Orientation of Ancient Temples and Places of Worship

Extract

On some ancient fragments are represented two or more historical sequences, forming together one picture, such as the scene of the temptation of Eve in conjunction with the expulsion from Paradise; and from these we may obtain an idea as to the tendency and power of the untutored mind to take an instantaneous many-sided view of the subject it contemplates, and it may assist us in realising that though our mental view is more extended and clearer than that of early races, yet it may also be much more limited in lateral range. That the educated mind does not assume power over the exercise of certain faculties, there can be no doubt; for this we have only to look into matters of everyday life: to see the unlettered mechanic guess, or, rather, instinctively calculate, the weight of materials; to hear the shopwoman, innocent of figures, total up her gains and losses, or enumerate her stock-in-trade with a rapidity and with a precision which could not be exceeded if all the appliances of science had been employed. And we again see it in the power which the Indian savage or European trapper possesses in tracking his way through the forest by signs and method of reasoning hardly intelligible to those whose minds are more cultivated.