136 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
stand amid the waters of the sacred Ganges, at once a 
venerable monument of the instability of human gran- 
deur and the vanity of human endeavour to perpetuate 
in stone or marble enduring records of its skill, its in- 
dustry, or its wealth ! Babylon and Nineveh are 
“ Numbered with the things o’erpast,” 
and the “ place thereof knoweth them no more !” 
Even the mighty piles of Egypt now only indicate 
what they have been, and, except the massy pyramids, 
that land of artificial wonders presents nothing but 
splendid ruins of its former greatness and supremacy 
among the kingdoms of the world. 
Benares being celebrated throughout India as the 
seat of theological learning and philosophy, an extract 
from Bishop Heber’s journal, and two from a writer 
of a different age, may be interesting, as conveying 
an idea of what the sanctuaries of Himjgo worship 
are and what they have been ; for these extracts will 
show that during the lapse of nearly two centuries 
and a half the superstitious devotions of the Hindoos 
have undergone no manner of change. After the bi- 
shop has described the sacred city generally, he says, 
“ Our first visit was to a celebrated temple named 
the Vishvayesa, consisting of very small but beautiful 
specimens of carved stone-work, and the place is one 
of the most holy in Hindostan, though it only ap- 
proximates to a yet more sacred spot adjoining, which 
Aurungzebe defiled, and built a mosque upon, so as to 
render it inaccessible to the worshippers of Brama. 
The temple-court, small as it is, is crowded, like a 
farm-yard, with very fat and tame bulls, which thrust 
