aroundworldortra00peebiala-1

CHAPTER XXI.
STUDY OF THE PYRAMIDS. — SIGHT OF THE GREAT
PYRAMID.
Though in no wise smitten with the pyramid mania, still I
must say that the image of the Great Pyramid, sitting so
kingly upon the African - side of the Nilotic Valley, can
never be effaced from the picture-gallery of my soul's memory
chambers.
" I asked of Time :
WHEN ? — WHAT OF IT ?
'
To whom arose this high,
Majestic pile, here moldering in decay ?
He answered not, but swifter sped his way,
With ceaseless pinions winnowing the sky.
I saw Oblivion stalk from stone to stone
!
'
Dread power ' I cried, ' tell me whose vast design —
'
He checked my further speech in sullen tone
'
Whose once it was, I care not : now 'tis mine ! '
Strangely, and with widely different eyes, do men of culture
look at the tablets, carvings, memorials, and teaching
monuments of antiquity. Many surface-thinking Americans
have sneered at them ; while others have scoffingly mocked
the fading memories of their inspired constructors. A New
York journalist, while travehng in the East a few years
since, spotted a bit of clean manuscript paper with this paragraph
"
; These old pyramids, useless and crumbling, are
only ugly piles of stones, covering a few acres of howling