sacred books of the Hindoos give us the plans on which their cities
were built. There were forty different kinds of cities, distinguished
one from the other by their extent and form. The streets crossed at
right angles. The centre of the city was reserved for sacred uses and
was inhabited by the Brahmins; around them dwelt the people, and the
angles were occupied by the exchanges, markets, colleges and other
public structures. The city was always walled, with a gate on each of
the four sides and one at each corner.

Private dwellings varied in height according to the rank of the owners.
Those of the inferior classes could have only one story above the
ground-floor, and in most cases they were limited to the ground-floor
itself. The door was never placed in the centre of the facade. Its
position, as well as its height and breadth, was fixed by rule; the same
was true of the windows. The streets were supplied with running water,
and adorned with avenues of trees; they were bordered by rich shops and
houses set close together, with no intervening spaces. The palaces,
which were composed of separate buildings, approached by porches, were
usually erected around small courts, and these courts were almost always
planted with trees. The roofs were flat, and the narrow, rude staircases
were made in the thickness of the walls. The Hindoos also constructed
huge reservoirs, and reared columns and square triumphal arches in honor
of their heroic victors; they are also known to have built bridges, the
piles of which, formed of enormous blocks, were connected by stones of a
single piece.

Passing into China we encounter a civilization whose antiquity rivals
that of India. However, there are no very ancient remains there. But
there is documentary evidence that the Chinese, several centuries before
the Christian era, built from the same designs that they use to-day.
Architecture being the expression of the needs, instincts, character and
traditions of a people, and the Chinese having in no way modified their
manner of living or their traditions, we can easily understand why their
architecture has undergone no modifications.

The Great Wall, running along the north of China proper, with a length
of fifteen hundred to eighteen hundred miles, is the only Chinese work
that can boast of its antiquity. It is attributed to the emperor Tsin
Hoang Ti [Che Hoang-te], who reigned in the third century before our
era, and who is said to have empl