s pertinently remarked
in this connection: "What buildings can we show in England which have
existed since the eighth century and are yet almost as perfect as when
first built? and yet our buildings rest on a solid foundation, and not
on earth which is constantly rocked by natural convulsions." The porch
of the temple of Todaji is erected upon pillars 100 feet high by 12
feet in circumference, and yet this porch is merely the entrance to
another porch equally large, which again is itself the approach to the
temple containing an image of Buddha 53 feet high with a halo 83 feet
in diameter. The sanctuary of the ancient temple at Nara, already
referred to, has columns quite 100 feet high consisting of a single
stem. These ancient fanes are not bald architectural ruins. Their
decoration, as ancient as the building itself, is quite as permanent.
They are ablaze in every part with majestic decorations in gold and
all the colours of the rainbow, as gorgeous and impressive now as they
were when first applied by the hands of the decorators more than a
thousand years ago. As a recent writer on this subject has appositely
remarked: "It is in detail the Japanese architect most excels, for if
he conceives like a giant he invariably finishes like a jeweller.
Every detail to the very nails, which are not dull surfaces but
rendered exquisite ornaments, is a work of art. Everywhere we
encounter friezes and carvings in relief, representing in quaint
colour harmonies flowers and birds, or heavenly spirits playing upon
flutes and stringed instruments."

It must often strike the thinking man as a curious fact that these old
religious edifices, whether in Europe or the Far East, seem to have a
permanence about them such as is not characteristic of modern
buildings of the same kind. The reason, I think, must have been that
the men who were employed in the designing and construction of these
ancient buildings, whether in the East or West, were not mere
mercenaries employed for a particular purpose, but men full of faith
in their religion, a building in whose honour and for whose services
they were employed to erect, and who threw into their work their whole
souls, so to speak--gave, in fact, the best of what they had, and
employed all their zeal, energy, and enthusiasm with a view of
perpetuating, whether in stone, brick, or wood, the faith they so
firmly held and so dearly loved.

Some of the problems that the Japanese builders of the past