Imágenes de página
PDF
ePub

which I heartily regret are fo inadequate to the fubject. They, however, may ferve as the outlines of a beautiful picture, which you may eafily fhade and colour by the help of a little imagination."

furprifing labours to the Gentoos, no fimilarity, either in feature or in drefs, to the prefent race of that people is any where to be found. If to the Egyptians or Ethiopians, whom they feem to resemble most; whence the objects of worship in thefe caves fo diflimilar to thofe of that nation, namely, the elephant, cow, and fwaminie, all of which are worfhipped in India, and univerfally found in every Gentoo pa goda? To perplex us still more, on the fide of one of the doors that lead to the grand cave at Elephan ta is a long infcription in the Per fian character, but importing nothing that throws the leaft light on

Though I cannot flatter myfelf with having drawn a picture by which you can form a juft idea of the original, the facts have communicated may, however, enable you to judge of the uncommon labour bestowed on thofe fubterraneous abodes, and the time that must have neceffarily been taken in excavating and arranging the whole, and in beautifying and enriching every part with fuch an incredible variety of ornaments, Compared the fubject. As to the dress of all with thefe, the works of modern hands dwindle into the mere amufements of children; nor can we view fuch ftupendous caverns cut out of folid rocks, and moulded into fuch a variety of forms, without fubfcribing our opinion to a bold af fertion, that fuch laborious produc tions must have been the work of ages. Wherefore thefe Herculean labours were undertaken, or by whom they were executed, are facts not now to be afcertained, being long fince buried in the womb of time. Hiftory affords not the moft glimmering light to explore this dark paffage of antiquity, and even tradition has not tranfmitted the most trivial circumftance to fupply us with a rational conjecture on the fubject. Many and various are the opinions formed, but none of them carries the smallest conviction along with it. The judgment is conftantly bewildered amidit the contradictory proofs produced by the very reprefentations we mean to examine; and while we feize with ardour on circumftances that feem to favour an hypothefis, fome intruding witnefs unluckily starts up, and over turns the whole fyftem. Thus, for inftance, should we afcribe thefe

the figures in the different caves, it bears no refemblance to either Gentoo, African, Perfian, or Arabian. The bangles and ear-rings are the only ornaments that come near modern fashion; and, what is fomething extraordinary, the moft ancient part of drefs, the turban, is no where to be found, or any thing that bears the most diftant refemblance of it. Every thing, however, convinces us, that thefe figures must have represented fome particular people, and that they must have all been the work of the fame nation. The fame flat, broad, good-natured, heavy countenance, with the thick under lip; the fame drefs, the fame attitudes, and nearly the fame ornaments reign throughout, particularly in the larger and most oftenfible figures. With regard to feature, it must be allowed, that it approaches much nearer the Ethiopian than any o ther people and confidering the early tafte for fculpture that prevailed amongst the ancient Egyptians, the many examples of fimilar excavations found in that country, the wandering difpofition of the people, and their ambition to diffufe their arts and Sciences over the globe;

an

are to be afcribed.

an ingenious theorift, with fuch materials alone, might build no contemptible ftructure. He might, perhaps, ftill add fomething to its folidity, by maintaining, that the excavations already defcribed muft have been the work of fome fet of men long fince extinct in India: that in fuppofing them of Gentoo origin, the veil of obfcurity fhould inftantly drop, fince it can hardly be imagined that fo total a change in drels and feature fhould take place among any fet of men, or that thofe who, from time immemorial, have inhabited India, fhould now not only be ignorant of the inftitutions of their forefathers, but altogether ftrangers to the origin of works, fo vait in the undertaking, and fo particularly calculated for national purposes. That however capricious or fluctuating the modes of fashion may be, the human countenance feldom or never undergoes material changes, but is the invariable guide by which we trace, not only national feature, but family refemblance. That if the fculptors of the different caves were able to execute fuch a number of figures, whofe countenances fo nearly refemble each other, it is a pretty clear proof that they could have, with the fame cafe, reprefented the national feature of any people whatever; and that if thefe figures are to be confidered as certain prototypes of any fet of Gentoos now existing, it must be a set of Gentoos different in feature and in drefs from any hitherto found in the Peninfula of India.

