Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/574

 464 The Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal. [Jan., are so sure of continuance. Its venera- ble relics convey to us all we know of mighty nations long sunk into oblivion. Among piles, which seem only to have partaken of the decay, and shared in the revolutions of nature, we feel trans- ported, through long vistas of the short- lived generations of man, into the glories of the earliest nations of the world. We catch the mysterious spirit of patriarchal times ; and image to ourselves, among these romantic solitudes, shepherd kings propounding their pure ordinances, sim- ple tribes adoring the God of heaven, and untutored bards catching inspira- tion, in all its vividness, from the skies. We must leave such memorials of our glory behind us, as can be shaken only with the pyramids of Egypt, and the pillars of the universe." But, what a contrast do the frail me- morials of our times present to those immortal structures ! All who feel in- terested in the substantial progress of the fine arts ; all who have feelings to admire the sacred solemnity and the awful grandeur of those venerable piles, which the genius of Egypt, of Greece, of Rome, and of the middle ages have left us, must be deeply interested by a discussion "of the means, by which may be revived that spirit, which raised these works of unfading enchantment, and which now seems slumbering beneath them. And here, in our own glorious Amer- ica, where the spirit soars aloft free and untrammeled, may that genius awake; and, during this century, revive all the glories of ancient architecture, by en grafting them with our new ideas of utility, and in our own city of Philadel- phia may the erection of the new Ma- sonic Temple be the forerunner of a style of grand and magnificent architecture, destined to eclipse all the vastness of the past, and transmit to posterity ever- lasting monuments of the age in w T hich we live ! The means, whereby we can erect buildings, have been greatly increased since the times of the ancient;? and the middle ages. The invention of the steam engine, with the employment of ma- chinery in almost every branch of mech- anism, has wrought a complete revo- lution. We have been accustomed to look upon the Pja-amids of Egypt as monuments of skill and labor almost im- possible to emulate; but, when it is con- sidered, that the most poAverful mon- archs of the East lavished the wealth of empires and the lives of thousands of their subjects upon this useless work, our feeling of admiration gives way to that of wonder ; and we, practical men of to-day, cannot be impressed with awe ; but eagerly search for a solution of the question, How was it done ? Histoiy tells us, it took thirty years to complete this gigantic work ; there were, accord- ing to Herodotus 100,000 workmen em- ployed at one time, and relieved every three months ; ten years were emplo3 - ed in hewing and conveying the stones, and twenty more in finishing this enormous structure. It is computed to be about 500 feet high, and the length of any one of its sides 700 feet; and to be composed of about 250 laj'ers of stone from two to four feet thick, overlying each other in proportion to their elevation, thus forming gigantic steps, which, with con- siderable difficulty, can be climbed to the top. The whole of the Egyptian empire, then in the zenith of its glory and magnificence, was made to contrib- ute, by men and means, to the comple- tion of these works ; and there they stand, to-da} r, an everlasting monument of those times. I would say, that there are many men to-daj r, in New York and Philadelphia, who would contract to build a fac-simile of any one of those celebrated pyramids, according to speci- fication ; and not think it such a big job. With all our modern appliances of ma- chinery, the task of lifting immense weights to great heights is compara- tively easy. We have solved the prob- lems of mechanics quite satisfactorily. We have advanced rapidly in the im-