universally terminate in a point, formed by the intersection of two segments of a circle; but in some strictures of Warburton upon this subject, the reason for their adopting that mode of finishing them is judiciously explained; for, after observing that "this northern people (the direct descendants of the old Scythians) having been accustomed, during the gloom of Paganism, to worship the deity in groves, when their new religion required covered edifices, they ingeniously projected to make them resemble groves as nearly as the distance of architecture would permit ;"--this great genius proceeds to observe, in regard to the form of the Gothic arches, "could those arches be otherwise than pointed, when the workmen were to imitate that curve, which branches of two opposite trees make by their insertion with one another? Or could the columns be otherwise than split into distinct shafts, when they were to represent the stems of a clump of trees growing close together? On the same principles they formed the spreading ramification of the stone-work in the windows of the Gothic cathedral, and the stained glass in the interstices; the one to represent the branches, and the other the leaves, of an opening grove, while both together concurred to preserve that gloomy light which inspires religious reverence and dread.”* * See a note of Bishop Warburton upon Pope's Epistles. Among the other distinguished features in the character of Gothic architecture, it falls more immediately within my province to notice once more those lofty spires and pinnacles, which, like the minarets of the Turkish mosques, so universally decorate them, and which I cannot but consider as relics of the ancient predominant solar superstition. From the preceding strictures, it is evident how powerful an influence the philosophy and physical speculations of the ancients had upon their modes of constructing sacred buildings. This must be equally apparent to the reader into whatever country he darts his retrospective glance; whether he surveys the pyramids of Deogur and Tanjore, or the more lofty and spacious ones of Egypt; whether he ranges among the dark verandas of Elephanta, whose winding aisles, clustering columns, and secluded chapels, bring to his memory the mysterious rites of initiation, or wanders by moon-light through the umbrageous recesses of holy groves devoted to the same gloomy superstition; whether the arched vaults of Salsette resound with hymns to Surya, or the praises of Mithra, entering the vernal signs, shake the splendid Median cavern, where his sculptured image flamed aloft, and the orbs of heaven revolved in an artificial planisphere; whether the stu pendous oval of Jaggernaut attract his attention; the vast quadrangle of Seringham: the lofty diverging crosses of Benares and Mathura; the domes of the Zoroastrian fire-temples; or, finally, the grand Pantheon of Rome, the fabrication of astronomy and mythology combined: on every review, and from every region, accumulated proofs arise how much more extensively than is generally imagined the designs of the ancients in architecture were affected by their speculations in astronomy and their wild mythological reveries. END OF THE DISSERTATION ON ORIENTAL ARCHITECTURE. SECTION IV. The Author returns to his Excursion up the Thebais, and the Examination of its architectural Remains. The Pyramids of Sacarra, more in the Indian Style of Building than those of Geza.-Ruins of Medinet-Habu, the ancient Memnonium ;-of Essnay, the old Latopolis; -of Komombu, the ancient Ombos;—of Assouan, the ancient Seyene, with its celebrated solstitial Well-of the Temple of the Serpent Cnuphis, or Cneph, at Elephantina;—and of that of Isis at Phile ;-with astronomical and mythological Observations upon the ancient mystic Rites celebrated in them, and a Comparison of them with those anciently performed in the sacred Caverns of India. I RE-COMMENCE my observations on the buildings that border on the Nile by lamenting that the pyramids of Sacarra were not earlier noticed by me. There are three that principally attract attention, and two of them are of a |