CHAPTER XXIV. MINERALOGY. ART. I. A Comparative View of the Huttonian and Neptunian Systems of Geology: in Answer to the Huttonian Theory of the Earth, by Professor Playfair. 8vo. pp. 256. THE work of Professor Playfair, to which this is a reply, was reviewed in our last volume, p. 903. We there took notice of a few of the fundamental objections to the Huttonian theory, and shall therefore content ourselves with simply announcing the book that lies before us. All the geological theories that have ever been invented appear to us to labour under insurmountable objections; in the comparison, therefore, of any two, it is easy by bringing forwards the chief difficulties on one hand, and concealing them on the other, to incline the balance to which ever side we choose. We do not find any new arguments, or any very superior mode of stating them, in the present work. Mr. Kir wan's geological essays have been made very liberal use of, and the writer has shewn some judgment in omitting to bring forwards Mr. K.'s strange theory of the formation of coal, and certain other points, in the aqueous system of geology. The demonstration of the falsehood of the Huttonian theory, from the diffusi bility of heat, is strongly and, in our opinion, successfully urged; but it by no means follows, that fossils must have been formed by consolidation from aqueous solution in a chaotic fluid, because the appearances they present are incompa tible with the supposition of their being formed by fire. ART. II. British Mineralogy, or coloured Figures to elucidate the Mineralogy of Great Britain. By JAMES SOWERBY, F. L. S. 8vo. WE are sorry to witness in this work the injudicious misapplication of ingenuity and talents, which we have often admired, and from which we have derived both pleasure and information. -The crystalline and other particular forms of minerals, together with their colour, in most instances may be represented by painting, and are so in the vo lume before us with considerable success; but the infinite gradations of lustre, the play of light, and the still more essential characters of fracture, it is ut terly impossible for the best artist to de lineate. Where the objections to a work are radical, it is useless to point out minuter imperfections. CHAPTER XXV. ARCHITECTURE AND THE FINE ARTS. OUR intention in this chapter, is not to notice the various productions of the fine arts which have appeared during the last twelvemonth, but only those publications in which the principles of taste, and their application to general or particular cases is discussed. When, however, any work of transcendent merit appears, even though it should not strictly come within the limits of our plan, if it is calcu lated to be generally interesting, we shall, without scruple, take the opportunity of enriching our volume by its introduction. It is upon this principle that we have admitted into our present list Mr. Daniell's Views and Antiquities of India, as being a series of drawings that combine together masterly execution, fidelity of representation, novelty, and grandeur of form, in a higher degree than any work with which we are acquainted; and which place before our eyes, with a precision wholly beyond the power of language, the noblest specimens of architecture that characterize the ancient Hindoo natives, the Mahometan conquerors, and the present European lords of the Indian peninsula. Mr. Elsam's work on Rural Architecture, and Mr. Repton's on Landscape Gardening, are strictly within the limits of our plan, and therefore have a claim upon our notice which we cannot consistently overlook. ART. I. Oriental Scenery, or Views in Hindoostan, published by THOMAS DANIELL, R. A. Howland-street, 3 parts, 24 Views in each. Antiquities of India, by THOMAS DANIELL, R. A. 12 Views. Hindoo Excavations in the Mountains of Ellora, near Aurungabad, in the Decan, 24 Views, published by THOMAS DANIELL, R. A. from the Drawings of Mr.WALES, large folio. WE congratulate the public on the acquisition of a work of various and unrivalled merit: never before has oriental scenery been pictured with the vivacity, the accuracy, and beauty of nature. We are transported to another world, every thing denotes other skies, other manners; the palanquins, the elephants, and crowded retinue of Indian luxury, the naked native squatting in a veranda, or sauntering on a terrace, in prostrate adoration before his idol, or laving in the sacred Ganges; the tufted palms, the banyan fig, parent of forests, and the impenetrable jungle creeping up the hills, and clothing the swampy margin of the rivers. Here we gaze on the gay and gilded magnificence of oriental palaces, or muse over the gigantic architecture of forgotten ages. The views in the four first parts were taken by Mr. Daniell, with singular industry and perseverance, during a long residence in India: they contain the scenery of the