covering, the fardius, the topaz, and diamond, the beryl, 

 onyx, and jafper, the fapphire, the emerald, the carbuncle, 

 and gold. The workmanfhip of thy tabrets and pipes was 

 prepared in thee in the day that thou waft created. Thou 

 art the anointed cherub that covereft, and I have fet thee fo; 

 thou waft upon the holy mountain of God, and thou haft 

 walked up and down among the ftones of fire." 



It looks as if there was fome omiflion in the account He- 

 rodotus gives of thi;; temple of Hercules, in Tyre. Hero- 

 dotus, indeed, faw this temple after the ruin of Tyre by Ne- 

 buchadnezzar, confequently not in its glory, as Ezekiel had 

 feen it ; he has defcribed the pillars as ftones of fire, but he 

 has not faid any thing of the god ; perhaps, in his time, the 

 ftatue of Hercules had been taken away by mercenary 

 cupidity, as the ftatue of gold in Babylon had been removed 

 by Xerxes. Such is the melancholy piclure of ancient times, 

 the fulfilment of the denunciations againft thefe ancient 

 empires ; " they utter a faint murmur out of the duft." 



As there is a general refemblance in the early attempts at 

 fine art in different nations ; fo there may be a likenefs 

 traced between the productions of Hindoo fculpture and the 

 early produdtions of art in Egypt, Greece, and Etruria ; 

 however, we muft always remember that the accurate ob- 

 fervations made by the Greeks on beautiful nature, affilted 

 by the regular progrefs in fcience, foon gave their produftions 

 a decided fuperionty over thofe of every other people. 



The caverns of Elephantis and Ellora are vaft halls exca- 

 vated in the rocks, equal in dimenfions to the large temples 

 of other nations. 



That of Eilora is architecturally divided, by rows of 

 columns, into aifles ; the friezes, and pannels in the walls, 

 are filled with fculpture, detached, or in feries, of the my- 

 thological perfonages, and adts of the Brahmin religion. 



The fculpture of Elephantis is of the fame kind, with 

 the addition, at one end of the temple, of a colollal buft of 

 the triple-faced Bramah. 



The columns of thefe temples offer a continual variety of 

 ornaments in their capitals, (hafts, and bafes ; redundant and 

 extraordinary for the application of the lotus, canes, and 

 other vegetable and animal produdtions of the country, ia 

 which the human figure is occafionally introduced. 



On the banks of the Ganges are continually feen fuch 

 ancient works of fculpture in the living rock, of inferior 

 dimenfions, but of the fame facred charader, obehflis mag- 

 nificently adorned, the figures of oxen, horfes, tygers, ele- 

 phants, &c. 



The neceffity of haftening to the great objedl of oui 

 10 prefent 