Thefe obfervations, however apparently incontrovertible, tend lit tle to folve the difficulty. On the other hand, much might be advanced to prove the impoffibility of thefe excavations being the work of Egyptians, and at the fame time to fupport the opinion of a Gentoo origin. Were we to give the ut

155

most latitude to theory and fancy, the idea of their being the work of Egyptians muft fall to the ground. We fhall trace the ancient Chal deans (whom we fhall likewife admit to be the Egyptian root) from the banks of the Euphrates to the banks of the Nile. We shall allow, that, in this progrefs, they occupied the whole continent of Arabia for a confiderable time; and that, after penetrating Ethiopia by the Erythrean gulf, they at last got poffeffion of Egypt, and the whole coaft of Africa on the Mediterranean, even to the Atlantic Ocean. We fhall go fo far as to fuppofe, that this people, in their peregrinations, vifited and fettled a colony in Salfet, and that they refided there many years, and by fome unaccountable event became extinct, or migrated to other countries, After giving thefe latitudes (and I think they are pretty large) it by no means proves the excavations in queftion to be the workmanship of these ancient fculptors. On the contrary, folid and fubftantial objections occur to overturn any fuch fuppofition; objections that arife, not from either theory or whim, but from the law of nature, and the hiftory of mankind. Among the various changes in nations, from barbarifin to civilization, religion always is the moft immutable. The human mind fhrinks with horror from the smallest change in matters accounted facred, and the removal of a block or a stone, has often been attended with more bloody wars than the deftru&tion of a city.

That the Chaldeans were idolaters is true; but their objects of worthip were certainly different from any thing we meet with in the caves of Salfet or Elephanta; and, notwithstanding many appearances to the contrary, I am still inclined to think, that these caves must have been the work of Gen

[ocr errors]

toos, and that for the following reafons:

1

In the first place, though we find little or no fimilarity between the general formation of these fubterraneous abodes and the present Gentoo places of worship, we perceive a striking resemblance in many particulars. Though their pagodas are not excavated in rocks, they are, however, all highly ornamented with figures and carving, which, whether in ftone or in wood, generally occupy every part of the external furface of the building. In the fecond place, tho' their objects of worship are neither fo numerous nor fo aftonishing as thofe in the different caves, there are many almoft exactly alike, namely, the Swammies with the Elephant's head; and thofe figures with four, fix, and eight arms, in variably found in every pagoda. Thirdly, The fanctum fanctorum has the fame mark in both, i. e. the large ftone in the form of a maufoleum and, laftly, the fame reprefentation of favourite animals, fome of which are peculiar to the country. Independent of these striking resemblances, we find many of the figures at Elephanta with the bramin's ftring over the breaft and fhoulder, not to mention the bangles and large ear-rings, which, though parts of the prefent Gentoo drefs, are likewife worn by both Moors

and Perfees. But, perhaps, the strongest proof that can be adduced in favour of a Gentoo origin, is the prefent race of that people still worshipping in the caves of Ambola and Elephanta. Of all the different cafts in India, the Gentoo is the most completely fettered with religious prejudices, and the most fedulous in preferving their fanctuaries, and even their houses, from the pollution of ftrangers. It can, hardly then be imagined, that a fet of people, fo very tenacious of their purity in matters of fuch feeming importance, fhould repair to any cave for the purposes of divine worship, without an affurance that fuch cave was originally intended for that particular ufe. The Gentoos, however, feem to know as little of the matter in difpute as any other fect; nor can any man be found who can explain the meaning of a fingie figure,, or explore the emblematical fenfe of a fingle groupe. These observations naturally occurred in treating a fubject which you must allow to be curioufly inexplicable. If they tend nothing to unravel the mystery, they cannot add to its obfcurity; if they afford the fmalleft light to guide or encourage the learned in further researches, the writer of the prefent little Effay muft account himself highly rewarded.

H. M.

An Efay towards a Comparison of the Motions of Animals with those of Plants. Read at the Academy of Sciences in Paris. By M. Brouffonet.

T HE ftudy of zootomy, by enabling us to inftitute a comparifon between the correfponding organs in different animals, is fufficient to inform us, with refpect to the functions of the analogous organs in man. Anatomifts were engaged in the diffection of the lower

animals, at a time when phyfiology could derive no benefit from their labours, by reafon of the imperfect knowledge of the ftructure of the human body: but as foon as the infpection of the human fubject was permitted, and when therefore that of the other animals might have

become

Motions of Animals compared with thofe of Plants.