country, British and Mahometan buildings, Indian pagodas, and the excavations of Elephanta and Salsette; the views of the excavations of Ellora, which form the fifth part, were executed from the drawings of Mr. Wales, who was prevented by death from finishing them himself. The whole are engraved in aquatinta, and coloured to the effect of drawings. The acknowledged skill of the painter is eminent in all the plates, and particularly because it is not obtrusive; too good an artist to seek for picturesque effects in the common arts of false lights, extravagant contrasts, and unnatural colours, Mr. Da niell represents objects as he saw them, clear, brilliant, and natural; hence his views have an air of truth and accurate detail, satisfactory to the judgment, and particularly valuable where the subjects themselves are so interesting. No one knows better how to characterize objects; the animals, trees, and plants, are studies for the naturalist; the Indian sky is marked with admirable clearness, and the representation of water is almost unrivalled in transparency and fluidity. Many of the views are highly beautiful and romantic landscapes; but the circumstance that gives this work a peculiar interest to the architect and antiquary is, the detail of buildings, which are given with an accuracy of perspective, and minuteness of drawing, that leave nothing to be desired. India is indeed rich in architecture; the palaces, mausoleums, and mosques of its Mahometan emperors, may be cited as models in the splendid and luxurious style, while the buildings, and especially the excavations of the Hindoos, most powerfully arrest attention from their grotesque singularity of form, the countJess labour of their execution, and the mysterious antiquity of their dateless origin. In the architectural objects contained in these volumes, we distinguish three styles; the ancient Indian, the Mahometan, and the mixed and modern style. The most striking of the Indian remains, the excavated mountain of Ellora is among the wonders of human in dustry. "Ellora is an ancient town of the Hindoos, distant from Aurungabad in a N. W. direction about 18 miles, and from Bombay nearly E. about 230. The mountain contain ing these extraordinary efforts of human labour, accompanied by a very considerable degree of skill, is about a mile westward of the town of Ellora, of a semi-circular form. The antiquity of these excavations, which unquestionably must be very great, is quite out of the reach of enquiry; the use of the greater number of them has evidently been for religious purposes. Many of the statues, basso-relievos, capitals of the pillars, and other decorative parts, are executed in a very good style. The rock in which they are wrought is hard red granite: much of the sculpte is by time decayed, and many parts have designedly been mutilated, some of which have been repaired, though very clumsily. Several of the temples have been painted of various colours, and their ceilings, which have had suitable decorations, are now genrally become so black with the smoke, from fires which of late years have been made in them, that scarcely any design can but in a few places be traced." Many countries possess excavated rocks, but none comparable in extent and regularity, in ornament and beanty, to those of India. These monuments belong to a period when the manual operations of quarrying, of masonry, and sculpture, had arrived to a high degree of excellence, while the arts of scientific construction were unknown, when the priest or the monarch could command the patient industry of a thousand hands, but not the skill of one intelligent head. Excavation, however, though the most inartificial method of construction, sometimes assumes forms of scientific architecture which might mislead a superf cial observer; thus the caves of Ellora and Salsette present examples of vaulted roofs and arches in basso-relievo, but it is evident that these do not at all partake of the principle of vaulting; a solid ceiling gains no additional strength by being hollowed in the middle, neither is the execution more difficult than of a flat lintle. The imitation of wooden building is remarkable in the Indian excavations; the ceilings are seemingly supported by architraves from column to column, the vaults are sculptured with ribs, and in the temple of Viswakarma, a gallery front is copied with all the detail of beams, joists, and planks. The internal form of these excavations is generally that of quadrilateral flat-ceiled halls,one end is commonly recessed, and contains a small pagoda enclosing the idol; the pillars are elaborately ornamented, and the walls are enriched with compartments of basso-relievos, representing the various adventures and transformations of Indian mythology here the ten-handed Rouen supports Goura and Parwati with their heavenly suite, there Budder issues from the lingam of Maha Deva, The