In the street corners are sometimes placed, on pedestals of huge stone, carved effigies of a King, or of a Queen, or of some High-Caste man. Of some Brave, who has cut off more heads than usual, or who has seized more plunder, or carried fire and sword over the lands of distant tribes. He is sometimes on horse-back; sometimes naked, with shield and sword, and very terrible; sometimes so far aloft, on top of a high stone column, that nothing can be descried but a _cocked hat_ and a pigmy figure under it. Rarely there may be a statue to some High-Caste, who has been distinguished for wringing more taxes from the common people, and, by this means, keeping large armed bands at work abroad--to the glory of the English name! more rarely a statue to the memory of any one renowned for a life useful to mankind. As works of Art, these things are not to be criticised. They are works of _money_--that is, paid for by weight; merely meant to compliment a _party_ or faction in the State, and not to honour, particularly, the subject of the Work, or to give a noble expression of human genius or skill. No purpose, perhaps, in the sordid workman other than to pocket the large sum for the big show! Nothing wherein a grand imagination, inspired by a fine enthusiasm and full of a noble conception, glows and breathes in the stone, and makes it imperishable! Whether an unconscious _disgust_ leave these public statues and monuments alone in their ugliness, I know not; but they are totally neglected, begrimed, covered with filth--often made the roosting-places of the unwashed street _Arabs_ (beggar boys) and _loafers_ [na-sthi]. Even the statues of living Sovereigns are so totally forgotten and deserted, that the nose of _Majesty_ may be a small pyramid of dirt, and the ermine robes more defiled and foul than the rags of the street mendicant! The Western Barbarians are very fond of _Science_ [kno-tu-ze]--(this is the nearest word in our language, though quite defective)--and consider themselves in _this_ to be far superior to the ancients and to all the peoples beyond the great Seas. I have never been able to comprehend, nor do I think the Barbarians themselves comprehend very accurately, the meaning of the word. They will say of a man who is almost a fool, "Ah! but he is very scientific." Of another, constantly blundering, and who has been famous for prodigies of mistake, "His science is astonishing." A builder of a great ship, or of a great bridge, sees his ship upset or his bridge fall down; none the less, he demonstrates to his admiring countrymen that, upon _scientific_ principles, the ship should have stood upright and the bridge been as stable as rock!