The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1891-10-21

sand years this pyramid has only lost
eighteen feet in width, one side OF It's
square at the base changed only from
seven hundred and sixty-four feet to
seven hundred and forty-six feet, and
the most OF that eighteen feet taken on
by architects to furnish stone for build
ing in the city at Cairo. The men who
constructed the pyramid worked at II
only few years and then put down the
trowcl and the compass and the square
and lowered the derrick which had
lifted the ponderous weights; but
forty centuries has their work stood,
and it will be good for forty centuries
more. All Egypt has been shaken BY
terrible earthquakes and cities have
been prostrated or swallowed, but that
pyramid has defied all volcanic par
oxysms 1t has looked upon some OF
the greatest battles ever fought since
the world stood. Where are the men
who constructed it? Their bodies gone
to dust and even the dust scattered
Even the sarcophagus in which the
kings mummy may have slept is empty.
So men die but their work lives on.
We are all building pyramids not TO
last four thousand years, but forty
thousand. forty million, forty trillion,
forty quadrillion, forty quintillion. For
a while we WELD the trowel or pound
with the hammer or measure with the
yard ssicl or write with the pen or ex-
pertinent with the scientific battery or
plan with the brain, and for a while
the foot walks and the eye sees and
the ear hears and the tongue speaks.
All the good words or bad words we
speak are spread out into one layer for
for a pyramid. All the kind deeds or
malevolent deeds we do are spread out
into another layer. All the Christian or
unchristian example we set is spread out
into another layer All the indirect infiu-
ences of our lives are spread out in an
other layer Then the time soon comes
when we put down the implement of
toll and pass away, but the pyramid
stands. The twentieth century will not
rock it down. nor the thirtieth century,
nor the one hundredth century. The
earthquake that rocks this world TO
pieces will not stop our influence for
good or evil. You modestly say: That
is true in regard to the great workers
for good or evil, and of gigantic
geniuses, Miltonian or Talleyrandian,
but not OF me, for live and work on o
small scale" My hearer, remember
that those who built the pyramids were
common worlfmen. Not one OF them
could lift one of those great stones II
took dozen of them to lift one stone
and others Just welded a trowel, click
ing 1t on the hard edge, or smoothing the
mortar between the layer. One hundred
thousand men toiled on those sub
lime elevations II one Of those gran
itic blocks that just touch with my
feet on this December morning in 1885,
as the two Arabs pull me anC
the two other Arabs push me, coulc
speak out and tell its history it woult
say: "The place ofny nativity was dowI
in the great stone quarry of Mokatta,
or Asswan. Then they cegan to bore
at my sides, and then to drive down
great iron wedges, crushing against mi
till the whole quarry suaked and thun
dered. Then was pried out with crow
bars and lever, scores Of men putting
their weights on the leverage, Thei
chains were put around me and wa
hoisted with wheels that gronned undo
the weight, and many worlsmen hat
their hands on the cranl1s, and turnct
until the muscles on their arms stoo,
out in ridges, and the soeat rolled from
their dusly foreheads Then ] wa
drawn by long teams of oxen, yolz
after yoke, yoke after yoke. Then
was pnt on an inclined plane and haulet
upward, and how many iron tools, ant
how many human arms, and how man!
beasts OF burden were employed to ge
me TO this place no one can tell Thel
i had 10 be measured, and squared, ant
compassed, and fitted in before wa
left here TO do my silent work Of thou
sands of years God only knows hoy
many hands were busted in getting m
from my geological cradle in the QUAR-.
TO this enforcement of innumerabl
ages" My hearers, that Is the auto
biography Of one block OF the pyra
mid. Cheops didn't build the pyramid
Some boss mason in the world
twilight didn't build the pyramid
One hundred thousand men built IL an
perhaps from first to last 200. 900 men
So with the pyramids now rising, pyrn
mids OF evil or pyramids Of good. TIL,
pyramid OF drunkenness rising ever sine
the time when Noah got drunk on wine
although there was ct his time such
superabundance Of water. All the sa
loonists of the ages adding their layer
Of ale casks and wine pitchers and run
Jugs until the pyramid overshadows tn
great Sahara desert OF desolatcd home
and broken hearts and destroyed eterni
ties. And as the pyramid still rises
layers of human slcills piled ON top o
human skulls and other mountains o
human bones 70 whiten the peak
reaching unto the heavens hundrei
Of thousands Of people are building
that pyramid So with the pyramid o
righteousness Multitudes Of hands ar,
toiling on the sleeps, hnnds infantile
hands octogenarian, masculine hands
female hands, strong hands, veal
hands. Some Changing trowel, som
pulling q rope. some measuring tn,
sides Layers OF psalm books on top o
layers OF holy sacrifices And hundred
OF thousands coming down to sleel
their last sleep but other hundreds o
thousands going up TO take their places
and the pyramids will continue TO ris
until the millennial morning gilds tn