exterior of the excavated pagodas is in the same style with those which are erected, and it is probable that the last mentioned were the models of the others, on account of the cornices and some other members which have no natural use in excavation, while they are essential in building. Among these plates we particularly remark the internal view of Indra Sabha, perhaps the most advantageous example of Indian architecture, where elaborate decoration is so combined with simplicity and beauty of form, that it would hardly suffer on comparison with the most disinguished works of art; its general form s a square hall enclosing four porticoes, a broken pedestal occupies the middle, above which the central compartment of the ceiling displays an expanded lotus. But the most magnificent and extraordinary of these excavations is the "Kaiasa, or Paradise of the Gods, and the abode of Cuvera, the God of Riches." This wonderful work bears the appearance of a grand edifice standing in a considerable area, the whole of which has been excavated; its form is that of a building of two stories, flat roofed, with a large central pyramidal pagoda, ac companied by five smaller pagodas; the sides are ornamented with rich piers and consoles of a most complicated composition, placed at regular spaces like pilasters, the intervals are occupied with small pagodas, or tabernacles and statues; but its" variety, profusion, and minuteness of ornament, beggar all description." The basement is sculptured with figures of elephants, lions, &c. " to give, it should seem, the whole vast mass the appearance of mobility by those mighty animals." The interior of the temple, which is approached through several porticoes and vestibules, and by walls loaded with mythological sculpture, is a grand square apartment, with a recess at the further end, containing the Lingam of Maha Deva, above which rises the larger pagoda. The area in which the temple stands, is surrounded with a portico, a pantheon of the Indian deities, whose actions and histories are displayed on the whole extent of wall. The dimensions of a few of the principal of these excavations will give ideas of labour almost incredible, when it is recollected that the whole isexecuted in granite, and that the greater number of them are finished with the most minute delicacy and profuse variety of ornament. Kailasa; outer area, broad 138 feet, deep 88 feet; greatest height of the rock through which it is cut 47 feet. Inner area, in which the temple stands, length 247 feet, breadth 150 feet, greatest height of the rock, out of which it is excavated, 100 feet. Doomar Leyna; the cut or alley through the rock to the beginning of the cave, 100 feet long, 8 feet broad, from 31 to 61 feet high, length of the cave 136 feet, by a breadth varying from ANN. REV. VOL. II. 50 to 135 feet, height 17 feet. Viswas karma, an area 45 feet square; length of the temple 79 feet, breadth 43 feet, height 35 feet to the top of the vault. The religious buildings of the Hindoos have a general similarity of form, which is easily characterized; they consist of a tall pyramidal tower, containing the idol, to which is generally added a square flat roofed body, serving as a vestibule. These towers may be divided into two classes, the simpler of which are dimia nished by a curve line, giving the form of a truncated melon; they are in some instances ornamented with various projecting facets and carved facias; others are adorned with pannels inclosing flowers. They have a spreading um brella-shaped termination. The other class of towers is enriched in a very extraordinary and elaborate manner, with series of pillars, cornices, niches, and statues; their shape is pyramidical, and they are terminated with a fantastic something quite beyond the power of description. This florid style is the style of the excavations of Ellora. These remains of Indian architecture have considerable general resemblance to those of Egypt, particularly the in terior of some of the excavations; in these we find the same massy proportions of columns and architraves, the same richness of ornament and profusion of sculp ture, combined with the simple quadrila teral plan and flat-roofed elevation. The Indian style of decoration, however, is more florid and fantastic, the sculptures have greater variety of groups, more ani. mation in attitude. They both astonish us with wonders of industry, but the mechanical state of the art was somewhat different. While the Egyptian trans ported and elevated masses that confound the mechanicians of modern times, the Indian was content with cowardly assi duity to scoop the rock and excavate the area of his temple. Their architecture has no principles of proportion and form; every Indian and Egyptian monument offers new compositions of capitals, new shapes of pillars, new mouldings and or naments of entablatures; neither of these