Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1874-07-22
SOlOmOn'S Temple,

/ The skill, the art the mighty toll that
| have been devoted to the adornment and
to the dissertation of this ancient place of
Worship have been of extraordinary mag
nitude. The grandest legacy of Egyptian
antiquity, the Great Pyramid, demanded,
indeed, II larger amount of naked human
labor; but in Moriah there is a compul
sion of the features of nature herself
to the service of the builder. In actual
bulk the Great Pyramid is to Temple Rock
rs five to nine, if we descend but us far as
the stills of the five double gates of the
mountain of the house. If we carry the
comparison to the level at which the lowest
foundation of the walls is iniaid in the rock
at the angels of the enclosure, the bulk is
three times that of the Great Pyramid.
The cubic contents of the mason's work
may not amount to a tenth part of that
piled up by Soups But the hill has been
honey-combed with chambers and gale
ries; and the declining part to the south
covered with vaults and arches, to which
Gheezen can show no parallel. No mere
| " artificial structure could have so sue
cessfully resisted the resOlute efforts OF the
greatest military nations OF the ancient
world to destroy its existence and obllter-
ate its memory. No other monument, long
surviving the ert of Asiatic and Italian
power. can ever. like the noble Sanctuary.
mark by its very ruins, the successive pc
riods of its glory and its fall!
| If we regard not so much the evidence
of the labor devoted to the work Of the
| Temple as the effect produced on the mind
| by its apparent magnitude. we may Sug
gest the following comparisons The
length of the eastern wall of the Sanctuary
j. rather more than double that of one side
of the great Pyramid. Its height, from the
foundation on the rock on the south, and
near the northern angles, was nearly a
third of that of the Egyptian structure. If
to this great height OF one hundred and tif-
tv-two feet of solid wall be added the de-
scent Of one hundred and fourteen feet to
| the bed of the Kedr0n. and the further ele
walton of one hundred and sixty feet at
tanned by the pinnacle of the Temple porch.
we have total height of four hundred and
twentv-siX feet. which IS only fifty-nine
feet less than that of the great Pyramid.
The area of the face of the eastern wall is
more than double that of one side of the
Pyramid Thus the magnitude of the no.
bic Sanctuary of Jerusalem f;T exceeds that
of any other temple in the world. Two
amphitheaters of the size of the Coliseum
would have stood within if colossal girdle
and left room to spare. The Coliseum is
said to have seated eighty Thousand spec
tators and accommodated twenty-five thou
sand more in its area and passages. For
such 4 number to have been crammed
within It's circle, the space for each person
must lave been limited to seventeen 10y
twenty inches. Allowing two cubits each
way, or four square cubit- for each wor
shipper in the Temple, the Sanctuary would
have contained thirty thousand: the Chel,
excluding the Priests Court, twenty thou
sand more, and there would Yet have been
room in the great court and the cloistcrs
to make the total reach more than two
hundred and ten thousand.