IOUS ARCHITECTURE.

Sec. 1.--_Attempts to restore the Principal Types._

In spite of all our researches we have not succeeded in finding in the
whole of Mesopotamia a real sepulchre, a tomb on which the talent of the
architect has been lavished as well as the structural skill of the builder.
The Chaldaeans and Assyrians made greater efforts when they had to honour a
god than when they were called upon to provide a lodging for their dead. Of
all the structures they raised, their temples seem to have been the most
ambitious in height and in grandeur of proportion though not in extent of
ground covered. This the classic writers tell us, and their assertions are
confirmed in more than one particular by documents written in the Assyrian
language. We can also check their statements to some extent by the study of
the monuments themselves or rather of their somewhat scanty remains.

We shall seek in vain for ruins that may be compared to those of the
Egyptian sanctuaries. The nature of the materials employed in the valley of
the Euphrates made the degradation of a building and the obliteration of
its lines far more rapid than elsewhere. And yet in many cases the almost
formless aspect of structures once so greatly admired, does not prevent
those who know how to crossexamine them from restoring many of their former
arrangements; and both in the bas-reliefs and in some very small monuments
we find certain sculptured sketches that have been recognized as
representing temples.

These sketches are very imperfect and very much abridged: the ruins
themselves are confused; of the Greek and Assyrian texts some are short and
vague, others excite our scepticism. Without wishing to deny the value of
the methods employed or the importance of the results obtained, we can
hardly believe that the certainty with which technical terms are translated
is well founded. There are some of these terms which if they occurred in a
Greek inscription would cause no little embarrassment by their purely
special character, and that even to one who might unite in his single
person the qualifications of a Greek scholar with those of an architect or
sculptor. We hope, though we hardly expect to see our hope realized, that
some day a Mesopotamian temple may be found in good preservation. Until
then we cannot give to our restorations of such buildings anything
approaching the accuracy or completeness so easily attained when the great
religious edifices of Gre