nations, therefore, can be said to have in vented a style of architecture, and it is unreasonable, as some theorists have done, to derive from these sources Grecian architecture, founded on the prin ciples of taste and good sense, and which has a natural origin in primitive con80 struction; individual mouldings and or naments may have been adopted, but the style is original. In the elaborate diversity and confused variety of Indian decoration, how shall we seize on general forms and characteristic ornaments-our readers must accept unconnected remarks and individual description. The shafts of the columns are very frequently circular in the upper, and square in the lower part, with or without bases. Many of the capitals consist of several tiers of circular mouldings in one instance, the ashes of Ravana in Ellora, we observe volutes bearing some resemblance to the Ionic capital. Some octagon shafts occur, those of Viswakarma are quite plain, with out any base or capital; but in the larger temple of Salsette the octagon shaft is terminated by a capital, consisting of a necking, a torus, and a very high abacus of several courses projecting regularly over one another; the base has the same mouldings as the capital reversed, above the capital is a plinth, on which is sculptured the figures of elephants and horses, apparently crouching under the weight of the ceiling. The plinth above the capital is usual in Indian, as well as in Egyptian remains, and is generally sculptured in both. Another member is almost universal, and may be considered as characteristic of Indian architecture: above the capital or the plinth, project consoles, the lateral ones supporting and lessening the bearing of the architrave, and that in front sustaining the cornice. This part in the excavations of Mauveliporam is sculptured with the figures of three horsemen; in other instances it is generally in the shape of a bracket. The entablatures are very simple, usually consisting of a plain massy architrave, and a cornice of one or two square members, which, with its great projection, serves the purpose, and evidently is merely a pent house, to shelter from the tropical sun. The elephant and lion, the emblems of strength and courage, bear a conspicuous part in Indian decorations: culptured in basso relievo, or detached from the rocks, we find them every where; they support the base of Kailasa, elephants sustain the columns of Jaganatha Sabha, and liens guard the pillars of lauveliporam. The Mahometan is a style of great erit, original and picturesque in its Forms, regular and uniform in design, and rich in ornament. The pointed and scolloped arch, which are essential to this style, give it a resemblance to the Gothic, from which, however, it differs materially in its projecting cornices, flat roofs, and domes: the two first are marks a the climate; the latter may, as is illastrated in the modern buildings of Egyp and Arabia, have originated from t want of wood in the native country of Mahometan architecture, which deficiency led to the practice of roofing buildings with stone: to do which, the vault and dome are the only convenient and economical methods. The projecting balconied windows and open cupolas, the minars and pinacles, are striking ch jects in these buildings. The domes are frequently contracted at bottom, sest give them the resemblance of a pear, a instance of absurd imitation, as unplas ing to the eye as it is weak in censtre. tion. Large surfaces are generally orna mented with pannelling of various forms, and patterns, and the bases, cornices, and facias, are frequently carved with leaves. The "style of finishing which preval ed very much at Agra, Delhi, and othe cities of Hindostan: before the time the emperor Shah Jehan, was covering the domes, friezes, minars, and othe parts, with glazed tiles, of various designs and colours. These porcelain embelish ments were often applied with great taste, and from the richness of their colours and enamelled surface, produced a very spier. did effect." The mixture of Hindoo forms, which has been adopted in many of these buildings, docs not much affect their general appearance; it is marked by greater simplicity and massiveness, and particularit by the porticos, which are not Mahometan arcades, but Indian colonades, with the cantalever supports to the entabiature before described. The Mahometan buildings in this work consist of mosques, mausoleums, palaces, and gateways. The mosques are dista guished by their domes and minars: the most striking among them is the Jum mah Musjed, or Friday Mosque, in Delhi, the grand cathedral of the empire of Hindoostan, a superb edifice, of which the following description is extracted from the Asiatic Researches, vol. 4. mosque is situated about a quarter of a mile from the royal palace; the foundation of it was laid upon a rocky eminence, namedJujula Pahar, and has been scarped |