EXERCISE LXXXVIII. REMAINS OF EGYPTIAN TEMPLES. - Cheever. Coming from Luxor, and entering the sacred enclosures, through the path which of old was traversed by the idolatrous processions between the temples, you encounter, at Karnak, no fewer than four successive pyramidal gateways, rising in stupendous proportions, with vast open areas intervening between them. When I speak of them simply as gateways, it conveys to your mind a very inadequate idea of the nature of these structures; but if I should ask you to imagine the whole front of the Astor Hotel, in New York, with nearly the whole breadth of the buildings, as solid wall, raised to a still greater height, with the sides inclining upward in pyramidal inclination, and pierced through the centre with a rectangular entrance of so vast dimensions, as would make the whole pile, if set by itself, at the head of the Park, appear as the frame of one prodigious gateway, you would, perhaps, form a conception nearer to the truth. Place colossal statues in front, on each side the entrance; and then conceive four of these massive piles, with towers and cornices, statues and sculptures, following each other at distant intervals, as the mere portals to introduce you to the temple! These structures were not, indeed, all erected at once: but were the gifts of successive monarchs, to increase the grandeur of the great idolatrous edifice they were intended to adorn. The whole circuit of the great square of ruins and remains, of which these pyramidal gateways form a conspicuous object to the southeast, extends nearly two miles; and the grand temple extends throughout the whole northern side of this square, in a breadth of three hundred and thirty feet. The entrances from Luxor, therefore, with all their gigantic grandeur, are only towards the side of the great temple; the principal entrance is on the northwest, looking towards the Nile. It looks also towards the excavated Theban mountains, and a temple at their base, on the other side of the river; the temples on both sides having been connected in a sort of religious circuit, in which, once a year, the grand sacred procession, in honor of the gods, is said to have passed from Luxor to Karnak, and from Karnak across the river, to temples on the other side. It is impossible to wander amidst this prodigious pile, without the deepest astonishment. The intelligence, the spirit, the language, the character of a past mysterious world, seem condensed in these impressive relics of antiquity. Silent, solemn, motionless, alone, they wear an aspect, with all their gigantic vestiges of ruin, of something grave and unalterable as eternity. They are silent; but they speak to the soul, in their sombre, 'frowning grandeur,' with an indefinable and almost supernatural awe. They disclaim, in the name of that departed world to which they entirely belong, all relationship with the existing economy of man and his concerns.' Throughout these temples there reigns an aspect of colossal unity, never interrupted by littleness of detail; a grandeur of conception in the whole, carried out and sustained by vastness, massiveness, strength, solidity in the parts. It is almost certain that the principle of the arch was known to the ancient Egyptians; but why it should have been so entirely excluded, in the construction of their temples, is unaccountable. Mr Wilkinson, in the course of his persevering researches, visited a tomb, in which the crude, brick roof and niches,' he observes, 'bearing the name of the first Amunoph, prove the existence of the arch at the remote period of fifteen hundred and forty years before Christ.' 6 In support of their idolatrous worship, in honor of a herd of hideous degraded deities, the Egyptians seem to have felt that no amount of labor, time, or expense was too great to be devoted. They wrought as for eternity, and pushed the idea of the colossal, almost of the infinite, into habitual reality. The architectural grandeur of their plans seems never to have been sacrificed by narrowness of limits: the space covered was immense;. even the courts and areas of their temples were larger than modern cathedrals; their architects planned and wrought on a scale as if they had at their command unlimited expansion. There was ample room for general effect; and by the succession of gateways, with interspersed areas, and the majestic passages of sphinxes and colossal statues, like giant guardians, they kept every profane inferior structure at a distance; preserving the whole edifice in unbroken unity and undiminished majesty, for the surrounding view. EXERCISE LXXXIX. THE PROGRESS OF ART. - Durfee. I lately visited an establishment for the manufacture of iron into bars. I stood by, and, for the time, witnessed the operation of its enginery. I saw the large misshapen mass of crude metal, taken blazing from the furnace, and