Above my head a canopy
Adorned with clouds of gold."

The capital consists of two parts: the Tartar city, a square of
four miles; and the Chinese city, measuring five miles by three.
They are separated by imposing walls with lofty towers, the outer
wall being twenty-one miles in circuit. At present the subject
people are permitted to mingle freely with their conquerors; but
most of the business is done in the Chinese city. Resembling other
Chinese towns in its unsavoury condition, this section contains two
imperial temples of great sanctity. One of these, the Temple of Heaven,
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has a circular altar of fine white marble with an azure dome in
its centre in imitation of the celestial vault. Here the Emperor
announces his accession, prays for rain, and offers an ox as a burnt
sacrifice at the winter solstice--addressing himself to Shang-ti,
the supreme ruler, "by whom kings reign and princes decree justice."

The Temple of Agriculture, which stands at a short distance from
that just mentioned, was erected in honour of the first man who
cultivated the earth. In Chinese, he has no name, his title, Shin-nung
signifying the "divine husbandman"--a masculine Ceres. Might we not
call the place the Temple of Cain? There the Emperor does honour
to husbandry by ploughing a few furrows at the vernal equinox.
His example no doubt tends to encourage and comfort his toiling
subjects.

Another temple associated with these is that of Mother Earth, the
personified consort of Heaven; but it is not in this locality.
The eternal fitness of things requires that it should be outside