Page:Scidmore--Java the garden of the east.djvu/189

Rh At this time Sir Stamford wrote: "The interior of Java contains temples that, as works of labor and art, dwarf to nothing all our wonder and admiration at the pyramids of Egypt." Then Alfred Russel Wallace said: "The number and beauty of the architectural remains in Java ... far surpass those of Central America, and perhaps even those of India." And of Boro Boeder he wrote: "The amount of human labor and skill expended on the Great Pyramid of Egypt sinks into insignificance when compared with that required to complete this sculptured hill-temple in the interior of Java." Herr Brumund called Boro Boeder "the most remarkable and magnificent monument Buddhism has ever erected"; and Fergusson, in his "History of Indian and Eastern Architecture," finds in that edifice the highest development of Buddhist art, an epitome of all its arts and ritual, and the culmination of the architectural style which, originating at Barhut a thousand years before, had begun to decay in India at the time the colonists were erecting this masterpiece of the ages in the heart of Java.

There is yet no Baedeker, or Murray, or local red book to lead one to and about the temples and present every dry detail of fact. The references to the ruins in books of travel and general literature are vague or cautious generalities, absurd misstatements, or guesses. In the great libraries of the world's capitals the archæologists' reports are rare, and on the island only Dutch editions are available. Fergusson is one's only portable guide and aid to understanding; but as he never visited the stupendous ruin, his is but a formal record of the main facts. Dutch scientists criticize