640 
HIGH COURT OF HONOURS. 
to have been the High Court of Honours of the kings of Persia. 
It is now covered with ruins, and in other respects so defaced and 
destroyed, as to have become almost one undistinguishable mass. 
On it south-eastern quarter particularly, few documents can be 
found to complete the chain of conclusive, though silent evidence. 
While wishing to dig up the mouldered heaps on that side, to 
search for bas-reliefs, to read in them the termination of the 
historical solemnity recorded on the front of the terrace, I could 
not but acknowledge the consequence of that noble art which 
commemorates the leading actions of great men and nations, by 
impressing their forms on stone and brass. Well might the 
ancients denominate sculpture an immortal art; for we find its 
monuments in Egypt, in Greece, in Rome, in Persia, bringing 
forth works, to which hardly a date can be assigned ; so deeply 
does their beginning lie in the obscurity of antiquity ; while 
others present a clear commentary on the writings of the an¬ 
cients, explaining some passages, connecting others, and often 
proving the doubted truth of certain recorded facts, by a happy 
discovery of some of these marble apparitions remaining sta¬ 
tionary on the very spot, where the substance and the action, of 
which they are the copy, once had a purpose and abiding-place. 
The nearest building (K) now standing, to the Chehel Minar , 
or Palace of Forty Pillars , just described, appears on an elevation 
of about seven or eight feet above the level of the plane of the 
colonnades; and occupies a length of one hundred and seventy 
feet, by ninety-five. We approach it from the west by a double 
flight of stairs (A), which are almost in complete ruin; but frag¬ 
ments on, and near them, shew they also have been decorated 
with sculptured guards and other figures. The side to the east 
is so heaped with fallen remains, covered up with the earth of 
