624 On the Buddhist Emblem of Architecture. [No. 165. 



In the following pages I shall confine myself to the explication of 

 those emblematic ornaments which occur in the Doric order, that " first- 

 born of Architecture," because, being the most antient, its emblems are 

 of the most pure and simple type, and have none of those confused 

 and meretricious additions which we find abounding in the later orders, 

 as the Corinthian and Composite. 



I have already had occasion* to remark, that I considered Boodhism 

 to have been a metaphysical system emanating from an Egyptian foun- 

 tain ; that it was introduced at a very early period into Hindustan ; that 

 it there became influenced by local circumstances, as also probably by 

 fresh importations from the original source. Boodhism appears, thus, 

 not only to have acquired various local types, but likewise, after being 

 so altered, to have diffused itself, as it were, from new centres of mo- 

 tion, and thus to have given rise by mutual interferences, to varied and 

 mixed results. We find this illustrated in the history of modern 

 Boodhism, (that of Gaudama). We read of its being imported, from a 

 certain source, into regions where it was previously unknown ; of its 

 dying away from negligence, or persecution, in its early strongholds ; of 

 its again drawing fresh life from its young offshoots ; and thus, finally, 

 presenting in its original seat, a phase modified by the provincialisms, 

 with which it had been imbued. This is the case with the Boodhism 

 of Ceylon ; which was imported into trans- Gangetic India, became 

 afterwards nearly extinct, and was revived by fresh supplies from Siam, 

 &c. I, in the same paper, endeavoured to trace the mental process by 

 which Boodhism progressed into heathenism ; viewing it in fact, as the 

 incipient stage of what is usually styled Idolatry ; leading naturally into 

 the degrading cult of Fetichism. I also pointed out how that Boodh- 

 ism, in its early, and comparatively pure state, (influenced by that 

 craving after substantiality inherent in human nature) endeavoured to 

 realise its ideas, first by numbers, next by symbols consisting of numeri- 

 cal combinations, and finally, by employing living animals, and their 

 representations as types. Considering Boodhism then as I did, as 

 emanating from an Egyptian source, I naturally was led into compar- 

 ing it with those systems which were acknowledged to have had such 

 an origin, and especially with those which delighted in expressing 



* Vide " Note on Boodhism," published in McClelland's Journal. 



