The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-07-22
EGYPT OF ANcIENT DAYS.
Its Architecture and Work Com
pared with America's.
(From he Clobe.R eview.l

|
Its Architecture and Work Com.
pared with Amerlca's.
(From the IGlobe-Review.)
The climate Of Egypt appears to havt
been very equable. ranging merely from
so degrees TO 100 degrees in summer;
warm land, without the bitter winters
known to our latitude in these days. But
the country, though rich in soil, never had
enough rain to water the soil; hence thu
Egyptians. from the earliest times, under
took TO dig bitches, or canals. through
which the waters Of the Nile might pour
in its flooded season, through the length
and breadth of the land. Here We get Q
hint that the Egyptians were probably
Aryans, or of the Japhetic race OF 'hs
human family; at all events, they are the
first known people who conquered the nat
ufal obstacles Of their native or adopted
ural habitations, and turned the concsn-
trated provisions Of nature to their own
use. / consider the old system OF irriga-
ton by means OF the Nile bitches far
greater discovery in its day, and far
greater proof Of human advancement in
civilization, than any one Of the modem
discoveries for the use OF natural gas OF
OF electricity. And we name this matter Of
irrigation by means OF the Nile as one OF
the very greatest gifts that ancient culture
has handed down to the workers OF modern
times.
In word. the Egyptians were the first
OF the ancients to overcome great natural
obstacles in the way of the future advances
OF the race, and every, man who has dug q
ditch to save water or to carry it away,
from that day to this. Is natural debtor
to those early masters Of the art OF agricul-
ture under difficulties.
In truth our entire Mississippi Valley
needs to be ditched and cultivated and
were we as people as widc-awake as
those early Egyptians We would have been
looking into this matter long ago instead
Of spending millions Of money to protect
knaves in their thieving manufacturing.
and other years and millions to protect
other thieves of the banking and broking
fraternity in their efforts to make. gold
the only standard Of money value, so that
they might buy and sell the governments
Of the nations at their, the brokers'
pleasure.
We are very smart people in some
things. but li:tle more horse sense,
whipped in by a few good cat-o'-nine-
tails might turn the tide OF modern
civilization and bring our. wiseacre Con-
gress to speedy vote on the silver
question and on other questions not
dreamed of in Croker's philosophy.
The remains of the more ancient
mounds or buildings found in certain re-
gions Of this country. in England, and in
Asia, all go to show. when compared with
the structures of Egypt. that the Egyp-
tians- were among the earliest master
builders of the world--in truth. that they
were the first master builders.
There is tendency in our own age to
- A..sfA -
mids, but alike in their choice Of ma
teriaIs OF brick and stone and mortar, as
in their knowledge Of mathematical and
artistic proportions. and in their style Of
building solid foundations, and giving
breadth Of base to their great struct-
ures, the Egyptians were not only pio-
neers and leaders Of the new nations Of
men in the great and masterful accom-
plishment OF architecture and practical
masonry-they were and they remain to
this hour the teachers OF the race in the
matter Of real grandeur and pernanence
in the art indicated.
The Greeks later. erected more graceful
buildings than the best things ever done
in Egypt; and the Romans. working alike
upon the Egyptian and GreciaD models,
rounded the gateways of art and glorified
alike by their noble arehways
and the domes erected thereon. Again
our modern nations have pressed the
Egyptian, the Greek and the Roman arch
upward, and copying after the forest aisles
of nature have given us in such cathedrals
as that of Amiens, and the English Sails
bury, and our own cathedrals in New York
and Chicago, such aerial structures in
stone as the old Egyptian would hardly
have dared to undertake. Nevertheless,
in the art Of proportion, in the nobility,
in the grandeur. and above all in the laws
and lines of permanence, Egyptian archi-
lecture is to this hour among the master
of all the cultured ages and
deeds of the world.
might go on to show you that the
gifts of Egypt to modern culture in the
lines of portrait art. and especially In the
line of astronomy, are among the greatest
gifts of any of the ancient nations.
The Egyptians appear to have been the
first among the ancients to scale the
the star spaces and to calculate thereon
regarding the return Of comets, and the
general panorama OF celestial glory and
mechanism, all of which is still largely a
mystery to the expert and upstart as
tronomy Of our scientific days.
could go far back OF the days when
Moses learned his first lesson in philoso-
phical theology from the priests OF Egypt,
and tracing, as far as history will allow.
the constant growth of this science Of God
through 1000 years until after being hap
,ized with Greek accuracy, the Aexandrian
school of philosophy in the days Of dawn
of our era taught the doctrine Of the eter-
nal Logos, as the revealable nature Of God,
and so brought the human mind into come
sort Of preparedness to receive the full and
divine revelation Of that dogma, first in the
Scriptures and then in the great councils
of the church in the later centuries.
The gifts of Egypt to modern culture,
practical, moral. and scientific, philosopht-
cal and theological, have been SO great that
we are all debtors to the ancient builders
Of the pyramids. and would We build for
eternity in our characters, in our architec-
ture, as in our creeds, We may still follow
their massive example.
or course we will not do so. We are a
light minded race, less serious, and many
Of our great buildings. as many
Of our great systems OF thought, will topple
as rapidly as they were built, like so many
Indian tepees. swept by the fires and winds
Of hell.