OCR Text |
Show EVOLUTION OF THE H CHURCH STEEPLE Mm There is a theory which finds tho H spire of the Now England meeting- jH house in tho mountain peaks of Ara- MWM , Tracing back the process of ovolu- H tion, vro come first to London, where H the clean sweep of the great flro H gave Sir Christopher Wren his op- H portunlty to experiment In steeples; H and then to Venice where the cam- H panllc Is a shining exnmplo of a H tower beside a church, but separato jH from it: aud then to Alexandria, H where tho famous Hghthou3c on the islo of Pharos contributed to the re- H llgion of Mohammed both tho form jH and tho name of the minaret: and H then to tho "Tower of Babel" at jH Bcslppa, and the xlkkurats of the H temples of Babylonia and Assyria. H A zikkurat is a huge quadrangular JH mass of brick, rising in diminishing H stories as a child places a big block H on tho floor and puts a smaller ono on It, and n that a smalled still H nnd ascended by a winding balustrad- H ed stair to a shrine on top. jH This according to tho theory, was H tho ritual equivalent of a mountain. Into the flat lands between the Ti- H grls and Euphrates came tho ances- tors of the Babylonians and Assyr- lans out of the mountains of Arabia, ' There they had worshiped tho storm god, who dwelt upon tho holghta among the clouds, with whom they jH communed like Moses, by climbing up and making their offerings and lmmm saying their prayers upon tho sum- lUmm mit. And hocause there wore no iJmmmt mountains in their new country thoy ' erected beside evory tomplo a little 1 mountain In tho yard. Thus the zlk- H kurat, and then the minaret, and jl then tho campanile, and then tho H steoplo of tho parish church. George jH Hodges in Atlantic Magazine. 1 |