were tempted over by the well-filled coffers of Shah Jehan." As the
Pearl Mosque was a part of the palace, it was only used by the royal
court. Days of pleasure and improvement could be spent in the study of
the various parts which have been preserved of this ancient palace.
But we pass on a few miles to the Taj Mahal, which, like most of the
best buildings of Mohammedan art in North India, is a mausoleum and
was erected by Shah Jehan to his favourite wife, Mumtaz-i-Mahal. The
Taj is erected in a beautiful garden, the gateway into which is
perhaps the finest in India and is "a worthy pendant to the Taj
itself." The garden is exquisitely laid out, with a view to setting
off the unspeakable charms of that "dream of loveliness embodied in
white marble." The Taj has well been described as a work "conceived by
Titans and finished by jewellers." The grandeur of the conception and
the wonderful delicacy of the workmanship cannot fail to impress even
the most unlearned in the architectural art. Much has been written,
and all in unstinted praise, of this incomparable edifice; and yet,
like the writer, every visitor comes to its presence, feels the
growing thrill of its beauty, and exclaims, "The half was never told!"
And few leave the place without returning to be enthralled once more
by a moonlight view of this thing of beauty. How great, indeed, must
have been the love of that otherwise cruel monarch for his departed
empress that he should have exhausted so much of wealth (some say that
the Taj cost thirty million rupees) and conceived so much of beauty
wherewith to embalm her memory. And as we enter the mausoleum and
stand in the presence of the lovely shrines which it encases,--that of
Mumtaz-i-Mahal, and that of the emperor himself,--the mind is awed and
may find expression in Sir Edwin Arnold's poetic fancy,--

"Here in the heart of all,
With chapels girdled, shut apart by screens,
The shrine's self stands, white, delicately white,
White as the cheek of Mumtaz-i-Mahal,
When Shah Jehan let fall a king's tear there.
White as the breast her new babe vainly pressed
That ill day in the camp at Burhanpur,
The fair shrine stands, guarding two cenotaphs."

[Illustration: MARBLE SCREEN IN TAJ MAHAL]

And upon a panel of his own shrine the mourning emperor had inscribed
these significant words from ancient traditions: "Saith Jesus, on whom
peace be, this world is a bridge. Pass t