Mardi: Chapter 75

Chapter 75

Time And Temples

In the oriental Pilgrimage of the pious old Purchas, and in the fine
old folio Voyages of Hakluyt, Thevenot, Ramusio, and De Bry, we read
of many glorious old Asiatic temples, very long in erecting. And
veracious Gaudentia di Lucca hath a wondrous narration of the time
consumed in rearing that mighty three-hundred-and-seventy-five-
pillared Temple of the Year, somewhere beyond Libya; whereof, the
columns did signify days, and all round fronted upon concentric zones
of palaces, cross-cut by twelve grand avenues symbolizing the signs
of the zodiac, all radiating from the sun-dome in their midst. And in
that wild eastern tale of his, Marco Polo tells us, how the Great
Mogul began him a pleasure-palace on so imperial a scale, that his
grandson had much ado to complete it.

But no matter for marveling all this: great towers take time to
construct.

And so of all else.

And that which long endures full-fledged, must have long lain in the
germ. And duration is not of the future, but of the past; and
eternity is eternal, because it has been, and though a strong new
monument be builded to-day, it only is lasting because its blocks are
old as the sun. It is not the Pyramids that are ancient, but the
eternal granite whereof they are made; which had been equally ancient
though yet in the quarry. For to make an eternity, we must build with
eternities; whence, the vanity of the cry for any thing alike durable
and new; and the folly of the reproach--Your granite hath come from
the old-fashioned hills. For we are not gods and creators; and
the controversialists have debated, whether indeed the All-Plastic
Power itself can do more than mold. In all the universe is but one
original; and the very suns must to their source for their fire; and
we Prometheuses must to them for ours; which, when had, only
perpetual Vestal tending will keep alive.

But let us back from fire to store. No fine firm fabric ever yet grew
like a gourd. Nero's House of Gold was not raised in a day; nor the
Mexican House of the Sun; nor the Alhambra; nor the Escurial; nor
Titus's Amphitheater; nor the Illinois Mounds; nor Diana's great
columns at Ephesus; nor Pompey's proud Pillar; nor the Parthenon; nor
the Altar of Belus; nor Stonehenge; nor Solomon's Temple; nor
Tadmor's towers; nor Susa's bastions; nor Persepolis' pediments.
Round and round, the Moorish turret at Seville was not wound
heavenward in the revolution of a day; and from its first founding,
five hundred years did circle, ere Strasbourg's great spire lifted
its five hundred feet into the air. No: nor were the great grottos of
Elephanta hewn out in an hour; nor did the Troglodytes dig Kentucky's
Mammoth Cave in a sun; nor that of Trophonius, nor Antiparos; nor the
Giant's Causeway. Nor were the subterranean arched sewers of Etruria
channeled in a trice; nor the airy arched aqueducts of Nerva thrown
over their values in the ides of a month. Nor was Virginia's Natural
Bridge worn under in a year; nor, in geology, were the eternal
Grampians upheaved in an age. And who shall count the cycles that
revolved ere earth's interior sedimentary strata were crystalized
into stone. Nor Peak of Piko, nor Teneriffe, were chiseled into
obelisks in a decade; nor had Mount Athos been turned into
Alexander's statue so soon. And the bower of Artaxerxes took a whole
Persian summer to grow; and the Czar's Ice Palace a long Muscovite
winter to congeal. No, no: nor was the Pyramid of Cheops masoned in a
month; though, once built, the sands left by the deluge might
not have submerged such a pile. Nor were the broad boughs of Charles'
Oak grown in a spring; though they outlived the royal dynasties of
Tudor and Stuart. Nor were the parts of the great Iliad put together
in haste; though old Homer's temple shall lift up its dome, when St.
Peter's is a legend. Even man himself lives months ere his Maker
deems him fit to be born; and ere his proud shaft gains its full
stature, twenty-one long Julian years must elapse. And his whole
mortal life brings not his immortal soul to maturity; nor will all
eternity perfect him. Yea, with uttermost reverence, as to human
understanding, increase of dominion seems increase of power; and day
by day new planets are being added to elder-born Saturn, even as six
thousand years ago our own Earth made one more in this system; so, in
incident, not in essence, may the Infinite himself be not less than
more infinite now, than when old Aldebaran rolled forth from his
hand. And if time was, when this round Earth, which to innumerable
mortals has seemed an empire never to be wholly explored; which, in
its seas, concealed all the Indies over four thousand five hundred
years; if time was, when this great quarry of Assyrias and Romes was
not extant; then, time may have been, when the whole material
universe lived its Dark Ages; yea, when the Ineffable Silence,
proceeding from its unimaginable remoteness, espied it as an isle in
the sea. And herein is no derogation. For the Immeasurable's altitude
is not heightened by the arches of Mahomet's heavens; and were all
space a vacuum, yet would it be a fullness; for to Himself His own
universe is He.

Thus deeper and deeper into Time's endless tunnel, does the winged
soul, like a night-hawk, wend her wild way; and finds eternities
before and behind; and her last limit is her everlasting beginning.

But sent over the broad flooded sphere, even Noah's dove came back,
and perched on his hand. So comes back my spirit to me, and folds up
her wings.

Thus, then, though Time be the mightiest of Alarics, yet is he the
mightiest mason of all. And a tutor, and a counselor, and a
physician, and a scribe, and a poet, and a sage, and a king.

Yea, and a gardener, as ere long will be shown.

But first must we return to the glen.

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