157

become important, it was unfortu- nothing in common with the other nately neglected. Anatomical re- 'but their form, which is always acfearches were, indeed, made on cidental. Forms characterize the thofe animals whofe ftructure ap- fpecies, and Nature has wonderfully proached the nearest to that of varied them; their difference conman, fuch as the quadrupeds; but fifts only in parts more or lefs elongait was a long time before thofe ted, approximated, or enlarged, and were examined that more remote- thus they are easily and infinitely ly resemble him. It was thought varied. Her economy is manifest that the inspection of those parts in only in those functions which she hath animals that are moft fimilar to always established on the same printhofe in man, would lead to the ciples, affigning to them no differdiscovery of their ufe; but fuch a ence in the fpecies, but only in the comparison is not fo important to great claffes to which they are fubthe phyfiologift, as that between be- fervient. ings' more diffimilar, and between which it is difficult at firft fight to perceive a resemblance. The more diffimilar the objects are, the more important are the facts that refult from a comparison of them. It will not then be furprifing if men neglected to compare the fubjects of the different kingdoms, when they did not even examine in this way the animals of different orders. Perhaps, physiologists have not reaped from the labours of Grew, Malpighi, Du Hamel, &c. all the advantages poffible for the explanation of many phenomena in the animal economy. They have contented themselves with feizing a few isolated facts; but the more important functions, thofe which have a marked analogy with the fame functions in animals, have not been well investigated in plants till our days. The naturalifts of the laft age hardly knew that traces of refpiration, of generation, and of circulation, were to be found in vegetables. It was thought that some of those phenomena that are common to animals and vegetables might be accounted for by attend ing to them in bodies that feem by their form to have a relation to both kingdoms; but befides that, thefe bodies are little known to anatomifts, they belong exclufively to one of the kingdoms, and have

The different parts of plants enjoy the faculty of motion; but the motions of a vegetable are very different in their nature from those of an animal: the most sensible, thofe that are produced moft rapidly in plants, are almost always influenced by fome ftimulating cause. Irritability, which is nothing but fenfibility made manifeft by mọtion, is a general law, to which nature has fubjected all living beings; and it is this that continually watches over their prefervation. Being more powerful in animals than in plants, it may often be confounded in thefe laft with phenomena that depend on a quite different caufe. In the vegetable, it is only the organ which is expofed to the action of the ftimulating power that moves. Irritation in particular places never produces that prompt combination of fenfations which we obferve in animals, in confequence of which certain organs are put in motion which are not directly affected, and which might otherwife have been paffive.

The more perfect the organization is in the different parts of animals, the more apparent are the figns of irritability. Thofe parts that come nearest to thofe of vegetables, and in which of confequence the organization is moft imperfect, are the leaft irritable. The fame law holds with regard to plants,

but

but the refuit is oppofite: the figns of irritability are moft fenfible in proportion to the analogy of the parts with thofe of animals, and they are imperceptible in those that are most diffimilar. This affertion is proved by what we obferve in the organs destined in vegetables to perpetuate the fpecies: thefe parts alone feem fenfible to ftimuli; the leaves, bark, stalks, and roots, fhewing no figns of irritability.

The faculty of reproduction in plants as well as in animals, is a function proper to the fpecies, and without which the individual may fubfift; but Nature feems to have bestowed on it more importance in plants than in moft animals. Every thing in the vegetable seems directed to this end folely: it is to accomplish this purpose that vegetation takes place, and that the different parts are developed; it is in the parts peculiarly deftined to this function that variety and brilliancy of colours are difplayed, and that organization is perfected as foon as the intention of Nature is accomplished: and when the feeds have acquired in their capsule the neceffary degree of maturity, the nourifhing juices ceafe to run in the veffels, the individual withers and perishes. Plants refemble animals in the parts of generation, not only because these are the only irritable parts, but because they are the only ones that make them enjoy in fome measure the power of locomotion. It is unneceffary here to detail the fudden motions of the ftamina, of the piftillum, &c. of many plants when they are expofed to ftimuli; thefe phenomena are too well known to naturalifts.

The vital motions in plants are flow, and entirely determined by circumftances, which are always repeated and equally diffufed over all the parts. In animals, on the contrary, almoft all the vital motions

are very fenfible; fuch as the pul fations of the heart and arteries, the dilatation of the thorax, &c.; these being abfolutely neceffary to the prefervation of the individual, are always reproduced in those of the fame fpecies in a fimilar manner and in the fame direction; and this takes place in like manner in plants. The twining plants, for inftance fuch as the hop, follow conftantly, as they twift themselves round a pole, the direction of the South towards the Welt.

If vegetables are obstructed in exercifing these motions, they foon perith: if, for example, we untwift a twining plant which had taken its direction round a branch from the right to the left, and place it in, a contrary direction, it withers in a fhort time, especially if it has not vigour enough to regain its natural fituation. We bring death in the fame manner on an animal, if we interrupt any of its vital motions.

The law by which plants are forced to move in a particular manner is very powerful: when two twining plants, one of which is weaker than the other, for example two plants of woodbine, happen to encounter, they twift round one another, the one directs itself to the right and the other to the left: this laft is always the weakeft; it is forced to take a direction contrary to that which it would have taken if it had not met with the other; but if, by any accident, thefe two twigs of woodbine fhould come afterwards to be feparated, they both resume their natural direction, that is, from right to left.

The motions effentially vital which have in plants the greatest affinity with thofe of animals, are the courfe of the fap, the paffage of the air in the trachea, the dif ferent pofitions which the flowers of certain plants take at certain hours in the day, &c.: but if we

attend

« AnteriorContinuar »