me degree an inorganic mass, as lifeless as the
corpse it crushed with its preposterous weight. The division of the former
into stages had a latent rhythm that was strongly attractive; the eye
followed with no little pleasure the winding slope which, by its easy
gradient, seemed to invite the traveller to mount to the lofty summit,
where, in the extent and beauty of the view he would find so rich a reward
for the gentle fatigues of the ascent.

But we must not forget that the _zigguratt_ was a temple, and that it is to
the temples of Thebes that we must compare it. In such a comparison Egypt
regains all its superiority. How cold and poor a show the towers of Chaldaea
and Assyria make beside the colonnades of the Ramesseum, of Luxor, of
Karnak! In the one case the only possible varieties are those caused by
changes in the position and proportions of the stages, in the slope and
arrangement of the ramps. In the other, what infinite combinations of
courts, pylons, and porticoes, what an ever changing play of light, shadow,
and form among the groves of pictured columns! What a contrast between the
Assyrian sanctuaries lighted only from the door and by the yellow glare of
torches, and the mysterious twilight of the Egyptian halls, where the deep
shadows were broken here and there by some wandering ray of sunshine
shooting downwards from holes contrived in the solid roof, and making some
brilliant picture of Ptah or Amen stand out against the surrounding gloom.
But the Chaldaeans might, perhaps would, have equalled the Egyptians had
their country been as rich in stone as the Nile valley; their taste and
instinct for grandeur was no less, and the religious sentiment was as
lively and exalted with the worshippers of Assur and Marduk as with those
of Osiris and Amen-Ra. The inferiority of their religious architecture was
due to the natural formation of their country, which restricted them almost
entirely to the use of a fictile material.

[Illustration]

END OF VOL. I.

LONDON:

R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR,

BREAD STREET HILL, E.C.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A History of Art in Chaldaea & Assyria,
v. 1, by Georges Perrot and Charles Chipiez

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A HISTORY OF ART IN CHALDAEA ***

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