88 



Account of MamaUaipur. 



[No. 30 



veral visits to the Seven Pagodas, and I believe I have omit- 

 ted nothing which merits notice. I am fully aware that the 

 account is imperfect : indeed I hold it impossible to convey a 

 correct idea of the remains of former ages by a written des- 

 cription, even if the account be perfectly accurate. Who 

 could by such means form a just conception of the actual ap- 

 pearance of the ruins of ancient Persepolis, of Tadmor in the 

 desert, of Pompeii, of the various temples in Italy, and the 

 remains of classic elegance in Greece and the Isles of the 

 JEgean Sea ? We may indeed read of pillars, colonades, por- 

 ticoes, rooms, baths, apartments, and a long list of architec- 

 tural definitions ; but after all, the mind possesses but an im- 

 perfect image of the originals. Pictures and drawings help 

 the description, but personal inspection is best of all. I there- 

 fore advise you, " gentle reader," if you have it in your pow- 

 er, to visit these singular vestiges of antiquity at MamaUaipur. 

 I qan promise you ample recompense for your trouble. If 

 you have antiquarian curiosity, you may here satisfy it. If 

 you have any disposition to moralise, — as a christian should 

 do, — on the end of human greatness, you will see that though 

 here it has been attempted to " grave it in the rock for ever," 

 it still passes away ; and you will turn your thoughts from 

 these, amo&gst the most durable perhaps of mortal productions, 

 to that heavenly city which is indeed eternal. 



