The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1875-03-10

a hundred miles from Delhi, Mt Agra, rises
one Of the fairest nsonnnents d selfish love
and Of cruel promise. The beautiful and
beloved wife &C Shah Jeiatn, the mightiest Of
earthly kings. died IN 1851, nor could the
wealth Of India or the power Of an absolute
rule save the life OF the being most dear to the
Grand Mogul the fair Moon-taj -i-mahal. AS
she died she uttered the request chat her hus-
band would provide for her a suitable monu-
ment Thoeghtless and full of the common
vanities of life, she scarcely reflected that the
execution of her wish must be paid for from
the poor earnings Of the mothers and daugh-
tiers of Hindostan, that tears would be shed in
thousands of cottages, that children would be
punched and starved, and the aged harassed
and disheartened, to provide for the cost of
her marvellous tomb. Too seldom, indeed do
any of us look to the results of our actions, or
are more careful than the dying queen to limit
our wishes by a, philanthrepic rule. In his
passionate grief ShaheJehan pressed on the
building Of mausoleum to his consort with a
barbaric indifference to the sufferings of his
people. Twenty thousand laborcrs, it is said
were employed upon the work for twenty
years. All India groaned with toll and taxa
ton. The TAI Mahal for SO the tomb is
called, rose at last to wonderful perfection
1t is the most beautiful and the richest of all
the testimonials of selfish affection to its
lost object, the finest architectural device of
sorrow, love and DEATH. A garden, MS is usual
in most Oriental palaces and tombs, surrounds
the spot where sleeps the Eastern queen the
cypress waves the orange, the lemon, the
hanyan, and the palm sr.e:sssa. their foliage
around fountains play along every avenue,
and glitter in the air and all the charms of
Shilaz and Cashmere are said to be initiated
If not surpassed in the gardens of Tai Malal.
In the midst of the solemn beauty of the
natural decorations, in front of tho great
gate, and looking down upon the sacred
Juma, springs up the mausoleum itself. A
platform of shining marble, one minaret at
each corner of wonderful loveliness, and the
central shrine crowned with its glittering cres-
cent two hundred and sixty feet high, are
wrought into that rare perfection of form and
decoration to which only Hindoo craftsmen
cnuld attain. The marble, the gold, the
precious stones, are melted into fruits and
flowers, and woven into designs that surpass
the labors of the pencil or the dreams of
poetry. Yet it is within, beneath the central
minaret, in a chamber richer and grander
than royal palace ever knew, that the Oriental
fancy finds its chief display. The marble.
atticed windows lend pensive light, the
floors are sown with jewels, and the cenotaph
of the fair and feeble mortal for whom all
this wasteful toll was given rises like an ap-
partition of BEAUTY behind the laceworlx of a
marble screen. Yet In nj Ills rich effect of
Oriental fancy one misses perhaps the stronger
traits of Western genius, A single figure on
the mausoleum Of Halicarnassus, cloven by
the powerful chisel of Scopas, must surpass it
all, and all the wealth and power of Shah
Jehan could not awake the immortal fire that
glows in the friezes Of Phidias. Ha7pcr's
Magazine.