Page:The Land of the Veda.djvu/166

156 who lives to do good to her fellow-creatures! Her grave may be as lowly and lone as that of Ann Hazeltine Judson, on the rock at Amherst, and without a stone to mark it, as I saw it in 1864; but, when Noor Jehan's marble edifices have returned to the dust, those who have thus employed their time and abilities to save the perishing will be “had in everlasting remembrance,” and “shine as the stars for ever and ever.” Few men have visited the East who possessed so highly as did Bishop Heber the capacity to appreciate the taste and skill exhib- ited in the gorgeous buildings of India. Truly and appropriately does he exclaim, while contemplating their wondrous works, “These Patans built like giants, and finished their work like jewelers.” The highest illustration of this eulogium is found in the matchless Taj Mahal.

We present one more evidence of their taste and skill in the wonderful Kootub Minar. It has been well observed that this Minar is, among the towers of the earth, what the Taj is among the tombs, something unique of its kind, that must ever stand alone in the recollection of him who has gazed upon its beautiful proportions, its chaste embellishments, and exquisite finish. About eleven miles south-west of the modern city of Delhi stands the desolate site of ancient Delhi. This city is supposed to have been founded about 57 B. C. The height of prosperity to which it rose may be imagined from its only memorials—the tombs, columns, gateways, mosques, and masonry, which lie strewn around in silent and naked desolation. Where rose temple and tower now resounds only the cry of the jackal and the wolf; for the voice of man is silent there, and the wanderings of the occasional tourist alone give any sign of human life or presence in the once “glorious city.” The ruins cover a circle of about twenty miles in extent.

In the midst and above all this wild ruin, like a Pharos to guide the traveler over this sea of desolation, rises the tall, tapering cylinder of the Kootub Minar. To archaeologists like Cunningham, travelers like Von Orlich, and learned observers like General