passed through the illumined air to the appropriate machine. I saw it there undergo the designed transformation. It was made to pass repeatedly between two grooved, revolving, iron cylinders, of immense weight. At every turn of the wheel, it took new form; it lengthened, stretched, approximating still its intended shape, till, at the end of the operation, it came forth a well-fashioned fifteen or twenty-foot bar of iron, ready for the hand of the artizan. When I had witnessed this process, I thought I did not need to go to the banks of the Nile, to be assured either of the antiquity or the progress of the race. An older than the pyramids was before me; one which, though voiceless, told a tale that commenced before the Pharaohs, before the Memnon, before Thebes. Here was a material which had been common to the historical portion of the human family, for the space of five or six thousand years. I went back, in imagination, to that primitive age, when the first unskilful hand, - some fur-clad barbarian or savage, drew a mass of the raw material from the side of some volcanic mountain, constructed a vessel of clay for its reception; and placed it over a heap of blazing combustibles. With long and patient labor, he reduced it to a liquid mass; and then cast it into the shape of some rude implement of husbandry or war. Exulting in his success, he brandished the instrument in triumph, and deemed it the perfection of human improvement. He disappeared; but he left a successor. I followed him, in imagination, and saw him take the art at the point at which his predecessor had left it. He had discovered that the material was not only fusible but ductile; and, with sweat and toil that knew no fatigue, he gradually beat the heated mass into the shape of something like a hatchet or a sword. At this point he also disappeared; but his successor came, and still improved on the labors of his predecessor. Generation thus followed generation of apt apprentices in the art; they formed a community of masters skilful to direct, and of servants prompt to obey. They fashioned new implements as their numbers increased, and the wants of advancing civilization varied and multiplied. The master-minds studied, and studied successfully, all the various qualities and susceptibilities of the metal. They became skilful in all its various uses in agriculture, commerce, manufactures, and war. Yes, ye philanthropists, in war! For humanity actually armed herself against humanity, to draw out and discipline the faculties of the human mind, and bring the art to perfection. She instituted a school of her own, and was herself its stern and unyielding preceptress. She chastened her laggard and truant children, as with a rod of iron. I saw her force her sons into bondage, by thousands, ay, by millions; I saw them sweat and toil at the anvil, like so many living machines. They were once free barbarians; but they were now in the school of civilization. willing task-masters grew strong and powerful in the labors of the barbarous masses, that superior knowledge and power had subjected to their will. They took counsel together, and still went forth to conquer and enslave. Their Ages, centuries, epochs passed away, and still the same process was going on. They built up for themselves a bright and glorious intellectual civilization, that extended far and wide over the earth; yet it was but the gilding of the surface; for it had its deep and dark foundations upon mind in bondage, upon masses in slavery; and their power grew feeble from expansion. The numbers of the free would not suffice to sustain their dominion; and they sought for aid, but could conceive of none, save in the enslaved masses beneath them. And now came, improved by long ages of civilization, the scientific and inventive Genius to their aid. She glanced back upon the past: she discovered the point of departure from the progress direct, and the source of the errors, whence this appalling result. She sought, and sought not in vain, to substitute the brute forces of nature for the labor of human hands. Then began the water-wheel to turn at the falls, and the trip-hammer to sound upon the anvil, and the manacles of the slave to fall off, as improvement was built upon improvement, in regular consecutive order, till the burning bar shot from the perfected machinery almost unaided by human strength. A nervous old gentleman, tired of trade, By which, though, it seems, he a fortune had made, This thought struck his mind, when he viewed the estate. At six in the morning, their anvils at work, From morning till night they kept thumping away,- He offered each Vulcan to purchase his shop; 6 Agreed,' said the pair, 'that will make us amends.' He gave the two blacksmiths a sumptuous regale; So much was he pleased with the thought, that each guest And now,' said he, 'tell me, Where mean you to move? |