was the case in almost every part of the world, Eastern Asia excepted, the ecclesiastical authorities found it necessary to destroy every idol, as the only means of weaning the populace from the idolatrous superstitions to which they had been accustomed. The general use of shrines of the gods may, however, be cited in proof of the present question. They were held to be as necessary in every household as the bogh is with the Russian of the present day. The forms of these shrines were, doubtless, very various; but many in all probability consisted of a kind of upright ark or chest, containing an image of the patron god of the possessor, in form not altogether unlike that of the Coutta Rajah, and bearing no very remote similitude to the towers raised above the tops of sacred mounds. By means such as these now described, the sacred tower became the frequent successor, and a substitute for the sacred pillar, and may be called the lineal descendant from the primal altar raised by the great Creator when he planted the Garden of Eden, and prepared it for the reception of Adam. Arguments and authorities having been offered, which, it is presumed, will have proved at least the probability of the truth of this theory, it now remains that the theory be applied to the different kinds of sacred towers that are now extant in different parts of the globe, by which it will be seen that the same principle has influenced the constructors of the sacred towers now extant, as the men of ancient times, who builded others, which, though now perished or in ruins, have been described by authors of ages past. Sacred towers being an advance or improvement of the pillar, and pillars being either square or round, all towers, whether square or round, high or low, may be taken to have owed their construction to the same principle, the symbolical representation of the power of the Deity, exercised in giving increasing and steady support to the world. Ancient authorities have been cited, which shew that all structures, both circular and square, or even multangular, provided they were equiangular or nearly so, were of old regarded as towers, whether covered with a roof analogous to the plinth of a capital, or open atop and uncovered. Since no limit can be affixed to the dimensions of structures, whether circular or square, so all sacred structures of those forms may with great truth be classed together with towers of the smallest dimensions. According to this rule, many structures, even magnificent temples, may be regarded as pillars and towers in principle, however they may seem to be remote from them as to form. A few of the many instances that might be adduced will shew the truth of this position. The following remarks made by the poet Ovid on the temple of Vesta may illustrate these observations, while at the same time they exhibit the rude poverty of the early Romans, and contrast it with their wealth and splendour at the time when he wrote. What now is roof'd with brass, was then of straw, And the slight osier formed the wattled wall. Hangs, heavy weight, in all subjected air." The poet lived in an age when observation and reflexion had led to the belief that the earth was a globe; but still the temple of Vesta retained the form of a circular tower, agreeably to opinions entertained during many ages concerning the form of the earth. In later ages a nearer approximation to the circular form was made by the cupola roof, the invention of which will be the subject of subsequent discussion. The fire unceasingly maintained in this temple is a matter of n Ovid. Fast. lib. vi. 261. general notoriety. The poet determines the import of the symbol, when he mentions the ceaseless fire, or rather heat, that subsists within the globe of the earth. Symbolical fires were maintained in the temples of many other gods, besides that of Vesta. Pausanias saw them burning in the temples of the Olympian Jupiter, of Ceres and Proserpine, and of Pan. The same practice was carefully observed by the ancient Persians, P and is still continued by the Parsis of the present times, who, though averse from the use of inclosed temples, as being incompatible with the ubiquity of the Deity, yet admitted the structure of such buildings, some with and some without roof, as might serve to defend the sacred fire from disturbance by storm. These buildings were generally of a circular form, and for the same reason as that adopted in the temple of Vesta. Several sacred structures of ages anterior to the christian era, but still extant, may with great propriety be said to owe their origin and their import to the pillar. The Choragic Monument of Lysicrates at Athens, commonly called the Lantern of Demosthenes, is little else than a pillar; for though it be a peristyle temple, the diameter of the tower is not more than six feet. This is a tower, a symbol of the earth and of the deity. Was is not a temple of Vesta? The ancient octagonal structure called the Temple of the Winds, still standing in the same city, must be held to be of the same import and for the same reason. Its octangular form was doubtless adopted in consequence of a division of the surface of the earth into eight parts, instead of the more simple and early division into four; a division made on the supposition noticed in some of the cosmographical theories of the Hindus, that the boundaries of the earth formed an octagon. That most celebrated and magnificent structure, the Pan • Pausan. lib. v. 14, 5; lib. viii. 9, 1; lib. viii. 37, 8. P Hyde de Vet. Persar. Rel. cap. i. 2, 29. theon at Rome, is a tower, and of the same symbolical import as those noticed above. Although the external diameter be one hundred and eighty-eight feet, and the height one hundred and forty-eight, it in reality owes its origin to the column improved into the tower. Like all other similar structures, it is a symbol of the world, like the temple of Vesta, for it is circular. It is crowned with a dome, in accordance with the improved opinion of later ages concerning the form of the earth, for it represents a hemisphere; but it is open at the top, and therefore is not crowned, as in ordinary instances, with a structure which might be called a shrine and the special abode of a god; but it is crowned by the heaven, the true abode of all the gods. But all the gods are, according to the doctrines of the heathen mythologists, none other than personifications of the material elements of which the earth is composed, and the powers of Nature by means of which the elements become operative. Thus plainly does the Roman Pantheon represent the world; and therefore, as the theories of heathenism shew, it represents not only the divine presence, but the Deity himself. Christian churches, when of a circular form, may be placed in the same class with columnar towers :-the church of Saint Sepulchre, at Cambridge, most decidedly. The circular tower surrounded by the sloping roof of the building, is, in fact, the tower approached by the mound or barrow. The structure is altogether such as that described above, from the Supplices of Eschylus, to which the father Danaus exhorted his daughters to fly in sanctuary. The Round Church at Cambridge was built by votaries returning from one of the early Crusades, in imitation of the church built by the empress Helena over the supposed tomb of the Saviour. That church was intended to exhibit a tomb, and therefore the pious builder adopted the form of the barrow with a tower, the structure most usually adopted for sepulchres in her age. The periods during which the Christian religion prevailed in Western Asia and Europe, will have afforded ample occasion for the demolition of the greater part of such of the sacred structures of the heathen nations as were not readily convertible to Christian uses. Towers and pillars were generally destroyed: temples were commonly converted into churches. In Eastern Asia the Christian religion did not prevail to any great extent, and in consequence instances of the sacred structures of every age and sect are there found. It may be remarked, that the disciples of the Sastra have generally adhered to the use of the quadrangular pyramid in their sacred structures, and have not adopted the pillar or the tower: the disciples of Buddha, a god of a later age, have adopted both. Notice of their use of the pillar has been already taken: the following are examples of their use of the tower. an At Bhagulpur, alias Boglipour, in the province of Bahar, are two round towers, of great height and remarkable singularity. They have doors of entrance, but at such height above the ground that they can only be entered by ladders of considerable length. Nine circular mouldings pass round them, at about equal distances, above which the structure is octagonal, with four rectangular windows. The whole is surmounted by a cupola, flatly conical, standing on octagonal plinth. Another tower of the same character, about fifty feet high, has been noticed standing at Sarnatha near Benares. The author of the Etruria Celtica adduces many instances of similar towers in different and distant parts of India, all erected by the disciples of Buddha, and commemorative of some legendary history of his fabled life and actions. It is generally observed that these towers are not now held in high reverence by the natives of the countries where they are situate, but that they are visited by numbers of pilgrims from Thibet, the disciples of the Lama, q Valentia's Travels, vol. i. chap. 2. P |