THE TAJ MAHAL

BAYARD TAYLOR

BAYARD TAYLOR was an American traveler, writer, and poet, who was born in Pennsylvania in 1825. He always liked travel and adventure, and his love for books was as great as his love for the out-of-door world. Many of his books are descriptive of his travels. He lived much in Germany, part of the time as United States minister. He died in Berlin 5 in 1878.

NOTE. The Taj Mahal (täzh må-häl') is a beautiful structure built by an Indian emperor of the seventeenth century as a monument to his favorite queen. It stands in Agra, which was for many years the seat of the Mohammedan government in India.

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The history and associations of the Taj Mahal are entirely poetic. It is a work inspired by Love, and consecrated to Beauty. Shah Jehan erected it as a mausoleum over his queen. She is reputed to have been a woman of surpassing beauty, and of great wit and intelli- 15 gence. Shah Jehan was inconsolable for her loss, and has immortalized her memory in a poem, the tablets of which are marble and the letters jewels.

The Taj is built on the bank of the Jumna, rather more than a mile to the eastward of the Fort of Agra. 20 The entrance is a superb gateway of sandstone inlaid with ornaments and inscriptions from the Koran in white marble.

Passing under the open demi-vault, whose arch hangs high above you, you see an avenue of dark Italian 25

cypresses. Down its center sparkles a long row of fountains, each casting up a slender jet. On both sides, the palm, the banyan, and the feathery bamboo mingle their foliage; the song of birds meets your ear, and the odor 5 of roses and lemon flowers sweetens the air. Down such a vista, and over such a foreground, rises the Taj.

It stands upon a lofty platform, or pedestal, with a minaret at each corner, and this is lifted on a vast terrace of solid masonry. An Oriental dome, swelling out boldly 10 from the base into nearly two thirds of a sphere, and tapering at the top into a crescent-tipped spire, crowns the edifice.

The material is of the purest white marble. It shines so dazzlingly in the sun that you can scarcely look at it 15 near at hand, except in the morning and evening. Every part - even the basement, the dome, and the upper galleries of the minarets - is inlaid with ornamental designs in marble of different colors, principally a pale brown and a bluish violet variety. Great as are the dimensions 20 of the Taj, it is as laboriously finished as one of those Chinese caskets of ivory and ebony which are now so common in Europe.

Around all the arches of the portals and the windows, around the cornice and the domes, on the walls and in 25 the passages, are inlaid chapters of the Koran, the letters being exquisitely formed of black marble. It is asserted that the whole of the Koran is thus inlaid in the Taj, and

I can readily believe it to be true. The building is perfect in every part. Any dilapidations it may have suffered are so well restored that all traces of them have disappeared.

I ascended to the base of the building, -a gleaming marble platform almost on a level with the tops of the 5

trees in the garden. Before entering the central hall I descended to the vault where the beautiful queen is buried. There is no light but what enters the door, and this falls directly upon the tomb of the queen in the center. The vault was filled with the odors of rose, jasmine, and 10

sandalwood, the precious attars of which are sprinkled Wreaths of beautiful flowers lay upon

upon the tomb.

it or withered around its base. . . .

The Taj truly is, as I have already said, a poem. It is 5 not only a pure architectural type but also a creation which satisfies the imagination, because its characteristic is Beauty. Did you ever build a castle in the air? Here is one, brought to earth, and fixed for the wonder of ages; yet so light it seems, so airy, and, when seen from 10 a distance, so like a fabric of mist and sunbeams, with its great dome soaring up, a silvery bubble about to burst in the sun, that, even after you have touched it, and climbed to its summit, you almost doubt its reality.

On one side of the Taj is a mosque with three domes, 15 of red sandstone, covered with mosaic of white marble. Now, on the opposite side, there is a building precisely similar, but of no use whatever, except as a balance to the mosque, lest the perfect symmetry of the whole design should be spoiled. This building is called the "answer." 20 Nothing can better illustrate the feeling for proportion which prevailed in those days, and proportion is Art.

Abridged.

the Jumna: a river of India. Koran (kō'ran): the sacred book of the Mohammedans. - ban'yan: often called the Indian fig tree. Its branches send shoots into the ground which become additional trunks. Sometimes a single tree is able to shelter thousands of men. attars: highly fragrant oils extracted from flowers.

A COUNTRY SUNDAY

JOSEPH ADDISON

JOSEPH ADDISON (1672-1719) was a famous English essayist, whose style has always been considered a model of clearness and grace.

NOTE. Among the many papers which Addison wrote for "The Tatler" and "The Spectator" are several which concern Sir Roger de Coverley, and which are interesting as the first character sketches in 5 English literature. Sir Roger is a kindly soul, whose portrait is drawn with real affection and genial humor.

I am always very well pleased with a country Sunday, and think, if keeping holy the seventh day were only a human institution, it would be the best method that 10 could have been thought of for the polishing and civilizing of mankind. It is certain the country people would soon degenerate into savages and barbarians, were there not such frequent returns of a stated time, in which the whole village meet together with their best faces, and in 15 their cleanliest habits, to converse with one another upon indifferent subjects, hear their duties explained to them, and join together in adoration of the Supreme Being. Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week, not only as it refreshes in their minds the notions of religion, but as it 20 puts both the sexes upon appearing in their most agreeable forms, and exerting all such qualities as are apt to give them a figure in the eye of the village. A country-fellow distinguishes himself as much in the Churchyard as a citizen