ARCHITECTURE OF PERSIA, 
703 
stone, or elevated in fantastic brick-work ; and rich varieties of 
arabesque friezes, with cupolas raised high into the air, without 
the aid of frames, or almost any scaffolding. The dome at 
Sultanea is one of the most perfect specimens of this superb 
Asiatic taste. Besides the lightness of its forms, the usual 
paintings and gilding which decorate their parts, give it an ex¬ 
tremely gay effect; very different from the heavy Saxon arch of 
our ancestors, or the sober grace of the simple Gothic; both of 
which, in our cathedrals, fill the spectator with gravity and awe. 
Any attempt to analyse the ancient Persian architecture, from 
the relics that exist, and thence deduce its origin, would now be 
a vain task. I observed, in a former part of my journal, that in 
some particulars it resembles the styles of Egypt and India; but in 
most respects its character is so totally dissimilar, that the ruins 
of Persepolis, as long as they stand, are likely to remain an 
unique specimen of a beautiful stage in the art, the foundations 
of which can no longer be traced. And the oblivion which has 
fallen over every monument of the Assyrian empire seems tome 
to have formed this impassable chasm in the analysis of the 
subject. But while following the track wherever it is visible, 
one remark forcibly recurs; the prodigious inequality between 
the moral and political progress of all these nations, and the 
exquisite degree of refinement to which they brought the arts. 
With regard to masonry and sculpture, we only imitate what 
they invented; no chaptrel combinations modern times have 
attempted, ever having equalled the beautiful order of Corinth. 
And what the acanthus did for Greece, when it met the eye of 
genius, the lotos of the Nile and the Euphrates had produced, 
ages before, for Egypt and Assyria. By what we have already 
seen of its use in the capitals and friezes of Persepolis, we may 
