Page:A History of Art in Chaldæa & Assyria Vol 1.djvu/426

 398 A HISTORY OF ART IN CHALD^A AND ASSYRIA. 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 Chalda^a 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 combina- tions 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 myste- rious 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 sur- rounding 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. END OF VOL. i.