Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1874-06-12

! mans astonishing memory: aIter so many
years of tourists, had recognized me and
reproduced the incident with all its minor
4 By this, time, several other carriages had
arrived from Cairo. Parties were lunching
on the cold steps, bargaining for modern
searaboei. strolling toward the Sphinx with
crowd of Arabs at their heels, or climb
ing the steps of the Great Pyramids with
many. an awkward straddle, showed from
above. There were tweed coats, eyeglasses,
canes, ehignons, fans, parasols--but let not
the romantic reader suppose that the sub
lime repose of the old Egyptian world was
in the least prejudices by these objects.
They were but as drift-wood or sea-weed
surging around the base of mightier natural
pyramids, along the shores Of Norway or
Maine. One is carried so far back-set in
the presence of such imparious human viii
and unhindered power-that the real and
far more permanent greatness of our age
fades, away, and its careless representa-
tives become, for the time, mere stingless
insects, that hum and buzz for few min
utes, 30 be carried away by the next breeze.
No! you might pack billiard rooms, lager
beer saloons, cqfs chdtdnts, stock-broke's
Offices, and Free Trade Leagues, around
the pyramids, hold political meetings with
a speaker standing on the Sphinx's head,
or make the adytum of the old temple be-
low resound with revival hymns, and you
could not diminish the impression which
these wonderful monuments exact and
compel you 10 feel dead faith-a lost race
"a forgotten power-a half-recovered his
tory, LANES and glories and supreme hu-
man forces become as shadows-yet what
tremendous overwhelming records they
have left behind.
AS rested in the shade, looking up to
the gray pinnacles, so foreshortened by
nearness that much of their actual height
was lost, yet still indescribably huge, I
could think Of but one thing: We must have
a new Chronology Of Man. There, before
me, the Usher-Mosaic reckoning was not
only antedated, but previous growth, of
long, uncertain duration, was made evil
dent. There, in stones scattered about the
Desert, were inscriptions cut long before
any tradition of Hebrew, Sanskrit, Phoe-
nician, or Greek-clear, ineligible words,
almost as legible TO modern scholarship as
those of living languages. This one long,
unbroken stream of light into the remote
Past lights up darker historic apparitions
on all sides, and sweeps US, with or with
out our will, to new and wonderful back
ward starting point. Of course, tie learn
ed in all countries are familiar with all our
recently acquired knowledge on this point !;
but is il not time to make it the property Of
the people everywhere-to discard the un-
manly fear that one form of truth can ever
harm any other form-to reveal anew,
through the grandeur of Mans slow de-
velopment, the unspeakable grandeur OF
the Divine Soul 0y which it is directed ?
1 would not venture to say that even the
English tourist who addressed me with:
"Is there-aw-anything particular to see
here 2" was not touched somewhere in the
roots of his externally Indifferent nature.
j am quite sure that cold chickan was not
the only thought of the young ladies who
sat launching on the ste2s. When i find
gay young Irishman, to whom snipe and
wild ducks are a prime interest, neverthe-
less going out to see the Pyramids by
moonlight, and then again at O'Clock in
the morning to climb them for the sunrise,
1 am convinced that Cheops builded better
than he knew, and that the pile of stones
means much more to the world than the
depository Of his royal carcass.
Well meant to send you practical, re-
alistic reports of Egypt, and this letter will
be sure to bring down upon Inc the wrath
of Mark Twain, and all who dstrust
urnest impressions. l plead guilty, how
ever, and confess that do not wholly be-
long to the age which makes jokes of acci-
dents and murders, and finds material for
laughter in classic art. B.T.
Historical sketch Ofthe Pennsylva-